Mastodawn

Dylan Jun 21, 2023

So Instagram is coming out with a Twitter competitor* that runs on ActivityPub and will be interoperable with Mastodon. Seems awesome to me at first glance, though I have some reservations about how IG’s instance may be run.

There’s talk that some Masto instances will immediately block IG’s instance when it comes online. How do y’all feel about that?

I don’t see the benefit in immediately blocking IG’s instance. At least give federation a fair shot, IMO.

* https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/19/23730070/instagram-twitter-app-competitor-leak

This is Instagram’s new Twitter competitor

A leaked marketing slide from Lia Haberman gives us our first look at Instagram’s upcoming “text-based” app that’s supposed to take on Twitter.

The Verge

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Dexter Jun 21, 2023

@Dylan I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, saying that this is being done by "Instagram" is a way of avoiding saying it's Meta which is a way of avoiding saying it's Facebook. And we all know the numerous shady things that FB has done and continues to do. "Embrace, extend, extinguish" continues to be the tactic to kill F/OSS and keep people on proprietary systems.

On the other, if it's a free platform that anyone can develop applications for, that includes big corporate entities.

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Dylan

@wheeljack
I’m no fan of Meta, but I don’t really see much harm in federating (though I wouldn’t want that firehose of content in my fed feed).

I like the possibility of having many more accounts to follow and interact with. Plus, because of how much I can curate my Mastodon experience, I’m not worried about being fed algorithmic spam.

If they get some data from me, so be it. This is a public-facing account on an open-protocol platform.

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Dexter Jun 23, 2023

@Dylan More fuel for the fire....

https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse)

How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse) par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.

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Dylan Jun 23, 2023

@wheeljack
Definitely worth considering. It’s similar to Gmail having proprietary features that aren’t compatible with standard email protocol.

I’d be worried that Instagram could want to build modified versions of ActivityPub that would have interoperability issues, essentially walling off their service.