It's a bit of a joke post because a lot of the coverage around Mastodon gets really into the weeds with Federation, ActivityPub, etc. and journalists often describe it as "too techie" for "normal" users.

Well, "normal" users don't care about the technical backend of Twitter or Facebook so it always felt a bit disingenuous to me it was presented this way. Hopefully my post can dispell some of the confusion!

The key word here is "large". From the article:

"[Fediverse] instances don’t generally have any unwanted guests because there’s zero incentive to grow beyond an ability to self-moderate. If an instance were to become known for hosting Nazis —either via malice or an incompetent owner— other more responsible instances would simply de-federate (cut themselves off) from the Nazi instance until they got their shit together. Problem solved, no 'trust and safety' required"

Exactly! I actually talked back and forth with him a bit and eventually said that "complaining about a missing FOSS feature is like complaining to the volunteer ladeler at a soup kitchen about the lack of a gluten-free option. It's just not the path to getting the change you want."

In the end he seemed to get what I was saying, but was still irritated. I've been really learning lately how hard it is for some people not to see themselves as customers in FOSS land.

Exactly. From the article:

As far as Reddit’s fate is concerned I predict that what will happen to it is the same thing that is happening to Twitter and has already happened to Facebook and frankly, actual shopping malls. The business side of things will churn along divorced from the content which will become ever more generic and culturally irrelevant. The users who stay on Reddit will be of the unadventurous variety, not inclined to make waves or analyze their habits.

The essay is not about suggesting a dichotomy. The article is about how corporations sort their content feeds based on maximizing profitability, and the subsequent consequences that result for the end user (humans) in the form of endless distractions.

Lemmy devs actually publish their goals/methods for "hot" and "active" sorting here. You may find it of value!

The important difference, imo, is that Fediverse users have final say over the sorting of their own feeds. Reddit/Twitter/etc prioritize engagement, not actual value added to the user.

When I switched to Substack it was just a Mailchimp alternative (I don't think Mailchimp moderates what they send out either). They were a service, not a platform. But since then Substack has added a lot of social elements. And now that I've been made aware of their stance, I'm planning my exit ASAP.

Absolutely. The essay does actually address that towards the end:

There’s no shame in turning to the internet for supplementing socialization when doing it “better” isn’t feasible. It’s easy to imagine situations where someone might not have access to a community that keeps them sane. A gay teenager stuck in rural Alabama. A woman born into a controlled religious society. A New York sports fan in Boston. Some days in life, the best we can hope for is making it until tomorrow in one piece.

I and a few other people kinda chatted with him a while and the reality kinda seemed to click with him? He was very stuck on "it is a product and I am the customer" mindset that is very ingrained into so many people. He said filing a bug report felt "dehumanizing" and we tried to illustrate that it can actually feel empowering if you view yourself as a collaborator, not a customer. I think he's coming around.

At least I hope he is because (opinion on FOSS aside) he really is one of the all-time best creators on YouTube right now.

Yeah, I think it's important to keep in mind that the Fediverse doesn't solve any of the problems that come up when a bunch of people talk about stuff they're passionate about. The problems Federation solves is the incentivizing and spotlighting of the sorts of toxic behavior we see on corporate social media.

You can just click "no thanks" to the subscription box, but I've copy-pasted the full guide (short version) here for you:

1. Download the Mastodon app from the Apple app store or Play store.

2. Create an account (just like Twitter or any other social media)

3. Follow people, and get posting.

Exactly. FTA:

"Trust and safety” departments are kinda like “Human Resources” departments. They exist to help the company avoid expensive lawsuits and expensive PR blunders. These departments, I assume, are comprised of good-hearted people who care deeply about their work and the well being of others. But they are fighting a battle that the companies do not actually want to end.

My first reaction was that this excerpt reminds me of a piece I wrote two years ago called "The Airbnb-ification of the arts", about how artists looking to make a career out of art are forced to cater to an algorithm that favors comfortable predictability over depth or uniqueness. My essay was heavily inspired by Kyle Chayka's famous 2016 essay "Welcome to Airspace".

Jokes on me for not reading the byline because it turns out Kyle wrote the book this excerpt is from! lol good for him. Looking forward to reading it.

I'm curious to know if he has a presence on Mastodon or any other Social Web apps, he's a really great writer I'd like to follow.

Any civility rule that is enforced with greater priority than (or in the absence of) a “no bigotry” rule serves only to protect bigots from decent people.

There's a saying I think about a lot that goes "The problem with rules is that good people don't need 'em, and bad people will find a way around 'em".

The best thing about human volunteer mods vs automated tools or paid "trust and safety" teams, IMO, is that volunteer humans can better identify when someone is participating in the spirit of a community, because the mods themselves are usually members of the community too.

Yep. "Slowly, then all at once".

Personally, I think once the journalists and news orgs (finally) get on board, that will inspire government agencies to make the change, and that will be the true tipping point away from 𝕏.

Something I think about a lot is how the "hipster" movement in the early 2000s was extremely anti- consumer culture. They were building easy to repair "fixie" bikes instead of driving cars, they were brewing their own beer and buying/mending clothes they bought second hand. They were moving to abandoned factory loft apartments in similarly abandoned urban areas.

Then, the artists living in lofts, making zines and and knitting sweaters got priced out. And now in pop culture the term "hipster" has largely replaced "yuppie" to mean an elitist, snobby, and extremely pro consumer culture sort of person, which is basically the opposite of what the young people in the early 2000s were doing. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I have to imagine that the big corps saw the movement as a threat, and did an classic rebrand on them, like car companies did with the minivan to sell more SUVs.

No, it does. Sign up is extremely straightforward now. All things involving federation are essentially optional on the official app.

I personally wouldn't judge any Yankees fan living in Boston who chooses to remain closeted about their allegiances and only discusses sports online.

Wow, I've never heard music with such a stunning lack of soul before! 10/10 I bought every album.

Yeah. People should have a right to speak their mind, but on the Fediverse nobody is forced to listen and therein lies the difference, IMO.

If a Fediverse instance grew so big that it couldn't moderate itself and had a lot of spam/Nazis, presumably other instances would just defederate, yeah? Unless an instance is ad-supported, what's the incentive to grow beyond one's ability to stay under control?

It's literally in the article lol

I do my writing there and I am still on the fence, haha, it's probably going to be "enshittified" one day, but it certainly isn't yet.

Yes! Thank you. I tried to be careful with my wording and I'm glad it came through. Facebook is not "over", neither is Twitter or shopping malls. But they're not what they were and the reason they're not what they were (I feel) really comes down to corporate incentives. Something I found really interesting to learn these past weeks is that Twitter and Reddit are not profitable, which kinda implies that the business model may not really work on that scale. Maybe Steve Huffman isn't a greedy monster, it's possible he's between a rock and a hard place with profitability.

Which if that's the case, it kind of implies that open source/Fediverse-style social media might actually be the most sustainable kind, as weirdly structured as it is.

I fear if these federated systems do grow popular enough

If an instance did grow "too big to moderate", it would surely be defederated from, yeah? I'm struggling to think of a situation where responsible admins from well-moderated instances would willingly subject their users to spammers from an instance (no matter how big) that can't control itself.

Yeah, unless whoever is paying for it stops funding it or something dramatic happens, I can't imagine there will be a "Digg v4" day where everyone just decides to leave. I'm sure it'll be around a while, but I do think Reddit has peaked in terms of it's cultural relevancy.

You are most welcome!

If it's still too complicated for someone after reading this I think it's safe to say they're a lost cause

Thank you! Your comment really made me smile (I am the author btw).

The success metric is a vibrant, happy community, not MAUs or engagement numbers, so they make decisions accordingly.

YES well said. An instance is measured by it's quality, not it's profitability.

It’s like telling someone with a shitty landlord to move to a new free house which they get to own

I actually did jump into the replies and went back and forth with him a bit and I do think he (finally) understood the FOSS perspective. I think a lot of people get very hung up on this concept of a customer-product relationship and for some people it's a very hard mindset to break out of. I often forget that while "FOSS" is software, the "free software movement" is not really about software, it's political.

The feedback loop is the most disturbing part, IMO. You have an algorithm deciding what gets popular, which means creatives hoping to be financially sustainable have to cater to it to some degree, which reinforces the algorithm and removes a little bit of uniqueness from society.

Creative people have always had to consider"what sells" to some degree if they want to make money from their effort, but we've gone beyond artists making "art with some degrees of marketability" into making products called "art" with little of the emotional/intellectual "challenge' that comes with unique works.

For sure, they also don't congregate in Williamsburg much anymore.

Very well said all around, (and in many fewer words than it took me) I may actually quote you in the future! Hadn't seen that 2018(!) Esquire article before today either. Kind of sad "Twitter without Nazis" wasn't a more compelling selling point. Just speaks to the power of network effects, I suppose.

Thanks lol

This... is actually a great idea. Memes should be fun. If they're not, that's probably a sign I should put the phone down.

When I read comments on Reddit I often see a lot of frustrated and burned out people with short tempers who might not have someone IRL who will listen to them vent. Like you said it makes sense, but that doesn't make it any better.

What makes me optimistic about decentralized social media is that the communities are (hopefully) small and varied enough where mods and admins can keep an eye on everything much easier, and step in an say "Hey, you're not being nice right now" when someone isn't. It's one thing for communities to have rules, but you can't make enough rules to maintain a culture of amicability. We ultimately need humans for that.

Yes my thoughts exactly. When email was too confusing ISPs included it pre-configured as a perk initially and Gmail came later.

My feelings in regards to social media are stop the bleeding first, remove society's dependence on X, Meta, and other for-profit platforms. Then we can worry about educating "normal" people on Federation, ActivityPub, etc.

Eh, what you've identified as the thesis is actually just a butt-covering footnote to prevent Reddit-style "ackchually" comments. When I wrote it I was still submitting posts to Reddit. I guess that's on me for assuming the central point was more obvious.