Rod HiltonJun 27, 2023

The thing that saddens me the most about the whole fedi/meta drama is a thing I can't prove, but that I think is likely because I've worked in these kinds of tech companies.

The notion that Meta is looking to embrace/extend/extinguish the fediverse is laughable. The entire fedi userbase is a rounding error for Meta. They arent looking to take down the fediverse, they're trying to take down TWITTER.

They want the celebs and journalists back. Take advantage of Twitter's tarnished reputation.

Show threadRod HiltonJun 27, 2023

I can virtually guarantee that "let's join the fediverse!" wasn't Mark Zuckerberg's idea.

It was probably some engineer that likes the fediverse concept, who had this long-shot idea. Everyone said the top brass would never go for it, but they put together a slide deck and presented federation as a powerful tool to take down Twitter together.

And against all odds, the executive team went for it.

Show threadRod HiltonJun 27, 2023

That engineer probably became the lead for the whole effort to federate. Reached out to some big admins to ask ActivityPub questions. Wanted to show mockups to ask the experts if ActivityPub could support their designs, so an NDA was standard.

That engineer stuck their neck out to solve their employer's business need while also supporting open tech.

Put their reputation on the line to do what they thought was good for fedi and bring millions of users.

The response must be humiliating.

Show threadRod HiltonJun 27, 2023

Again, can't prove this. Maybe it's exactly as the detractors say, Meta just wants to crush the fediverse.

But having been in the industry as long as I have I can virtually guarantee that's not what happened, and that it's far more likely an employee or a team went to bat for this place and we made them look like fucking idiots.

Show threadLAURENJun 27, 2023
@rodhilton
It's another potential free revenue stream. They don't want to destroy it. They want to exploit it by having one of their tentacles wrapped around it. And, yes, they want to do this before twitter does.
Show threadMeow.tar.gz  Jun 27, 2023
@noondlyt @rodhilton Which just proves the point that Meta has nefarious intentions. Given the company's awful history, it's folly to expect anything else. Meta will not be federating with my instance as long as I'm A) Alive or B) Able to continue to run my own.
Show threadLAURENJun 27, 2023
@ablackcatstail @rodhilton
Same church, same pew. I just look at their history and know exactly what is coming down the road...with their users. Those that are toxic and bent on destruction of anything that has the appearance of a functional supportive community.
Show threadMeow.tar.gz  Jun 27, 2023
@noondlyt @rodhilton Well put!
Show threadM.S. Bellows, Jr.

@ablackcatstail @noondlyt @rodhilton You all realize you're just talking about humanity, right? Individuals can be wonderful. Families can be wonderful. Small businesses and small communities can mostly be wonderful. But some humans are broken, and any enterprise that gets large enough to be impactful and efficient will include some broken individuals, who skew it.

That's true of Facebook. That's true of the Fediverse. That's true of our governments. That's true of your high school. It's not the tech. It's the humanity.

Jun 27, 2023 at 4:58amWeb
Show threadSteve PopovichJun 27, 2023
@msbellows @ablackcatstail @noondlyt @rodhilton not to mention that hiring for executive level people in corporations selects sociopaths preferentially. They don't let people get in the way of profit. Our economic system is fundamentally broken.