Tim BrayJan 17

ICE on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/icegov.bsky.social

Verified.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@icegov.bsky.social)

Protects America through criminal investigations and by enforcing immigration law to preserve national security and public safety. ➡️Visit us at ICE.gov ➡️Join our team at join.ICE.gov Privacy policy: ICE.gov/privacy

Bluesky Social
Show threadTim BrayJan 17
What would happen if ICE wanted to join the Fediverse? Most instances probably wouldn’t host that account, but some would. The account would be broadly blocked at both individual and instance levels, and some instances would probably defederate the hosting instance. Some folks would migrate between instances based on these choices. All this, I think, would be a good outcome?
Show threadNathan LorenzJan 17
@timbray My biggest hope during the whole early X fiasco would have been that federal and state governments would have set up government fediverse servers to disseminate information and alerts. I was saddened when the tide moved back towards walled gardens and partially open systems like Bluesky. I think it could have been a fun experiment in creative tools for public information dissemination and consumption.
Show threadrobJan 17

@nathan @timbray

As a longer-term resident of the Fediverse, I can tell you that these hopes and dreams about governments are often spoken about but not often realized. The reasons are simple: the Fediverse is too complicated for most people, it’s too expensive for most people (the funding model is broken), and the state of the mobile software is dire.

Show threadrobJan 17

@nathan @timbray

The Dutch government had a pilot program for Mastodon in 2024, but I don’t know the current status.

https://www.digitaleoverheid.nl/nieuws/1-jarig-mastodon-overheid-blikt-terug-en-vooruit/

1-jarig Mastodon Overheid blikt terug en vooruit - Digitale Overheid

Mastodon is een publiek alternatief voor commerciële online sociale media platforms. In een pilot kan de overheid het platform ontdekken. Wat zijn de eerste lessen?

Digitale Overheid
Show threadrobJan 17
@nathan @timbray
I think the biggest hurdle is multiple, named domains. People really struggle with that. And then there’s the process for following people not on your server. I can still remember trying to follow the first person on another server. I had to do a search to complete the task.
Show threadrobJan 17
@nathan @timbray
I have been running my own instance for a little under a year. In order to make a small instance work, you really need a relay to bring fresh content to your server. But the relays recently ate all my space, so I had to turn them off or face ever larger hosting bills.
Show threadrobJan 17

@nathan @timbray
The state of Fediverse mobile software is dire. The free apps are horrible (on almost every platform I have tried). Ivory is pretty good on iPhone. But people don’t want to pay for software.

The web app is really good. But most people don’t know how to create a mobile shortcut/PWA on their phone. I personally use Phanpy.social and find it’s the best for me. But I challenge you to explain how that works to a “normal” person.

Show threadrobJan 17
@nathan @timbray
If we take this back to the most recent episode of Hard Fork, this is a problem similar to teens on phones. People don’t want to use a new social network where there aren’t any users (as far as that person is concerned.) Unless everyone does it, no one will do it.
Show threadrobJan 17

@nathan @timbray
The last thing I’ll say is about expense. First of all, there’s the moderation problem, which needs to be solved at a level higher than one server. Turns out, algorithms are good at certain things at times. Moderation is time consuming and painful.

And the server costs are not trivial if there’s lots of engagement. I don’t think Mastodon is tuned to only save local posts. It saves everything, which means costs never go down.

Show threadrob
@nathan @timbray
If you’re on the Fediverse long enough, you’ll see people and instances begging for money. It’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t. And, as I’ve said before, the funding model is broken. I wish Mastodon has some sort of payment process baked in.
Jan 17 at 1:33pmWeb
Show threadrobJan 17

@nathan @timbray
I think the actual strategy should be as follows: small, private organizations (such as churches and schools and clubs).

Someone has to make a case why the Fediverse would be better than some other software - like a WhatsApp group.

Show threadrobJan 17
@nathan @timbray
This conversation started with a question about ICE, which is something I think about a lot as a resident of Minneapolis. This is a perfect opportunity to organize a virtual community - even if temporary - to report on activity around the city. I suspect that there are private chat groups that perform this exact function so I haven’t seen anything. But back to my earlier points, I don’t see it happening any time soon.