Kevin BeaumontJan 13, 2025

Huge kudos to @Gargron and friends here:

"Simply, we are going to transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components (including name and copyrights, among other assets) to a new non-profit organization, affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/

People love to shit on Eugen, but he coulda sold this place to VCs many times over. He hasn't. He's took a financial hit working on here, for sure.

The people should own the town square

It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control.

Mastodon Blog
Show threadMichael Harrison
@GossiTheDog Trying out Mastodon again and since the feed showed your post as the first one I saw I thought I'd ask you...
Why do people love to shit on Eugen?
Jan 13, 2025 at 4:04pmWeb
Show threadAdamJan 13, 2025

@iguanaguy @GossiTheDog

It can be for different reasons, for example his mod team on Dot Social censor Palestinian voices for ridiculous reasons. He equivocates on Threads and tacitly endorses it when literally every other respectable Mastodon instance knows when its time to pull the plug on that hate speech platform. He promotes Dot Social as the default instance on the official app, leading to massive centralization at odds with the promise of federated social media, maybe other reasons too

Show threadAdamJan 14, 2025

@iguanaguy @GossiTheDog

Also @grumpybozo mentioned that people want different features, and for context I'd add that in particular some people interpret his failure to prioritize the ability to limit who can reply to your posts as a failure to look out for vulnerable and minority users who can get harassed this way. Still he's made massive contributions and his recent decision to transfer copyright and ownership commands a lot of respect