maegul

maegul, 4 months ago

@danluu

To steal some headline I saw somewhere recently (honestly can't remeber ... doom-scroll brain fog).

"The IBM-ification of FAANG"

maegul, 2 months ago

@nadiaalbelushi

I think you're on to something. Though I'm not sure the platform is as intrinsically toxic as you say (as in they have followers reverse-chron as the default too).

Hashtags are new there so it might take some time for that to complement the feeds thing, which I think is a generally decent idea that probably needs to mature along with the moderation system, as there's clearly some gaps in the interaction there.

maegul, 2 months ago

@nadiaalbelushi

Otherwise, I think there's something to be said (obviously) for the more "social" structure on the fedi, and the apparent lack of "vibes" on bsky. I've said it there, but for a funded platform they should probably get worried soon about the lack of user growth and engagement.

The Fedi is in a similar boat, where alternative social media has run its course (for now).

The fedi is all indie and happy, but bsky is dancing with funding + costs, which must be anxious for devs.

maegul, 2 months ago

@nadiaalbelushi
> They ought to embrace ActivityPub IMO.
Well their protocol is their focus, so I doubt that's going to happen. But embracing a bridge to AP would be interesting (though again unlikely as it'd probably disturb any monetisation plans they have).

Truth is, I suspect, that bsky dying (which is a 50/50 for me) would probably be a net negative for alternative social media. I think bsky lives/dies on 3rd pty devs. If they don't show, then the whole movement might be in trouble.

maegul, 1 month ago

@Loukas @fediverse

Agreed (and said the same myself)!

As I've said it ... alternative social has run its course in this post-musk-twitter moment. Everyone's settled down where they ended up.

And yea, either more major disruption or some new killer features (rather than clones of big social) will be needed to shake things up. Neither seem particularly likely in the short term ... your EU-meta smackdown is probably the best bet??

maegul, 1 month ago

@atomicpoet

There may be a large overlap between those interested in other platforms/self-hosting/akkoma and those who use deck UIs ... basically "power" (more likely obsessive/fussy) users.

maegul, 3 months ago

In this alternative social media moment, I wonder how much of a movement there is, which would require IMO a coherent set of motives and beliefs widely held amongst participants.

Instead I wonder if there’s a good deal of myth making, platform hopping, novelty chasing and incoherent motives/beliefs.

I wonder if alternative social media is a movement at all, and if it is, whether it registers at all with outsiders as to what it is about so as to invite newcomers.

maegul, 3 months ago

I also wonder if the great incoherence at the root may be a disjunct between techno-capital motives and social motives … with techno-capital motives reigning supreme and baffled by the indifference of those with chiefly social motives … with big social media being perhaps the wrong place to care about and act on techno-capital issues.

maegul, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

In about 6 months time, we’re going to be 2 years since the Twitter migration, and able to take stock after a raft of elections, a Reddit enshitification and continuous musk and zuck activity. Where will we be?

For me, I’ll imagine the primary outcome will be to have forced a number of people to wonder what the point of alternative social media is while appeasing nerds and helping some marginalised people.

And I’m not sure “we” have a good answer without the founding myths.

maegul, 4 months ago

@ninokadic

IMO, the #fedi, in the short-medium term at least, will be a "niche", and won't "beat twitter" or "take back the web".

Which is great!

Online niche's are great, we should have more of those!

But we also shouldn't pretend that the "public square" isn't a thing people like and find useful.

So let's accept hybridisation and make the fediverse good at what it does/should-do best (IMO, closely knit community building) and accept that many will also be on threads/twitter.

maegul, 4 months ago

@hbuchel

My impression is that so much of it is all still out there. Recently found out that the go to place for talking about electric guitar gear is an old school forum running since ~2010. Everyone else on reddit/FB etc, if they're serious, know that that's the place for canonical information and conversations.

It's a little bit of a distorted reality mind virus this whole Twitter "platform that has everyone on it" thing. Just not true, never was, it was always a bubble.

maegul, 3 months ago

@cian yea ... there was some concern bubbling up around here that AI is going to eventually take down wikipedia as the last great bastion of the open web, prompted by some AI rubbish appearing as a citation.

My personal response was that wikipedia, however wonderfully good it is and emblematic of what the open web is capable of, is fundamentally just a part of the open web, not a "bastion", with many many holes in it once you care about quality information.
IE To keep WP, have a good open web

maegul, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Beyond having compatible UIs (which is tough if you're aiming for something relatively universal), there's then the issue of feed management.

The more that's pumped into your feed the more you need to filter and separate it out. That's a big UI challenge fediverse platforms don't seem up to either and which is generally tough. Not to mention that separate platforms or "spaces" actually become a feature here for helping one's feed management, as annoying as all the apps can be.

6/

maegul, 1 month ago

Presuming that a platform is a suitable "master" UI for everything looks to break this utility of platforms and online "spaces".

Moreover, mistaking that a "master platform" is possible for the promise of the fediverse may very well be dangerous if people embrace it with enthusiasm and hype to then be disappointed at how it doesn't work well and then question the value of decentralisation.

And I think that's important because federation doesn't guarantee a good UI. Probably the opposite.

4/

maegul, 1 month ago

The first thing it misses, I think, is that platforms naturally develop vibes and cultures and that many naturally learn to match a particular activity and persona to a particular platform/vibe.

Along those lines, it would completely make sense for people to be a bit silly and shitpost-y on mastodon and then more academic over on a blogging platform.

One could even argue that this isn't just natural but healthy, where more focused vibes create more coherent interaction.

3/

maegul, 1 month ago

I feel like this might be mistakenly conflating the strength of the diversity of the fediverse with the convenience of using a single platform or UI for "everything".

I don't think the former necessitates the latter. Moreover, I suspect that the former is suppressed by the latter. Feeding blogs, groups and forums, microblogs, video+audio platforms etc all into a single twitter-like UI/platform ... seems like maybe a bad idea.

2/

maegul, 1 month ago

We've seen this already with the integration between the threadiverse (lemmy etc) and mastodon/microblogs.

It basically sucks because the platforms are fundamentally incompatible despite how close the protocol brings them together.

Incompatible platforms don't work together.

Federation and the protocol don't change that. People will just reroute around UI friction and basically ignore whatever federation is offering if its UI sucks. The lively app+frontend development indicates the same.

5/