Today was a huge milestone in our quest to federate #Flipboard and tear down the walls around our own walled garden.
First, we launched a new version of Flipboard for iOS and Android which brings the promise of two way federation to life. Now when a federated Flipboard user curates, people in the fediverse can reply, favorite, boost or follow those Flipboard users who will in turn see that activity in their usual notifications tab. Even better, Flipboard users can directly reply to people in the fediverse -- and very soon they will also be able to follow each other.
Second, we federated some of our best curators today who are actively curating more than 10,000 magazines about everything from climate change to kale smoothie recipes. I'm grateful to our many curators and the service they provide to so many others who want to find the best content about a shared interest. I know our curators are excited to have millions more people who could potentially benefit from their curation. I also know that people in the fediverse will give a warm welcome to these curators. Especially now that everyone can hear and talk to each other over what was once two totally separate networks but now increasingly are in one and the same #fediverse.
Chief problems for me are the fact they gather and store data of non-users, they gather location data, they sell that to third-parties for reasons not related to their service, they buy data about you from third-parties, they force binding arbitration, they limit liability to ludicrous levels.
@zdl@zdl I really appreciate your concerns here. Frankly, our Flipboard TOS are overly broad and conservative. They are also primarily driven by our current integration with Google ad manager which is no different than any other app or publisher who runs ads these days. I hate it and we are working to change this ASAP.
But in the meantime I can personally assure you that we A) never sell user data to anyone B) we never collect data for non-flipboard users C) location data is only used when volunteered by users in order to find local news/events nearby and D) any data we have from existing flipboard users is treated with the highest level of respect and confidentiality.
It's our user's data. Not ours. We're privileged to serve our users and we will continue to uphold their privacy no matter what. We'll do our best to make this a lot more clear in the Flipboard TOS soon.
@ToSDR@zdl So cool that you guys are dedicated to ToS. These have been a catch all and CYA that I don't think have had enough attention in the past. I think what you're doing is helpful to change that. I'm meeting with my team tomorrow to make changes based on feedback from the community.
@mike@ToSDR I'm not particularly dedicated to ToS. (That's more ToS;DR's schtick.) I'm just tired of the corporatization of the Internet and its attendant assumptions that people will cheerfully give up all their data (yet the intent to take it is well-concealed behind walls of legalese).
Be up-front and clear about what, SPECIFICALLY, the cost is for your service. ALL the costs. Including privacy. That's all I ask for. The only true consent is informed consent. Anything else is not.
it's so rare and refreshing to see a company leader simply acknowledge a complaint, let alone admit the complications that underlie it, and what to speak of prioritizing its resolution. if only i had a nickel for every time customer service pissed me off even worse with legalistic double-speak, instead of giving me that i really wanted: empathy and understanding. thank you for being a Real Human!
@RubyTuesdayDONO Hah. I so appreciate that Jobu. I too have been on the receiving end of that same double-speak you speak of and it sucks.
Building a business unfortunately comes with lots of complex CYA language from well intentioned (and well paid!) attorneys. Figuring out how to moderate all that and balance the real risks vs the made up risks is hard but important, especially now that some companies have totally taken advantage of their users' trust by hiding behind a lot of that same language.
I hope we can do better and set a higher bar for other companies who come to the fediverse.
@sordid I personally think it's incredibly important for the future of the fediverse/social web to be truly open by default. This means not building walls for fear or profit.
I know this is a bit controversial but I think we should be more focused on tearing down walls rather than building new ones. And I think this principle should be upheld for Threads given that @potus and many others are federating from there as we speak. This is a huge win for the open social web.
Having said that, we will certainly have to continually reinforce protections and moderation in the fediverse because there will be plenty of bad actors and users. Just like any other thriving social network, there will be lots of threat vectors that we will need to address as we grow.
Fortunately I think there are a number of smart, surgical ways of doing this without having to wall off 200 million users from the fediverse, most of whom are well intentioned and will be a hugely positive addition to the vision so many here have been working toward for years.
@mike I experimented with flipboard a decade ago, saw the promise but really never got into it. It is really great to see you now leading the way and federating on every level. This is the way, love it!
@mike 10 years ago I made some festival magazines in Flipboard by combining sources. I rarely used an ipad after, so it wasn’t really missing features.
@dansup Thanks Dan! Next up is finishing our #activitypub integration such that all Flipboard users can follow anyone on Pixelfed. I can't wait to feature your best users to ours.
@bart Thanks Bart! I always recommend Mammoth to people who want to see what their newly federated account looks like in Mastodon. You guys have done a great job.
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