“XMPP did not exist on its own outside of nerd circles, while ActivityPub enjoys the support and brand recognition of Mastodon.”
I can hear people shouting “Mastodon isn’t the fediverse!” from here.
@koberulz @ncallaway @hybridhavoc @mmasnick I currently agree as I know:
* nobody from my USENET days are here
* nobody from recent IRC (last time I checked in was ~two years ago)
* nobody from Facebook; some have bounced from FB to G+ to Hellsite to back to FB
* large number from Hellsite, but none from Work whom are heavy in VR/coders/tech/AI. Latter still mostly on Hellsite, and 'curious' about BlueSky. Spread is from GenX to GenZ.
Mastodon is still pretty nerd and niche.
@tob @mmasnick @Gargron Quite so. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple have been federated in the past. Via, of all things, XMPP.
They disabled that because isolated silos drive adoption, and the numbers are the only thing investors care about. (Facebook Chat, GTalk, and Messages are still very XMPP behind-the-scenes.)
Good article but considering Meta history, I just don't know... Samething if Twitterdumb joins.
I have no trust with corporations because its all about the $. Back in the day, the Internet was about people and information.
I use XMPP and run a server. That is what it was. Not this corporate controlled world we all seem to be so okay with.
[quote]
Nobody on Mastodon can insert advertising into your user interface except the server you are signed up with and logged into. By default, Mastodon does not include any functionality to display ads. Unless you use Threads, you will not see any ads from Threads.
[/quote]
The remote Threads server could easily insert advertising content as part of the message data, I would think.
@tob @woozle @mmasnick @Gargron
Agreed. I'm not planning to block Threads straight away, but play a wait-and-see approach.
Hell, I might even follow a few of their users, who knows?
But… any shenanigans like mass hash-tag spam or adulterating of users' posts with advertising content… and they'll be out on their rear.
As for the non-technical folk who mention Threads to me, I'll be suggesting they look at Mastodon, et all for the full authentic experience.
I don't know how well that would work. It's waaaay above my pay grade.
But my understanding, anything would have to be based on your public profile/posts and maybe who you interact with there. Everything is routed thru your server so they don't even get an IP to match with your FB account (if you even have one)
Not even a mention about any kind of NDA.
Will we even know if such NDA exists @Gargron ?
@mmasnick @Gargron Good stuff. I appreciate Mastodon’s even-handed approach, and the architecture and other safety steps it takes to allow users as much seamless operation as possible with at least some hope of limits on info harvesting.
To users: Don’t trust Meta. Skip Threads. The Mastodon app is better by virtue of not being part of Meta.
We have been advocating for interoperability between platforms for years.
In a nutshell, “We won’t defederate with Threads”.
@mmasnick I really can't say I'm satisfied with the answer to the Embrace Extend Extinguish question be "We have Mastodon Brand Recognition therefore we will be fine."
The birdsite has the brand recognition of an exploding dumpster fire and the bulk of its users are still clinging on for one major reason, the social graph. People you follow there that you can't replicate elsewhere.
@mmasnick @Gargron Yep. So much of the noise and criticism is rooted in fears that range from unlikely to impossible (like Threads somehow injecting ads into Mastodon feeds).
I’m pretty iffy about server owners who proactively block Threads rather than take the time to learn what federation with it means – namely, that users on either platform can follow and message each other, and that’s really about it.
Yeah because it'd be completely impossible to create an ad as a normal post, and publish it to activepub with a popular hashtag. "But everyone would defederate" no you wouldn't, because now users are interacting between and you'd have to deal with the outrage, that will then lead people move to threads to keep their connections. Anyone who isn't preemptively defederating won't be doing it later no matter what threads does.
This is just how people work.
@JoTheBuzzyard @mmasnick @Gargron I mean, I don’t think it’s likely Threads will push ads as normal posts to begin with, because it would be stupidly counter-productive and cause nothing but anger, which they desperately want to avoid when launching a new app.
But also, even if some corporate account posted an ad to a hashtag, everyone could just mute/block that account? It would be a one-second annoyance that’s fixed with one click of a button. And they know that.
Just seems unlikely to me.
@joemcken @mmasnick @Gargron
Oh no they wouldn't do it day one. They'd do it day 500 because now the connections are so strong you can't defederate without huge issues and the shareholders ask "why is threads not profitable".
It's an avenue to squeeze out profits. They will use that avenue. It won't backfire because as I said, the big mastodon instances won't defederate because they want to be popular. There is literally nothing threads can do that will cause mastodon.social to defederate.
Twitter has become such a mess that it is not surprising that there has been a rush of sign-ons for the new service offered by Meta to compete in that space. But note the following language in the Supplemental Privacy Policy : You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile [...]
@mmasnick He misses the key issue IMO - that what matters here is fedi culture and federating w #Threads risks that being swamped by Threads culture. He pretends that moving instances is effective (it's hard and you lose too much) and also that running your own instance is a practical proposition.
It's a very poor response IMO, but seems typical.
Fedi folk are well meaning but overly focused on size and opportunity, thinking like tech bros, and not what makes Mastodon different: it's culture.
lgtm
Mike Masnick ✅
hybrid havoc
koberulz
Noah Callaway
author_is_ShrikeTron🔠💉x7
Tom Bellin 
Rev. GothAlice
Kevin Hardiman
Stephen Sherman
OccupyJourney
VHasch
Woozle Hypertwin
Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)
kkeller
Olav
GrayGooGlitch 
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Brian Grinter
GenoForPrez
brunsworks
Jonathan Dresner
The Peter Pan of Nerdery™️
Deus
Andres Jalinton
Eric Hill
𝙿𝚒𝚡𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝔽𝕀𝕊𝕋
Ceremus
tom4okstate
olaolarolla
muz
Joé McKen
Just Jo
PaulAlanLevy
misterhuh
happyborg
Kris Samsel
Joshua Tretakoff
CapeHeaven🦄
Neerja Tripathi
Eugen Rochko
Leigh Garland
xananax
Lucas C Parra
Darren
Nidhi Singh