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The fediverse is a really interesting concept. Connecting everything together with ActivityPub so that users can pick the software/instance they prefer but still interact with any other corner of the larger network is a lofty goal, I'm just not sure it's practical.
1 year ago
@basil_mori I am pretty sure that when there will be enough users on top of AP that big techs can no longer ignore we will see the road toward AP 2.0 where metadata exists and can be extrapolated out, where server admins can allow commercial and other nefarious stuff to be displayed in your timeline, I can see all the mercenaries press saying that big instances need money to make their servers alive; I can see any of these because it is the old and rusted method that we see anytime there is a chance to exploit users... 🤢 · 1 year ago
@basil_mori who knows? But we are already watching the bigger instances are somehow bullying the smaller ones and are trying to capitalize the momentum and getting more user especially the one connected with the founder... · 1 year ago
@basil_mori I definitely think capitalism has trained us to think of these as "winner takes all," zero-sum sorts of affairs. I think of the standard as more aimed at avoiding lock-in and allowing connectivity between sympathetic servers/communities. A fully connected graph *may* be possible, but is not really desirable from my perspective. · 1 year ago
@eph Eternal November: Eternal September Part II · 1 year ago
@lykso That's entirely fair, and it's probably a better way to look at it. Personally, with ActivityPub being fully enshrined as a standard and all of the different services trying to interoperate I can't help but see it as something that inevitably trends towards being used to build a "single" giant federated social network, for good or for ill. I personally think that's a good thing to aim towards (if it can be kept away from corporate influence), which probably colors my perception. · 1 year ago
@basil_mori Oh, I see. I don't care if it becomes mainstream, personally, and I don't see "going mainstream" as a measure of success for building communities. · 1 year ago
Happy Eternal September II! · 1 year ago
@smokey Mhm, stuff like this always boils over after enough time has passed. We'll have to see what happens with Twitter in the next few weeks, whether any of the alternatives being thrown into the spotlight are any good, and just how Mastodon trends once the initial panic is over. I haven't ever been especially active on Mastodon (I don't use social media much) but it's never seemed to me like it has much staying power for the average person. · 1 year ago
@freezr I'm definitely not an expert but if the fediverse was less fragmented and the standard was less standardized I'd argue that someone might decide to make new and more resilient software that's still compatible with the older databases / endpoints, giving instance hosts the opportunity to upgrade, or even overhaul ActivityPub completely to a 2.0 version with less problems and straight-up require an update. As it stands now that's still not entirely impossible, but with every new instance I see it becoming less and less likely. Here's just hoping it doesn't die completely or turn into an RSS vs Atom issue? · 1 year ago
I think that we should give it a few more weeks, a good chunk of mastadon traffic will slow back down to probably normal levels once the news stops talking about twitter and all the fleeing tooters go back to whence they came. Im glad that FOSS software and communities are getting a spotlight right now, even if the cost is giving server maintainers a temporary headache :P · 1 year ago
@basil_mori I prefer the Federation a.k.a. Diaspora* over the Fediverse a.k.a. ActivityPub... This for me was traumatic was a community project against a project baked by the W3C... I really feel bad for using Mastodon more than Diaspora*... The latter is fading away slowly but it is still my favorite, for instance I find Mastodon confusing and awfully slow. I already said almost everywhere that when people using AP will reach the critical mass bad things will happen, and as any other thing baked by the W3C, this protcol will be turned against the end users... I am already waiting for this to become a reality... 😩 · 1 year ago
@cobradile94 the Fediverse wasn't prepare to the recent massive influx from Tweeter... A lot of instances are updating their VPS but hasn't been enough... Mine decided to close the w.e. to resolve the amount of "workers" waiting... Others are temporarily blocking communication with the biggest servers... I have always been saying the Fediverse wasn't resilient by design, but this is even worse! The Fediverse infrastructure is flaky by default... And now the new mantra is: "many small communities" is better than "few big instances"... 🙄 · 1 year ago
I don't know, I think it can work, it just involves a bit of investment. SDF.org, for example, just upgraded their Mastodon server to new hardware last night to deal with the rush of new users/content coming in.
I think the Fediverse can survive, but for high-volume services like Mastodon the number of entities that can host a fully useable instance may become smaller. I know that's kind of against the whole idea, but at least "smaller" still still >1. · 1 year ago
@freezr How so? · 1 year ago
@lykso I'm mostly talking about fragmentation. The recent influx of people interested in Mastodon is a good example: the fediverse is confusing because you have quite a few endpoints and all of them are split into countless public instances and the ability to host your own. To put it simply, unless a few fediverse services manage to gain enough infamy to thoroughly eclipse the alternatives and public instances of undeniably solid quality crop up I can't see it becoming mainstream. · 1 year ago
I'm confused regarding "practical," as I've been on the fediverse well over a year now (under another name) and enjoyed myself. It's also been a working thing for many people already for several years now. Can you explain what you mean? · 1 year ago
the Fediverse is currently collapsing... 🤫 · 1 year ago