Chris KendallMy latest bluesky post not getting a lot of love š¬
This is an interesting article. Somewhat though not entirely reassuring re Blueskyās ownership and business plan - though I have questions over why it chose to build a new federating protocol from scratch. The article also rehashes some tired old myths about Mastodon. https://theintercept.com/2023/06/01/bluesky-owner-twitter-elon-musk/
OK this FAQ answers that: https://atproto.com/guides/faq#why-not-use-activitypub
BashStKid@ottocrat Iāll take a more critical line and say this article is a mix of puff and guff. I donāt believe the financial bits, theyāre going to run into centralisation problems if they expand further, and I fail to see the point of a portable protocol if youāre the only company running it.
Nicole ParsonsThe point of Bluesky isn't to create a viable long term social media platform.
It's a rinse & repeat Wall Street scam. It'll be hyped up to build up a false sense of its market valuation, then It'll IPO or be sold to OPEC investors at its inflated value.
Oil despots have an insatiable appetite for investments that can be used to subvert democracy.
So does Russia & China.
@BashStKid I respect your cynicism. š«”
Andreas H.@ottocrat they're all too busy to create data minable posts š
I'm over there but I'm carefully avoiding all the selfie and personal information reposting trains.
I'm over there but I'm carefully avoiding all the selfie and personal information reposting trains.
Frances Coppola 
@ottocrat as I am shortly going to have to migrate my Mastodon account to a different server because my current host doesn't find it economic to continue paying the hosting costs, I am less than enthusiastic about Mastodon's business model.
@Frances_Coppola Well thatās definitely the downside. I hear you.
Andrew Gallagher@ottocrat @Frances_Coppola the question is, is this just the growing pains of an untested model and will therefore settle down over time, or is instance churn an intrinsic feature? I suspect a little of bothā¦
Peter Shaw@ottocrat @Frances_Coppola - That's "econtwitter" not wanting to pay Mastodon a fee, or have I misunderstood? Mastodon seems confusingly decentralised in its mammoth family tree, I just took the most obvious branch: for interpersonal/public social media use. But I suppose if you are looking for a professionally specific definition of Mast (is "econtwitter" that?), it may be someone asks someone else tfor a fee, tho for what special(ist) services I don't know. Does e.g. BSky help in that regard?
@pcsoblahdeehell @Frances_Coppola Hosting costs are about renting server space - Mastodon donāt charge for using their client
@pcsoblahdeehell @Frances_Coppola Bluesky meanwhile host the content themselves and are paying for the server space. So currently theyāre burning through VC investor money.
@pcsoblahdeehell @Frances_Coppola The weakness but also the strength of Mastodon is that it is federated - Mastodon provide the client software but anyone can host it on their own servers. That means servers can go down whenever a server host canāt afford it or be bothered any more, but otoh you can easily migrate to another server, or host your own.
@pcsoblahdeehell @Frances_Coppola (sorry if Iām splaining)
@ottocrat @Frances_Coppola - So what is the bsky business model? Introduce Elmo fees later? Gradually introduce more advertising? As you describe it, it's clearly not sustainable for long.
@pcsoblahdeehell Well thatās (literally) the $$$$$ question. We donāt know. But as a VC-financed private initiative itās likely to follow the same enshittification path as all the other VC-financed techbro platforms. (For āenshittificationā see definition of @pluralistic)
@Frances_Coppola @ottocrat Iād heard from some others that econtwitter was having problems, sympathies.
There could be a tiny net benefit if a whole bunch of erudite professionals send Rochko their experience of regular users having to migrate and the pitfalls.
Small irony in the economics group with an uneconomic server?
Tim SchofieldIt is relatively simple to move servers though...
Easter Benny šš„
Brian M Milton@ottocrat Just been dipping my toe there but totally get the point.
It's all 'Old Twitter was great ' at the moment but the ads (and gammons) will come.
I feel I may miss stuff here, but often it's the stuff that would have annoyed me anyway.
It's all 'Old Twitter was great ' at the moment but the ads (and gammons) will come.
I feel I may miss stuff here, but often it's the stuff that would have annoyed me anyway.
Peediewee@ottocrat how do i pay for usage? genuine question as i'm a but lost on mastadon. thank you.
@peediewee You could make a contribution to Mastodonās running costs (mainly staffing costs) via the website. Check your serverās website to see how they cover costs https://mstdn.social/about
@ottocrat thank you