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Here's an incomplete and unscientific explanation of why Mastodon is safe from Elon-style shenanigans, according to one of our writers. https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/whats-happening-to-twitter-could-never-happen-to-mastodon
What's Happening to Twitter Could Never Happen to Mastodon

An incomplete and unscientific explanation of why Mastodon is safe from Elon-style shenanigans.

PCMAG
Apr 18, 2023 at 1:47pmWeb
Show threadJeff MoeApr 18, 2023

@PCMag

To attack, the attackers will want Mastodon to consolidate. Powers will want few servers they need to exploit.

Small tech companies will launch "friendly" "easy-to-use" proprietary Mastodon instances, which will look community friendly. They will buy up communities that they can.

Major tech companies will embrace, extend, and extinguish to kill off large sections of the network.

"Figures playing games", will continue, cf: I Hunt Sys Admins

https://theintercept.com/document/2014/03/20/hunt-sys-admins/

I Hunt Sys Admins - The Intercept

Fearless, adversarial journalism that holds the powerful accountable.

The Intercept
Show threadScott RobbinsApr 18, 2023

@jebba @PCMag This is a good point.

Mastodon likes to be compared to email, and I think it’s a good comparison.

Google attempted the same thing with Gmail, and was pretty successful. Outlook probably controls the other large portion of emails for businesses.

Show threadJeff MoeApr 18, 2023

@scottrobbins @PCMag

Yes, email is a great example.

They just flooded email with junk so people would consolidate.

For years, nearly all spam was from (easily) exploited windows workstations spammers compromised. This helped Microsoft and Google.

Yet admins weren't allowed to fight back. I could have written a script to power off every Windows machine that hit my servers that I knew was compromised. But that would have been illegal. So one just had to sit there and be attacked.

Show threadAlfredApr 19, 2023
@scottrobbins @jebba @PCMag there are already shared lists of servers recommended to be banned. So this is a possible scenario.
Show threadJeff MoeApr 18, 2023

@PCMag

I forgot to include lawfare. They can just make it too expensive for anyone to host by changing the law. Or by exploiting copyright law. Notice how someone violating copyright on music may get their house run over by a bearcat? They'll wreck grandma? Bankrupt people over sharing music? But how AI and other big tech companies can just steal everyone's content and violate licenses with impunity? They'll just find a way to turn the screws if it becomes a threat to their power.

Show threadAdministratorApr 18, 2023

@PCMag A decent article, made readable through adblock. I don't know how regular people read articles like this with an ad every other paragraph. :\

Whatever happened to just ads on the side, or at the bottom of an article?

Show threadGunChleocApr 18, 2023
@PCMag Asstodon actually does exist. It's a hashtag for sharing cute donkey pictures 🙂
Show threadKris SamselApr 18, 2023
@PCMag Elon following me on Instagram. After banning me.
I’ve been spreading the love about him all over social media. Billionaires need to be reckoned with right now!
Show threadBob JonkmanApr 19, 2023
@PCMag forgets, yet again, that Mastodon is only one of many applications that exists in the #Fediverse. Even if Mastodon were to turn evil, or fire their volunteer contributors, or insert ads, or (horrors!) allow searching there are a dozen other microblogs I can use, like GNUsocial, Pleroma, Friendica, and even non-text apps like Pixelfed or PeerTube. All without losing my social graph to walled, proprietary infrastructure.
Show threadRavReddMay 27, 2023
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