How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse)
Everyone who’s into the fediverse concept should read this article. #internet #reddit #twitter #meta #mastodon #fediverse
https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
The point of activitypub is to not have walled gardens. If meta is successful then you bed RTeddit is probably going to have to federate.
Tumblr and Wordpress is already coming.
Mozilla is too.
I see it a bit differently. For me, the point of activitypub is to decentralize. One of the wonderful things about activitypub and the fediverse is that while it supports universal federation, it also allows people to contemplate smaller, integrated communities. I never saw it as an "all or nothing" proposition; if a community like Beehaw wants to select their federation partners carefully, that's absolutely okay.
If an instance decides that Meta, or Tumblr, or notareal.in.stance don't fit their community vibe and they exclude them from federation, that's... the fediverse working properly. Having the ability to interconnect is wonderful... but we should not expect that all instances will want to interconnect with everyone else.
I honestly think most people shouldn't be running social media sites - so i don't care about decentralization for the sake of decentralization - the open protocol helps that. There is "de-centralized enough" where having trusted networks matters more than infinite number of networks that just cause problems.
People need to know what they're doing.
The population doesn’t care about the technology. If we make social media about activitypub more than it is about social media and connecting people - we’ll be shooting our own foot off no mater what meta or anyone does.
Instances and fediverse are great because of the mods, admins and people. Activitypub is the protocol and it’s an open web standard. We should expect web standards and join them but remember the product isn’t the protocol - it’s connecting people
i for one look forward to bridging to p92 and showing them what great communities can be like.
I have no plans to support p92 precisely because it's going to "push" users together as a commodity. What Meta has jurisdiction over is not its communities but rows of data - in the same way that Reddit's admins have conflicted with its mods, it is inherently not organized in such a way that it can properly represent any specific community or their actions.
So the cost-benefit from the side of extant fedi is very poor: it won't operate in a standard way, because it can't, and the quality of each additional user won't be particularly worth the pain - most of them will just be confused by being presented with a new space, and if the nature of it is hidden from them it will become an endless misunderstanding.
If a community using a siloed platform wants to federate, that should be a self-determined thing and they should front the effort to remain on a similar footing to other federated communities. The idea that either side here inherently wants to connect and just "needs a helping hand" is just wrong.
You're not thinking broad enough.
Meta joining and be successful means Reddit has to think about federating or not being successful.
Wordpress is going to have all their blogs on activitypub soon. Tumblr says they're joining - Mozilla is hirring product and developers to build out their platform.
Also, Meta is a multi billion dollar company - they know how to do UI/UX - they can spend their investment/R&D on solving problems we can't and we can be nice and welcoming to the users who show curiosity.
It's a shame we're too short sighted to see opportunity here. We really have nothing to lose since it's not like meta will suck all the haters back in
WTFisthisOMGreally
goatmeal
Melpomene
supernovae
VeeSilverball
wave_walnut