With the understanding that I am *fully* aware of the many valid criticisms of the Fediverse in general (to the extent that such a thing exists) and Mastodon in particular, and many of the reasons that Bluesky is more popular...
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Fullmetal Manager ššš„replied to reverse colexicographic Nora last edited by
@noracodes
ā
ļø and maybe that's okay. Sometimes masking compromises is fine. -
reverse colexicographic Norareplied to reverse colexicographic Nora last edited by
I certainly do not think that the answer to corporate control of the Internet is "build everything on ActivityPub."
Just as much, though, I want to be sure that people understand that the answer is not building something pretty enough nobody notices it's decentralized.
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reverse colexicographic Norareplied to Fullmetal Manager ššš„ last edited by
@saraislet Yes, absolutely.
But we will either see Bluesky enable genuine decentralization, or screw over its users, or both. Never neither, and the sooner they do the former, the less of an impact the latter will have.
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The Nexus of Privacyreplied to reverse colexicographic Nora last edited by
@noracodes Right. My view is that many people do care about the power structures;, but there generally isn't any urgency in doing anything about it. That changes (briefly) when a big service makes an obviously anti-user decision, so there's more willingness to try out an alternative ... but if the cost/benefit ratio of the alternative isn't there, then it's still not a compelling enough reason for people to move (or to stay once they've moved). Getting rid of unnecessary complexity and problematic user interfaces decreases the cost, which is good -- but doesn't focus on the benefits. And over-simplifying actually decreases the benefits.
Mastodon's changing the default signup to .social is a great example of where things go wrong. Yes, it simplified signup, and eliminated the risk of people accidentally signing up for an instance with no moderation or blocklist. But it also assured that new arrivals wouldn't get the kind of experience that fedi is best at: a well-moderated small-to-medium instance with a community that matches their values (and optionally interests, geography, and/or identity). Another approach would have been to view the choice of an instance as somethig where the decentarlized approach is indeed ineherently more complex, and give people better tools, information, and process to make a good choice.
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reverse colexicographic Norareplied to The Nexus of Privacy last edited by
@thenexusofprivacy And yet when people *do* discuss implementing that second approach, many people see it as a sign of those stuck-up computer elites just not understanding normal people. It happens every time a big wave comes here.
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The Nexus of Privacyreplied to reverse colexicographic Nora last edited by
@noracodes If by "that second approach" you mean giving people better tools, informatio, and process to make a better choice of instance ... how much investment has there really been on that? I've been working on https://privacy.thenexus.today/resources-for-choosing-instances/ and ... let's just say there's a lot of room for improvement.
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reverse colexicographic Norareplied to The Nexus of Privacy last edited by
@thenexusofprivacy Right, that's what I mean. I'll dredge up some relevant conversations if you like, but I agree, there's not much movement, at least in part because whenever that work is discussed, it gets shot down. I hoped to convey that in that reply, apologies.
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ALLIE ā¤ HARTreplied to reverse colexicographic Nora last edited by
@noracodes iām glad Model View Culture shuttered before we got to this moment but also wow are we feeling the impact of nobody writing critically about technology in the public sphere since ~2016
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The Nexus of Privacyreplied to reverse colexicographic Nora last edited by
@noracodes oh okay, sounds like we're in violent agreement. No need to dredge up the conversations, I remember arguing about this with people at the time. In fact I was just writing about this in the "Why not help people choose an instance that's a good fit?" section of https://privacy.thenexus.today/flatness/#why-not
So yes, fedi has been on the wrong path here ... now's a good time to address it! it's interesting that this doesn't necessarily require a fork or anything like that. @kissane is doing some work along this front, have you seen her posts like https://www.wrecka.ge/revealing-the-gifts/ and https://www.wrecka.ge/safer-places-now/ ?
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reverse colexicographic Norareplied to The Nexus of Privacy last edited by
@thenexusofprivacy These are interesting! I find a lot of Kissane's work somewhat differently motivated than most of what I'm interested in, but I appreciate these pieces a lot.
