E Warren Fan
Christopher Mimsbluesky is fun, threads is fun, but I don't think I'll ever forget the lesson of Twitter:
if you don't control your own social graph, someone else controls an increasingly important part of your life
Pusher Of Pixels (old account)@mimsical ooo, very concise way to describe this!
Thank you!
@pixelpusher220 honestly the last line could just be "someone else controls YOU"
Jason Perseus has movedI'd try #BlueSky if #Mastodon failed to do what I need it to at some point, but I explicitly want a news feed with reporters and journalism and #Threads seems quite hostile to that.
Also I've heard that Threads doesn't let you follow only the posts of the people you follow, but populates them with random "algorithm" suggestions.
I think I'd rather die. Facebook and Twitter both did a version of that and if it was forced, I would have left. Renders the timeline worthless.
Nick@JasonPerseus @mimsical I heard threads will eventually implement non-algo feeds. But they’ll probably federate around that time. I wonder if journalists should create their own activity pub instance at that point.
Albert Kinng@mimsical Social graph? Explain
Shrikant Joshi@Albertkinng I'm not @mimsical but I'll try:
Simply put, your social graph is the people you interact with. Twitter, BlueSky, FB and all corporate social media algos show you what THEY think will keep you engaged. This causes you to interact more with some and less with others, which changes your social graph.
Mastodon simply shows things in a chronological view. Your social graph is influenced purely by who you follow.
More here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_graph
Abhimanyu Aryan
post-punked@shrikant @Albertkinng @mimsical @Gargron
Ergo, if a Mastodon server suspends our account, we have legal right to our Following & Followers provided that data was not 'accidentally' deleted?
@postpunky Erm, not sure about that honestly but perhaps someone with a better understanding of the subject will chime in with an answer hopefully... 🤞
@shrikant @Albertkinng @mimsical @Gargron
It does pose a consistency conundrum.
Aaron@Albertkinng @mimsical The follows and followers that connect you to those around you in the platform. They form a graph -- in the sense of vertices and edges, not a plot or chart.
Pierre@mimsical have a BlueSky invite so I can see why it’s all about?
endolexis@mimsical yeah. Getting unwanted "suggested for you" posts from accounts I don't follow is not my idea of 'fun'. I want to only read what I want to read, period
Do NOT Fear|🇺🇸🇺🇦🐊🦉🌊💙@mimsical So we should all run our own Mastodon server? Kinda confused about what "control" really means
@hosford42 @mimsical I think you can guess how many people in the world are willing to do that based on how many Mastodon instances there are: ~11K out of 5B internet users https://mastodon.help/instances
Sounds great: but nobody (statistically speaking) wants to self-host a social network instance. Especially when easier to use centralized alternatives exist.
Threads reaching 20X Mastodon's size in no time is proof thereof
@jdrch @mimsical The rate of information spread is the limiting factor here. Threads is a money-making scheme, so to increase their profits, they advertise. Bottom-up approaches spread by word of mouth. It takes time. And it doesn't mean Threads is better because it spread faster. Just the opposite, because that's proof that Threads users are the product, while fedi users are a truly *social* network. We grow organically, because what we are doing is actually beneficial, not because there's a perverse incentive in it for us.
@hosford42 @mimsical Ideology doesn't draw users. Content & other people do.
This sounds a lot like the desktop Linux hype of the 2000s. Linux eventually "won" via being the most commonly deployed kernel (i.e. phones, routers, etc.) as opposed to dominating the desktop.
I see the same happening with ActivityPub. Mastodon won't win social, but AP may underpin a vast array of future services
@jdrch @mimsical Ideology does draw users, just not on the same level as content.
I'm in agreement with you about AP vs Mastodon. Mastodon is one piece of software in a whole ecosystem that is cropping up. I'll be here on the free, bottom-up social graph from here on out. I'm sure not everyone will fall inline with that, but I won't be alone. And I expect the number to grow. Unlike Linux, the fediverse adds to that grassroots appeal with the ability to connect to other people and share ideas.
If both coexist, and the corporate networks are federated, then that by definition is the fediverse winning. Corporations aren't going to go away. But if they have to play our game instead of vice versa, that's enough for me.
@hosford42 @mimsical Threads currently has no ads.
"Social" to non-ideologues means "where my friends are." It's why people have FB despite its numerous issues.
I don't think either centralized or decentralized models are going away; both will coexist.
Tom@mimsical Although both have (at least the promise of) some sort of decentralized possibilities right? Naturally I will only believe it once I see it since trust in these companies is close to zero, but at least it is a kind of hopeful for the decentralized cause.
LR@mimsical fool me once
theOmegabit@mimsical Would not be fair to add to that statement insofar as ownership - server instance admins have a stake in that?
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦@mimsical boom there it is. that's the part no capitalist wants you to control
Josh Wells@mimsical isn't bluesky meant to (once out of beta) allow you to run your own instance/PDS and be decentralized?
Maxi 12x 💉@frumble @mimsical Which is generally looked at as a pro in my mind. Mastodon and AP in general lacks greatly in the discovery aspect.
Unfortunately for good interoperability in any good platform, there has to be some inherent centralization somewhere. If you look at DNS, the address-book of the internet, you're free to choose where to host your domain and nameservers wherever you choose. There still has to be a central directory to know where everything is.
@bonz @mimsical Here are some interesting links discussing #Bluesky’s decentralization (ignore the German): https://chaos.social/@frumble/110400615874517528
Maxi 7x 💉 (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Ich möchte hier zum Thema #Bluesky reingrätschen: Die sind nur vorgeblich dezentral. Das PR-Narrativ immer zu wiederholen, ist problematisch. Hier schildert ein Entwickler die absurden Voraussetzungen fürs Protokoll in eigenen Servern: https://urbanists.social/@sam/110339902538138997 Hier wettert das Dorsey-Lager um Nostr ganz ähnlich: https://fiatjaf.com/ab1127fb.html
HK★TMK | Fandom & Boosts@mimsical Yet I still can't move my post backlog with me between instances, which sucks as an artist. 😓
Just Boby@mimsical Did you find the “mute conversation” button yet?
Just curious. It’s handy.
Went through your mentions and I thought you could use this super important tip.
Just curious. It’s handy.
Went through your mentions and I thought you could use this super important tip.
Nick Bohle 🇪🇺@mimsical Well, I would start earlier. Create your own domain, post content there and just send the headlines to Mastodon and the evil side.
@mimsical how is Bluesky fun? I feel jack is ruining it with it's invite code requirement, most people don't mind trying it with all it's flaws.
Clinical Rawlsian@mimsical This is why I wish there was a way to make Mastodon and other Federation apps more fun.
Part of that is quote posts. But it also needs to be easier to see all the follows of people you follow and to see all the replies to a post.
Knud Jahnke"If there's a business model but they don't charge you, the you are not the customer, you are the merchandise."
Charadon@mimsical And that part of your life, is your Sense of Reality
WndlB@mimsical @MattFerrel And rebuilding takes like 40 person-hours, each time.
Kee Hinckley@mimsical @michaelcoyote They’re all fun until they monetize you.
pam_1965
Bryan Hansel@mimsical in theory, Threads will allow it as they build out the features.
xs4me2It simply should not be part of private enterprise…
I hope that is what we learned from the passed few years; shady intransparent algorithms, manipulation, doxing, fake news, propaganda, right wing biased ownership and manipulating elections, collecting personal data, anything else?
Finally regulations are starting to take shape with the EU digital services act.
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act-package
@mimsical I posted the same thing when I joined mastodon
@mimsical the phrase "using the cloud is just using someone else's computer" and its variations needed a good social media counterpart.
Helgi Crookehorne@mimsical Threads is just Instagram with limited interface. The same moderation etc. Those people could have used Instagram instead long ago, and post photos.
Paria sans portefeuille
Dave Hay@mimsical a former boss of mine, who was a seasoned player of poker, once told me - “if you look around the table, and can’t quite work out who has the bad hand ( is the mug ), then it’s probably you”
Similarly, another wise person said “if you can’t see the product, you’re the product” or words to that effect
David Slifka@mimsical well said. my enthusiasm for threads is 100% based on the hope they follow through with becoming a real instance, including allowing freedom of exit.
Bill Tribble@mimsical this is my favourite take so far!
Vint ProxEvery time someone signs up at these conspiring platforms, that someone makes identity theft look more convincing. In parallel to living being's blog entries, under scrutiny, we can observe other covert actions. Shadowbanning on YouTube, Twitter, etc. Reddit doesn't even hide it.
Eric MacKnight@mimsical IOW: If it's free, it isn't free. Choose #noalgorithm, #nodatamining, and support your local Mastodon instance with whatever you can afford.
Jack Bosma
@mimsical do you use social media to make money or is it more a means for you your social life/internet connecting in relation to your interests?
@Userd503 as a journalist feels like it’s both
No Gods , no Masters! RESIST@mimsical
Totally agree...
I actually prefer Mastodon because I get tons of pertinent information here....
I have yet to be bothered by any trolls or bots here & Threads/ Instagram seem to have found a few in my first day on there...
Totally agree...
I actually prefer Mastodon because I get tons of pertinent information here....
I have yet to be bothered by any trolls or bots here & Threads/ Instagram seem to have found a few in my first day on there...
Matthew Eric Bassett@mimsical I might say rather “if you don’t control _how_ you are communicating with the people you care about than someone else is controlling _what_ and _who_ you care about”
@mebassett yeah, I like that formulation