I don't think people are realising the danger the Fediverse is in.
The only thing stopping corporations and VCs taking over this place is that the Fediverse is spread out on many different servers, which makes it very difficult to purchase.
If most of the Fediverse ends up on mastodon.social, which is now a strong possibility, there will be nothing to stop most of it being sold to Musk or Zuckerberg or whoever.
The bigger mastodon.social becomes, the more likely a buyout is to happen.
(1/4)
Here's what Eugen Rochko's Mastodon gGmbH organisation now controls:
-The Mastodon server software & API (though the current version is FOSS)
-The mastodon.social server, which has 1 in 7 of all Fediverse users
-The official Mastodon apps, now telling people to just sign up on mastodon.social
-The official website at joinmastodon.org
-The trademark for the word "mastodon", which lets them dictate terms to any server which uses it
This is a tempting package for any potential buyers.
(2/4)
The trademark alone gives Mastodon gGmbH huge power, it lets them tell any server using the word "mastodon" in its domain name what software or forks it can use.
And it's getting worse. Mastodon gGmbH is now making official apps which direct people to sign up on mastodon.social instead of a random trusted server or choice of trusted servers.
The more people sign up on mastodon.social, the more tempting Mastodon gGmbH becomes as a takeover target.
(3/4)
With all that in mind, here's a suggestion:
➡️ *IF* mastodon.social becomes more than 50% of the Fediverse, either by total users or monthly active users, the rest of us should defederate it.
Sticking with mastodon.social because "that's where the people are" is pointless. Centralised growth will simply cause the governance problems we've seen on Twitter and Facebook to be replicated on here.
Growth has to be decentralised in order to protect the independence of all Fedi servers.
(4/4)
Hello!
There are a collection of servers on https://joinmastodon.org/servers, also on https://instances.social as well as on https://fedi.garden/
My server is also open, but mainly for people living in Sweden.
@yassinelanda @jens @Crookedlilhouse @feditips It very much depends on the number of users and how federated the instance is going to be (both effect the amount of traffic).
There are Mastodon hosting servers where you pay them to host you (only some of them are accepting new people). Searching them can give a good idea of the general costs involved.
The minimum costs seems to be around the 6 euro range. Can be cheaper if you rent a server instead of using a hosting service.
@yassinelanda @Crookedlilhouse @feditips
It very much depends on your setup and resources. If you’re renting a virtual device there’s going to be increasing costs as your server grows, but if you own your hardware and use existing internet connections then that cost could be less.
It’s also what your aim is. Should it be a small server for you and maybe some friends? Or is it a general server for thousands of people? That will affect the cost.
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Crookedlilhouse
Jens Ljungkvist
YassineLanda
Trajecient