#Medium link; don't be surprised if it does weird things before showing you the article.
"Mastodon brought a protocol to a product fight"
> Yes, yes, the network is under immense strain as people flee the Elon strain infecting Twitter. But come on, there are folks who really believe this is going to replace, or even stand alongside Twitter, as a massively scaled social network? I call bullshit. While it’s impressive that millions of users have apparently given Mastodon a try, the product is far too slapdash and clunky to keep folks engaged. A lump of coal.
No, it isn't meant to be a #Twitter replacement. Keep your Twitter account until you no longer want it--or the company closes and the site shuts down--you can use Mastodon alongside Twitter.
And the #Fediverse networks are much more than just #Mastodon. Don't think you have experienced the network and all it has to offer if all you've done is briefly tried to use Mastodon, because you haven't experienced it.
> I’ve somehow avoided signing up for the service up until now. Largely because signing up was and is so comically obtuse — pick your server everyone, hope you choose wisely!
Have you not used e-mail? It works the same way. You pick a server, such as Gmail or Outlook dot com, and sign up. Please tell me you realize that the people you communicate with are not all on the same e-mail service that you use.
> But, but, it’s not a product, it’s a protocol. Yeah, that’s a nice thing to say. And to believe in. But I truly believe the ship has sadly sailed for such idealism in this space. Jack Dorsey can talk about how this should have been what Twitter was from the get go until he’s bluesky in the face. It’s just not going to happen. And he’s more to blame for that than most everyone else. As is he for the Elon element of this current equation. But that’s a different story.
Okay, so how about this story: Twitter has only been profitable two or three years of its entire history. Since it started, it has existed by burning through investors' funds. Eventually, with or without Elon Musk's ownership, that runs out. Without such funding, their corporate-centralized ( #corpocentric ) model cannot exist very long. And same for their centralized competitors, such as Post.news, Gab, Parler, and so on. What is left is either #federated or #peer-to-peer approaches, where no single entity is responsible for funding and managing the entire network. So whether it is the #Fediverse ( with #ActivityPub and #OStatus and their successors ) & the Federation ( with #Diaspora ) or #Bluesky, or #Twister, or #NOSTR, the eventual future of #socnets is #decentralized, if not entirely peer-to-peer unless a national government takes over Facebook and Twitter in order to provide effectively unlimited resources. It is the protocol that makes it possible for thousands or millions of instances to displace and replace one big centralized instance.
Unfortunately, some parts of the #Fediverse (primarily, but not exclusively #Mastodon) have marketed themselves with promises of privacy, control, immunity from recourse, and personal security that none of these networks (nor the protocols they use) were ever designed to provide. The article looked at that as failure, instead of recognizing it for what it was: marketing & advertising puffery.
What would it take to get #IndieAuth working with #Mastodon / #NextCloud / #Peertube etc? Are there any major changes required in the way the various #Activitypub apps do things to be able to support this?
It seems to me that IndyAuth or something like it are badly needed in the #fediverse, as the more #decentralized we get, the more accounts users end up needing, compared to #gasm et al.
True, however the two are interconnected. Rescuing our #climate depends on a collective change of psychology, which depends on education (largely from news, social and entertainment) coming from more independent sources than commercial. This is boosted (depends on?) #decentralized, #federated#freesoftware networks.
In short, we're not going to change our climate burning behaviors while filling our brains with commercial media thinking closed software favors.
The #Blockstack Public Benefit Corporation has allocated $1M US to fund the development of #decentralized social network applications on their infrastructure.
Might be a good chance for someone to get $100k (which is the per-project allocation) to create interop between a Blockstack-based network and #ActivityPub.
I am looking for a #Decentralized, #Federated blogging system where people can follow, comment and share across the network. #Diaspora is too noisy and us not meant to be a blog first system.
#Blockstack has been making some interesting progress on enabling the construction of #decentralized apps. I'll need to try out their new multi-player storage tutorial in my copious spare time.
On #Facebook you remember why you started following someone but you don't know why you keep following them. On #decentralized social media you don't remember why you started following someone but you know why you still follow them! @MastodonProject @FriendicaNews @joindiaspora
OMFG we are almost at 4K artists here WITH YOU & your #decentralized friends that need to https://joinMastodon.org that may not be as artsy as you but can join too! They may not be as artsy as you but INVITE INVITE INVITE. Tell them that they are the ONLY ones that should profit off of their life & statuses! Who's # 4K ON .ART‽ I will send a sticker free. :P