So, over the weekend, I’ve been talking a lot about the need to take Mastdon into a new community-focused direction, so I took time to write down some thoughts.
Spread this far and wide because it’s time for us to do something else.
https://h-i.works/2024/04/a-case-for-community.html
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments (in good faith) because this is a convo we need to have.
And I’m ready to get started today.
If you like Mastodon how it is, that’s fine. This is not for you.
This is for people who are uncomfortable with the direction Mastodon is going and want to contribute financially, technically, philosophically, etc, to a new direction for that project to give the current Mastodon populace another option.
Because I think we’ve been patient enough with that project. It’s time to try something else.
@are0h « From that point, organizing people who want to be contributors and/or funders will take place to form the core governance that will create new standards that will define how the work will progress and standardize community involvement. »
be careful here; i think most attempts at building more community involvement in the fediverse burn out at this step. history has shown that there are people on Mastodon who are very skilled at manipulating governance systems to ensure that work never gets done.
@Ember Me too.
It’s been a long time coming and past due at the same time.
@thelaughingmuse Ha, well, just let me know when you have time.
There needs to be different versions of Mastodon because this one-size-fits-all just isn’t a feasible proposition for a diverse and global environment.
I’m hoping once I get my project up and running, it will be forked and customized a million times so we have multiple options for deciding what kind of space we want.
Really glad to see stuff happening on hard forking. 👏
Will there be a dedicated account and site for your fork? So that people new to it can get up to speed on it?
@are0h Tech illiterate question.
I fully agree with all of the problems and resolutions you've laid out, but I don't quite understand what a hard fork is
Would this be a situation where an instance itself could migrate, or would you need to make new instances and migrate over that way?
@Cyborgneticz A hard fork is a codebase that disconnects from original project. For example, Akkoma is a hard fork (thank goodness) from Pleroma. The codebases are similar but have fundamental points of divergence.
The goal is that current instances will be able to migrate to the new hard fork, so they can keep their communities intact while updating their overall experience in ways that differ from the main Masto project.
@are0h Gotcha that makes a lot of sense!
Thank you for explaining it to me, when I was looking it up I kept getting crypto examples which made me very confused
@are0h Lmao exactly, I knew you weren't that type of person so figured I should just ask
I really hope you get the support and backing you need to get this going! As Meta and all that shows up, we need an alternative
@Cyborgneticz We really do.
And Masto itself can be so much better than what it is right now.
@Cyborgneticz Yeah, when it’s up and running, I hope it kicks off a bunch of projects that give us different flavors that people can migrate to.
It’s just time for more variety.
@philip That’s the beauty of the hard fork.
People who can make a contribution, whether technical, financial, ideological, etc, will have the opportunity to do so.
Of course, there is the question of community standards, organizing priorities, and managing a forum for input. However, engaging in this process in and of itself lessens the possibility of a small handful of people controlling the direction.
A social media platform should be social from the top to bottom.
Otherwise, we’re just replicating the same mistakes from centralized platforms.
@jupiter_rowland Ha, well don't you have a lot to say?
You seem to have a grudge against Mastodon, and I have no interest in entertaining that.
I'm aware of those projects.
I'll take some of the points you make under advisement.
Mike Macgirvin 🖥️ wrote this: "@julian @Matthias Pfefferle @pfefferle @nutomic @silverpill @Renaud Chaput Here's the reason Article became a second class citizen... In this issue I raised against Mastodon in 2017 (on a now defunct github account), Mastodon at the time treated Note and Article identically. In particular, it re"
@jupiter_rowland Ha, you seem very proud of not having character limits. Good for you.
Again, I’m not interested in grudges against Mastodon.
I'm interested in the future.
@jupiter_rowland A lot of the fedi is unsafe for people who don't look like you, so I understand people's hesitancy to explore the larger fedi.
If the larger fedi wants to be embraced, it's going to have to deal with that reality.
@jupiter_rowland This is hypothetical, as you cannot say what is safe or not for people like me.
I already told you I'm familiar with his work.
And I did not say Mastodon was the safest. What I did say is that I understand why people are hesitant to explore the larger fedi.
If we're going to talk, you need to listen to what I am saying instead of pushing your bias.
I'm open to whatever, but your anger towards Mastodon is of no interest to me as I have no loyalty to it.
You need to adjust your approach because you're coming off as every other sanctimonious white dude I deal with in this space.
And that's a poor way of showing how your part of the fedi is allegedly safer.
@jupiter_rowland Based on your unending assumptions, constant racist references to ‘minorities’ as a monolithic group and speculating what they need based on absolutely nothing, and your constant need to tell me how much you believe you know about the fedi, it’s pretty clear you are not the person I need to be talking to.
Be well.
@jupiter_rowland And trying to tell ‘minorities’ what they want is not the direction you want to.
You need to step back, take a breath, and think about what you're trying to accomplish here.
I don't have time to read this, but bookmarked and boosted. Veil glück
@are0h there are existing forks (eg, glitch, which is mentioned in the blog post). Why not work with one of those, instead of starting another project?
To put it another way, what problems do those forks have that make that impractical, and how will you address them?
Teeg
Mad Villain
Cykonot
ALLIE ❤ HART
Mary Clark
Ember is so tired of people. 
The Laughing Muse
Blake C. Stacey
FediThing 
cyborgneticz
Philip Mallegol-Hansen
Jupiter Rowland
Daniel 🗽 Underway subway app
Bleep
TheDarcBird
Nik
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