#Barcelona, #Meta's Twitter competitor, will be ready by summer.
And lest you believe #ActivityPub integration was just some rumour, think again. In a slide, Meta confirms that Barcelona will indeed be decentralized and will be compatible with Mastodon.
Everyone who thought that AT protocol would easily win over ActivityPub, and that #Bluesky would kill Mastodon just because a few influencers joined doesn't understand the sheer marketing power and pull that Meta has at its disposal.
But believe me, I'm not exactly cheering on Meta here. Generally, where Meta goes, shenanigans happen. I simply don't think Meta is capable of releasing a product without dark patterns.
Nevertheless, I don't think the Fediverse is even close to preparing for what will happen once Barcelona starts federating.
I do believe more #mastodon users should use #BlueSky there’s a lot that the team and users in general can learn from those in the #fediverse and clear up misconceptions
I have re-read the magnificent article by @kissane, titled "Mastodon is easy and fun except when it isn’t". On Bluesky, she asked those people who had tried/used Mastodon and bounced off, what had led them to slow down or leave.
Couldn’t find people or interests, people didn’t stay
Too confusing, too much work, too intimidating
Too serious, too boring, anti-fun
Complicated high-stakes decisions
"I don’t know if Mastodon can grapple with the complexities of mass scale. Lots of people would prefer it didn’t—staying smaller and lower-profile makes it friendly to amateur experimentation and also a lot safer for people who need to evade various kinds of persecution. But if Mastodon and other fedi projects do take on the mass scale, their developers must consider the needs of people who aren’t already converts. That starts by asking a lot of questions and then listening closely and receptively to the answers you receive."
For many parts I agree. But despite everything, Mastodon/Fediverse is still the best place to be on social media. Let's make this even better. We have the power. #Mastodon#OpenSource#Fediverse#Bluesky#BlueskySocial
Musk is indeed a dictator of one. And as much as I love Mastodon, the train left the station & it missed it. And without the equity of a mover like the EU or the US govt, it's sadly never going to pull in users to attain critical mass.
Point blank, a mass Fediblock isn't going to work with #Meta.
The cold truth is that people will use #Barcelona whether it federates or not. Even if it fails, Barcelona will probably have more users out of the gate than almost every project save Mastodon. Hell, it will probably eclipse #Bluesky too.
And even if you convince every server to defederate -- which you won't -- this will not be a PR coup for the Fediverse. Newspaper headlines won't blare "Fediverse successfully resists Meta." Instead, they will probably follow @gruber take with "Open source zealots complain that an open protocol is open."
Again, as I've said countless times, I'm not saying you should federate with Barcelona or any Meta-owned property. If you want, defederate. The joy of the Fediverse is freedom of association.
But a mass Fediblock doesn't solve a few important problems with Meta, and perhaps makes them worse.
The most critical problem is that Meta users need to migrate away from Meta-owned social networks. Until now, a migration path has simply been unfeasible to most. But when Barcelona gets launched, it is possible that many of them will become aware of a greater Fediverse.
How to build that awareness? By interacting with them through services beyond Barcelona.
This approach works. I've interacted with many Mastodon users through services beyond Mastodon, and this has resulted in adoption of other Fediverse software. #Calckey is a case in point.
However, there's a bigger problem concerning Meta: Fediverse replacements for Meta-owned social networks aren't getting mass adoption. And it's not because these apps aren't good.
#Pixelfed is an #Instagram replacement. It is also one of the slickest apps on the Fediverse. Yet, Pixelfed only has 150,000 registered accounts.
#Friendica is a #Facebook replacement. It's been around since 2010. It is a mature product that does many things very well, but Friendica only has 17,000 registered accounts.
The software is great but we are failing to effectively market the Fediverse beyond Mastodon. Now I'm trying my darnedest to change this, and so are many people. But facts are facts. Fediverse alternatives to Meta are a blip on the radar.
Refusing to federate with Barcelona won't change this. How do I know?
Because we don't federate now, and the status quo remains intact.
Meanwhile, Meta is practically gifting Pixelfed and Friendica an opportunity for federation, and it would be foolish to not consider broader implications.
How is it that more people aren't considering this opportunity?
Dare I say that most people -- including devs -- suffer from myopia concerning what the Fediverse is. The Fediverse is not Mastodon, and it is wrong to view the Fediverse solely through the eyes of Mastodon.
And I'll go further: by focusing Barcelona on text, I suspect that Meta is likewise making the same mistake of viewing the Fediverse as a "Twitter killer".
What they may not be considering is that the Fediverse might be a "Meta killer" too. And connecting Barcelona to the Fediverse is opening a can of worms Meta hasn't entirely considered yet.
If Barcelona is indeed text-based, what will happen when a Barcelona user encounters Pixelfed and asks, "Why does this post show reels? And why can't I do the same?"
Believe me, this is the kind of content that triggers migration.
We need to think bigger than Fediblock. Yes, for your own mental health and safety, you may not want to federate with Barcelona. However, there needs to also be a means for Barcelona users to encounter content outside Barcelona.
Perhaps there needs to be "lobby" servers that help Barcelona users enter the greater Fediverse -- helping them make the switch beyond Meta.
#BlueSky and #Fediverse developers could learn a lot from each other: right now it feels like they could learn a lot from here on moderation…but seeing their new “anyone can create and use and share their own algorithm” - that’s great and Fedi should immediately learn from, implement and improve on that idea…
It’s approximately one year since the peak of the enshittification of Twitter and the big Mastodon influx. Let’s ask again: What is your main microblogging platform? Boosts welcome.
As Big Tech smells blood in the water and starts circling around #Twitter’s floating corpse, I’m perplexed and angry that #Mastodon still gets dismissed as something that is ‘too complicated’ or ‘doesn’t work’ - seen this recently from tech savvy friends and in a Guardian article. Why?? It obviously DOES work, and doesn’t feel very complicated to me. But people are going to be pushed towards #Threads & #BlueSky, perpetuating the problem.
#Bluesky now allows you to “choose your own algorithm”.
Which sounds “incredible” and “sci-fi”—but it really isn’t.
What it essentially does is give a Twitter-like service Reddit-like features.
As an aside, now I’m wondering why Reddit doesn’t offer an alternative web front-end to make it more Twitter-like!
But how does this apply to the #ActivityPub flavour of the #Fediverse? This feature now makes me realize how big a deal Fediverse groups are going to be, and if I were @Gargron, I’d be even more excited about rolling out Mastodon’s group functionality.
Because while groups aren’t exactly relevancy algorithms, once you add a “New”, “Hot”, “Best”, etc. feed to groups, now you’re in business.
I don’t know if choosing your own algorithm is the killer feature that Bluesky thinks it is. My experience is that most people hate choice. Nevertheless, I still thinks it’s important.
En av poängerna – på gott och ont – med #Twitter/#X har varit att det är en (påstådd!) spegling av det offentliga samtalet. Den "spegelbilden" blir som bekant alltmer falsk och förvrängd, men inläggen har iallafall kunnat läsas av icke-medlemmar. #Bluesky känns hittills mer som en engelsk privatklubb. #Mastodon är som ett mysigt kafé eller bar där folk från olika samhällsklasser möts. Men (än) är det inte stället där man får en bild av vad som sker "på gatan" innan det publiceras i stora medier.
@TiiaMaija ei mainitse Mastodonia tai fediversumia ollenkaan Kansan Uutisten #Bluesky-aiheisessa jutussaan. On se kumma, kun ei vasemmistolaisia tunnu kiinnostavan tuotantovälineiden haltuunotto, kun siihen kerrankin olisi tilaisuus.
Constantly hearing ”got tired of Mastodon’s technicalities, Bluesky is simple and amazing”.
How we could design Mastodon to be more simple and have less technical-feel to it? UI is one thing, but that will not cut it all. I have probably said this before, but I am starting to believe no matter what we do we can’t ”win”. The narrative might need to change. 🤷♂️
”Se on hirveän vaikea yhtälö kaikille ilmaispalveluille. Massan ylläpito maksaa, mutta jos palvelua yrittää monetisoida, tulee näitä ongelmia, jotka tuhoavat sen idean ja käytettävyyden”, Järvinen pohtii.
”X:ssä on edelleen niitä kultahippuja, joiden takia sitä haluaa käyttää. Bluesky tuntuu samalta kuin Twitter viisi vuotta sitten, siellä on vain vähemmän käyttäjiä. Mastodonissa käyttöönoton kynnys oli erilaisen rakenteen vuoksi aika korkea.”
Tämä on se kuva mitä maalataan. Bluesky parempi ja helppo, Mastodon vaikea.
Alright, it looks like #Bluesky is becoming Normie Mastodon, so I’ll have to actually use that account. I’m not leaving this place but I would like a good bridge, which I think already is in the works but does anyone have any details for people that might want to cross post?