It still takes a while before Meta(P92) joins the Fediverse and the recent times we have read a lot of things from both sides
Polls are not super reliable but maybe it will give a better overall picture of what you, the people using these platforms want
The result will not be the definite outcome for us but I do take it into heavy consider because I love you all very much!
"Would YOU want to federate with Meta's new platform?"
@stux one important aspect regarding Facebook (at least for US users) is the presence of small businesses. I do marketing for small locally owned businesses such as restaurants and tiny retail stores. These businesses drive local culture and they have a strong Facebook presence.
Facebook may be the only viable onramp for them to enter the Fediverse. As a group, they are not tech savvy at all.
But if people don't want ANY kind of business on Fediverse, my point is null and I also will fight you to the death that small business is not an important aspect of life and culture.
Great point!! One of the most interesting/compelling points I've seen in this debate in a while!!
Is the fediverse a platform that would actually work for small businesses though?
The whole interface facebook provides with events and opening hours etc, is totally lacking on most platforms, apart from maybe friendica but I don't know the details there.
Which isn't to say that the fediverse shouldn't want to. Just that it might not be ready for small businesses, sadly.
I don't know if the Fediverse will solve those issues for small businesses, but it should be amenable to participating in solutions that help them. I currently run a small SaaS that is used by a few small business districts and the greatest problem I have is lack of interoperability between the website and their social media.
These types of businesses don't have marketing managers who can get it all to work out. Typically they abandon their website in favor of social media because they don't get many visitors there and eventually they'll even abandon all but one social media platform. It's too difficult to properly reach out through multiple channels without a dedicated marketing person.
Could small businesses figure out instances? They would just QR Code it. Small businesses haven't found a problem yet that they wouldn't attempt to solve by turning it into a QR Code.
Sometimes I'll send someone a link and they'll reply, do you have a QR Code instead?
The other day I was waiting in my car at the lights when I noticed the van in front of me—with business graphics—had small Facebook, twitter and Instagram logos alongside a username that was common to them all. He was a tradesman, and he was using them to expanding his reach.
It struck me that it wouldn't be possible to do that easily on Mastodon without knowing their instance as well. Just a name and Mastodon logo isn't enough info.
I see a lot of discussion about the fear that corporations and VCs will take over the #fediverse. The thing is, #Mastodon going mainstream will require a lot of capital and development of new products and innovations for this ecosystem. And that is perfectly ok, as long as everyone connects to the protocol, and the protocol itself stays away from the hands of oligarchs. If you prefer your local coop to host your account instead of Mozilla, Vivaldi or some other larger entity, that's great. But it's also totally fine that those bigger players are offering theirs, because it pulls in a lot of new members to this ecosystem. The main corporate takeover attack vector to the Mastodon ecosystem will not be the servers, but the mobile app. It is possible that one VC-backed mobile app becomes the single winner with most Mastodon users accessing the ecosystem with that. The owner of such an app will wield a lot of power over all servers and service providers in the ecosystem. Algorithmic feeds and fuzzy search are both inevitable mainstream features as the ecosystem grows. People need those to be able to use the platform effectively. This is fine too, as long as there's no single algorithm dominating, and especially if the algorithms are built transparently with users being able to choose their own algorithm. There are going to be many points of contention as the ecosystem grows, but for the sake of humanity, let's allow decentralization of social media to happen. Let's also allow VC-backed startups to flourish building services for all of us. We have the momentum now, and it is a rare chance to take back the power from corporate overlords, and rebuild the social internet as an open platform for innovation! Would you agree?
stux⚡️
Sheldon
maegul
ericatty
Mackaj
Hughster
Paloma 