Just because someone specializes in something you don’t like doesn’t mean they’re some kind of villain.
A lawyer specializes in advising and defending AI model creators? Tough titties: somebody has to do that job, and everyone deserves representation in a court of law. It’s better if someone specializes and knows the ins and outs.
A former Twitter cofounder did business as an angel investor and maybe some VC stuff? Okay, in what capacity? A guy who has repeatedly started companies giving his insights to new startups doesn’t have to be this malicious, predatory thing.
But no, half of you hear “Masto board has Twitter guy and AI/Blockchain bro”, and the community immediately erupts into hysterics while doing exactly zero research on any of these people.
The biggest threat to this space isn’t a board of directors, and it isn’t Threads. The biggest threat is a form of Mastodon that refuses to participate in the FEP standardization process, and drags its feet on adopting innovative ideas other platforms implement. A de facto standard is only good if it doesn’t impede progress!
If better development and participation in the wider community is enabled by better and more direct routes to funding, I’m in favor of it.
@atomicpoet It’s not exactly that simple, companies can still do wildly problematic things. However, the work could hypothetically still stand on its own.
In the situation being discussed, this is more about framing the discussion about people who may have perfectly good intentions and motivations for participation. Maybe they’ve even done great work in the past. But, the collective fact-checking ability here is severely hampered.
People hear a couple of labels they don’t like, pick up some anecdotes that agree with their biases, and will boost some half-assed opinion all around the network without even bothering to look into it.
@deadsuperhero I think people are sensitive because they're annoyed at what happened to Twitter or corporate social media in general and feel victimized from it
They also have been trained over many years to behave like this
It’s also really telling to see people who couldn’t code their way out of a paper bag demand a hard fork. Like, really, are you going to be the one to lead the charge?
Do you not even remember how well that went the last time this happened, with #ForkOff? Or that the half dozen Masto forks out there are spread kind of thin?
@deadsuperhero Not saying they are villains. But I honestly think we need more explanation here. A good chunk of people around this place treat VC and AI stuff as a toxic asset and the eyebrows that are raised tend to be the same which were raised regarding Threads federation. I actually thought that the Threads FAQ was a good one, so I suggested same type of explainer is released in this case.
@berniethewordsmith yeah, I saw that and thought it was reasonable! They probably could’ve done a better job of explaining things, and that probably would’ve helped some. But, many of the replies are crap regardless.
@deadsuperhero Anyways, the good thing about Fedi is that its nature will not allow market destruction. There is a W3C standard here and enough software for everyone to go to their preferred place. I also thing that most of the reactions come from a place of love, not of destruction. Many people think this place is better than others, and will be very vocal if they feel any threat. Explanations are vital. Which by the way makes the works of folks like WeDistribute very important ⭐
@deadsuperhero For what it's worth, I don't think it's really ideal to say "shut up unless you can code". Forgejo started as a fork of principles first, and code second.
But what feels really silly is that the driver here is not bad behavior but baseless speculation of bad behavior.
I noticed the general negative Fedi sentiments as well, and formulated a bit cryptic and philosophical toot (where there's no relationship to the case anymore).
Add comment