Emile Snyder

I really wish the Mastadon README had some more discussion about what exact problem the system is designed to solve. Closest I can find is "A decentralized solution to commercial platforms, it avoids the risks of a single company monopolizing your communication."

Which is great and all, but... what does that mean exactly?

Apr 4, 2017 at 7:22pmWeb
Show threadEmile SnyderApr 4, 2017

As an end user, I expect that to mean something like "when the org/entity that shuts down the instance your account is on decides to shut it down, your account/data/history is safe/recoverable, and easy to move somewhere else."

But it doesn't seem like that is the case now, and the README gives no indication at all if that is actually the long term goal or not.

Show threadEmile SnyderApr 4, 2017
Especially since trust is not a static property that an org/server has; it evolves over time. Who I trust today is not likely to be the same as who I trust in 5 or 10 years. And if my social network/identity is impossible to move, then what has all this hard work gained me, at the end of the day?
Show threadFrankie SaxxApr 4, 2017
@esnyder I'd like to know about data/timeline redundancy also. I assume it's stored to the instance where you're registered & reliant on the host for backups. I haven't looked to see if there's an option to let me back up my archive yet.
Show threadEmile SnyderApr 4, 2017
@frankiesaxx as far as I can tell the 'export' options in preferences are limited to "list of who you follow" and "your block list" at the moment.
Show threadFrankie SaxxApr 4, 2017
@esnyder yeah, if there's somewhere to do a whole message archive, I haven't found it.
Show threadMotoma :motorcycle:Apr 4, 2017

@esnyder I'm not deep into the federation stuff just yet, but it seems (perhaps naively) that each node that knows about you would have a pretty solid record of your account (at least public account) recorded.

The difficulty would be taking that and turning it in to a full-fledged local account. How to transition/assume control, how to represent/propagate the transition, etc..

Show thread🔜@[email protected]Apr 5, 2017
@esnyder the whole thing assumes that you either run your own shard or trust whoever runs the shard you're on. there's nothing to protect you from your shard doing bad things
Show thread🔜@[email protected]Apr 5, 2017
@esnyder intuitions about email apply
Show threadEmile SnyderApr 5, 2017
@parataxis I like that way of thinking about it. But I know how to back up my email history. Mastodon conversational/liking history... not so much.
Show thread[DÉPLACÉ] Yannick A.Apr 4, 2017

@esnyder
- Free (Libre) Software - Everyone can contribute to it (you can, for example, create an instance with a design you love)
- If Twitter closes, everything is lost. If a Mastodon instance closes, you just have to transfer your messages to another instance
- Respect for privacy: everything does not belong to a company
- No advertising
- And what I forget

(sorry for my english)

Show threadEmile SnyderApr 4, 2017
@Yannicka so, you said "If a Mastodon instance closes, you just have to transfer your messages to another instance" but it doesn't look to me like that is possible right now? Did I just miss it?