Embrace: Look, we've launched a shiny new Twitter clone!
It's not an empty new social platform, like Google Plus was. You can already access all the content on Mastodon and all the other ActivityPub-based platforms!
We've seen the light! We now embrace open networks!
And it's so simple!
All you people who wanted to switch to Mastodon, but freaked out when you read the word "server" and thought it was too complicated for you, no fear! We've done away with the confusing choice for you! It's a super simple UX!
Extend: Our shiny new Twitter clone now integrates seamlessly with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more! You can even get notifications in Horizon Worlds!
Oh, we're not integrating our other platforms to ActivityPub. If you want one easy platform for Meta's social media platforms and ActivityPub, our Twitter clone is your only choice!
To advertisers and media, we'll let you boost posts too, for a tiny fee!
We'll feature you prominently on our new algorithmic feed.
So don't bother spinning up your own Masto instance, join us instead!
Extinguish: As of 1 July, we are depreciating support for ActivityPub.
Also, effective immediately, our privacy terms have been updated. You won't believe what we hid on page 76.
@ajsadauskas In this setting, it seems to me that the worst outcome is that Mastodon and the fediverse will... keep being like today, isn't? I mean: a niche social media platform for very conscious activists of various causes, while the rest of the people is in big corporate social media. And that is the WORST outcome. At the same time, it does exist the possibility of a lot of people knowing for the first time how it is to be in the fediverse. I think this is not a small thing.
Social media is social. On X it is pretty hard to be social when you have to pay for it (literally and figuratively).
On Mastodon everything you do is social. Likes have no meaning other than for good spirits, so people have a conversation mindset. Boosts have a large meaning, they are the only algorithm, so people are boosting with low bar.
On Bsky/Threads everything is mostly built on likes. People rarely re-share anything too ordinary, posts have to be EXCEPTIONAL to get shares or comments.
This is why I believe in open protocols over commercial war machines.
For me:
If I hit that star it is because i found the information valuable or I liked it.
If I hit the boost; it is because i want the post on my timeline.
I think that I am a little different because i am making my timeline for me and basically only for me. I know my boost gets that information out to other people too and I hope that is helpful in the educating way.
But if I boost your post it goes directly to my timeline. If I like your post, I'm basically giving you applause for posting something that I wanted to see.
@rolle And we can say something to each other, for no meaning other than communication.
We don’t have to calculate in our heads what the algorithm would prefer us to say.
It’s a sneaky world to be performing for a nonhuman AI judge. It starts to be in the air, you start not noticing. You start putting on a mask. We do that naturally. But putting on a mask for a machine?
"Everyone (myself included) who is still on Twitter has some hard questions to ask themselves. There is no pretending any more that Twitter is anything other than a far-right social network headed by a CEO who revels in chaos and is platforming extremism. So why are news organisations still on it? Why is anyone who considers themselves to have liberal values still on it?"
Latest #Reddit news (basically charging a ridiculous price that makes 3rd party apps non-viable) serves as yet another reminder of why Mastodon and the #Fediverse are beautiful!
Even if someone wants to ruin things, you can always change instances/apps/defederate and keep using this tool, it’s not in the hands of anyone.
If you have #SocialMedia and #marketting experience and are looking for #remote work, the #nonprofit I work for is looking for someone, contract to start. Preference given to someone #disabled in some way. I'd love to have someone take this that's familiar with Mastodon.
So, open message: if you're from #Meta and you are working on this #P92 service, you should contact the #W3C#SocialCG to work on compatibility with #ActivityPub.
We're excited about your project and we're here to help.
@evan This seems like the most constructive approach to me (though clearly there's absolutely no consensus around all of this, a lot of competing desires and a lot of fear of change...though I'm not sure how people think they can stop an open protocol from evolving and changing, other than building a wall around their own garden, which is fine if what someone really wants is a closed web experience, which may be entirely appropriate in some cases!).
@iuculano That's an abridged version of a quote from a 1940 essay. Longer version: "The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other. This technique is as old as the hills; it was practiced in almost every Greek city, and the moderns have only enlarged its scale."
Last year we released a statement in which we said we will continue “to monitor changes at Twitter in conjunction with internal discussions about whether our presence on the platform will continue.”
We now announce that as of today, 20 October 2023, all our #socialmedia engagements will be from this Mastodon account, as well as LinkedIn and YouTube, and none from our 5 #Twitter / X accounts.
@Ddiamond "Being on Twitter at this point has the feel of that scene in “Inception” where Leonardo DiCaprio and Elliot Page are rambling through limbo, the unconstructed space in DiCaprio’s mind.", "More specifically, it has the feeling of that region as — spoiler alert, I guess? — the space begins to crumble. Huge chunks of buildings are falling, the whole thing is rushing toward a state of rubble.", https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596b02b6ade4e24119ac1a18&s=643aaea753816d1ce0a29de9&linknum=5&linktot=66
@Ddiamond I think you may well find that the fediverse has more to offer than twitter ever did. And the quality and liveliness of the conversations we have going here is the under-reported story of the year. I expected a downgrade when moving some months ago. I was willing to take it: but I got an upgrade instead.
If this place had quote tweets? it’d be basically perfect. More and more people are catching on.
Do NOT, under any circumstances, link to any of the websites listed here!
"You may not provide a link to this website from any other website without first obtaining Associated’s prior written consent."
"You may only link to our Web site or mobile application with Our express written permission."
"Users may not link any other website to the Website without obtaining the prior written consent of Office of His Majesty’s Coroner for the City of Sunderland."
@stefan@drwalk the way that i would read it is that linking fpr expressly commercial reasons is legal, which would indicate that linking for non-commercial reasons is even more protected.
So, who knows, maybe something like a Truth Social walled garden based on ActivityPub, that scrapes user info from the Fediverse and gives you a one button sign up to Threads.
Seems they are more scared of their users getting a taste of freedom and escaping to the Fediverse, but again, who knows. 🤷
Point is, we don't know what they are up to, and until we do we should save our powder, have faith in each other, and continue building out this great platform.
@jynersolives@BlackAzizAnansi One thing you can be certain of, is that tech reporters rarely understand what they are talking about. This is what makes them so useful to corporate marketing communications campaigns. We are going to be seeing a lot of nonsensical BS over the next days and weeks. Best not to get too spun up about anything. As the old adage goes, "watch what they do, not what they say."