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Would Gemini survive an attack by the mainstream commercial users out there? I keep wondering...i mean its wonderful that there's this great community of folks and a bunch of pretty useful advice and articles....but what happens when mainstream media and similar folks decide to move in? At the very least i'd imagine that they'd start posting click-baity attention grabbing articles....and overrun places like this - bbs....with their content. Are there any plans in place to prevent stuff like this from happening? What are the thoughts overall on how this community can scale without being hijacked by commercial interests like any other platform out there?
Sep 17 · 8 weeks ago · 👍 stack, gemalaya
🚀 clseibold · Sep 17 at 18:28:
Firstly, I would distinguish between the commercial and the mainstream. The mainstream may be complacent, but that doesn't mean they prefer overcommercialization to no commercialization. I believe most of the mainstream doesn't like the overcommercialization of the web or the click-bait attention-grabbing articles, they just deal with it because they have to. But these things are effective because the internet makes it too easy to do, and places like YT have algorithms that boost this type of content.
In order to have this not become a thing in gemini, people need to not make algorithms that boost content like this. Additionally, Gemini is already mostly text-first, which is already a deterrent for overcommercialization.
I also personally believe that we shouldn't be using link-based ranking in search engines (like PageRank and HITS/SALSA) because it reinforces commercial entities. I wrote more about this here, in case you are interested:
— auragem.letz.dev/devlog/20220722.gmi
As clseibold pointed out, there are two separate issues: commerialization and masses-of-asses.
The first one requires a profit motive. Given that current generation of Gemini users will not tolerate advertising, it is unlikely anyone would step in.
The second may be a problem, but given the relative lack of features of Gemini that asses like, it seems unlikely as well.
However should it somehow come to pass that user volume surges, it may be possible that the new, undiscriminating ass-users may tolerate advertising, and things may change.
I'll weigh in here too and echo: Gemini is designed to resist this kind of attention. not by technical walls to scale but its limited, non-flashy feature set.
I'll also add that if there is an influx, the very culture of this place would be resistant to such users and they'd probably find some other place to flourish. Also there can be multiple bbs and antenna instances so we can potentially outlast or coexist with those folks in here.
given enough time though, my bet is they grow bored and leave.
There are so many reasons ads can't work on Gemini that it made for a couple of lengthy posts :)
I think if there's any problem on the horizon it's to do with too many people; independent capsules, hand crafted links and an appreciation for the slow might be enough to run well anyway.
I'm not worried, better to focus on enjoying what we have, anyway :)
🚀 clseibold · Sep 18 at 14:11:
Some of this "normie takeover" and being runover by the "mainstream" feels way too much like extremist talk for my liking (although, not suggesting anyone's extremists here, I just don't like the way we're speaking about this like people are planning a full-out takeover war). New people joining Gemini is not a bad thing, and it's not a "takeover" of "normies" (whatever that means). There's nothing wrong with the mainstream people. What's wrong is the manipulation of people by big companies for profit. Big companies won't go toward gemini because they can't easily extend it without requiring users to move to a totally different protocol.
Additionally, when a new person joins geminispace, they learn the "culture" and the idea behind the space. If they stay, then they accept these new ideas as their own. Social Conformity is sometimes a good thing. However, we must be careful to not give in to fundamentalist tendencies.
I think it's more productive to not incessantly talk about and wonder whether there will be a takeover when in 4 years there has been no suggestion of one even inching closer, lol. It's a waste of time.
Meantime, while you are doing this you are missing the success that is Gemini. Enjoy Gemini for what it is now and work to improve it and nurture its goals for the future.
Agreed with, enjoy for what it is now :)
Just read through the comments on the posts. Great read. Commercial vs mainstream is a good separation, not having hackable popularity hogging metrics or pages is very important I think. Also totally agree on not differentating normal users, Most real people I meet are pretty sensible. I really feel that its the media companies who like putting out absurd stuff to attract attention and trigger (unnecessary) debates and conversations.
And lastly, yes, absolutely love the thought of not really caring much and letting the platform evolve into whatever it grows into. We never know what it might trigger.