Sure, it didn't work for Email, XMPP, Diaspora, but maybe it'll work for us(cohost.org)
cohost.org
Sure, it didn't work for Email, XMPP, Diaspora, but maybe it'll work for us
https://cohost.org/tef/post/298638-sure-it-didn-t-work
4 comments
There's some truth to the idea that it just creates lots of petty tyrants.
One of the biggest issues I see is the widespread use of non user overridable server blacklists. For a technology that is supposed to be about user control, allowing the sysadmin to control who you talk to or follow seems undesirable. While I can understand not wanting, say, porn, all over your global federated feed, not letting users choose to override that for their personal feed is creating a multiple netsplits.
I'm sure some will just say that since it's their server they can do what they want, but I'm talking about what is good for the system as a whole. Currently it feels like the only way to get access to the entire thing is to run your own server, which doesn't seem healthy.
One of the biggest issues I see is the widespread use of non user overridable server blacklists. For a technology that is supposed to be about user control, allowing the sysadmin to control who you talk to or follow seems undesirable. While I can understand not wanting, say, porn, all over your global federated feed, not letting users choose to override that for their personal feed is creating a multiple netsplits.
I'm sure some will just say that since it's their server they can do what they want, but I'm talking about what is good for the system as a whole. Currently it feels like the only way to get access to the entire thing is to run your own server, which doesn't seem healthy.
Some good points, but a little stuck in the past.
Today, I pay less for a hosted and managed Mastodon instance than Elon wants for a blue badge or whatever it’s called this week.
It’s true that nobody wants to be a sysadmin. But cloud hosting, cheap storage, containers, and management tools mean not everyone has to. We just need one person who can make a living being a sysadmin for every ten thousand or so people that want to use the system.
(I’m eliding the difficulty in moderation, which these hosting providers don’t and shouldn’t do, but that’s the next problem that I think will also be solved aaS so scale economies make it work)
Today, I pay less for a hosted and managed Mastodon instance than Elon wants for a blue badge or whatever it’s called this week.
It’s true that nobody wants to be a sysadmin. But cloud hosting, cheap storage, containers, and management tools mean not everyone has to. We just need one person who can make a living being a sysadmin for every ten thousand or so people that want to use the system.
(I’m eliding the difficulty in moderation, which these hosting providers don’t and shouldn’t do, but that’s the next problem that I think will also be solved aaS so scale economies make it work)
I appreciated this piece but didn't fully understand what solution is being advocated.
Is the proposal to have non-federated/compatible social networks, but then have clients that capable of posting to/reading from each? The client would be some form of Twitter/Insta/Tiktok aggregator?
Is the proposal to have non-federated/compatible social networks, but then have clients that capable of posting to/reading from each? The client would be some form of Twitter/Insta/Tiktok aggregator?
Who's technical aim is that, though? You're conflating the desires of Twitter users with the goals Mastodon maintainers. Mastodon's goal isn't to eat the world, and that's reflected in a lot of places - the current fediverse topology, the distinction between local and federated timelines, a lack of algorithmic content discovery... none of it seems to indicate an appetite for dominance. Instead, recent releases[0] seem to be adding in user-requested features instead of optimizing for retention and profitability.
ActivityPub does not live or die based on who uses it, much as you conceded with IRC. And maybe Twitter 2 will arrive someday, with mind-reading functionality and magic hologram projection. There are always faux "distruptors" who use stickers/custom emojis/pointless crap to justify rebuilding a protocol from the ground-up. The people who like ActivityPub will continue to like it, and the people who feel dissatisfied with Twitter will likely continue to project it's problems onto alternative software that isn't beholden to fixing centralized issues or getting Kanye West to post another time.
[0] https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.0.0