[1] https://fosstodon.org/@kev/110592625692688836
edit: More info here: https://wedistribute.org/2023/06/fedipact-blocking-meta/
If this rumor is real and Threads takes off, you can still stay in whichever instance that you like, but now be able to get updates from the artist, the experts, educators, politicians, the influencers that would not have joined the Fediverse otherwise. And more importantly, more people now can get updates from you. Reach might not be something you personally appreciate but it's very important for content creators.
Regardless, I'm predicting that if not for a cultural clash, many instances may de-federate due to the compute cost.
Then those content creators can set up their own (or pay someone else to do so) Fediverse instances. The Fediverse is decentralized on purpose to avoid the kinds of lock-in that FB/IG/etc. require.
I want no part of that, which is why I don't use such centralized services. As such, why should I allow those same centralized services run by greedy scumbags anywhere near my instance(s) or even my consciousness?
Can you provide me with a cogent argument as to why, after making the effort to get away from those toxic ad-riddled environments, I should welcome those same folks into my world? I imagine that could be an interesting discussion.
Now, I personally I think it's trying to swim up the waterfall & ultimately worse for everyone, but: Mastadon specifically has had a strong history of being anti-search, anti-scraping. You aren't supposed to be surveiling folks at industrial scale on the fediverse.
There's widespread skepticism about Meta respecting rules of the road. Having a huge giant shark join the pool of lots of little fish seems like a scary proposition. How we can still protect & have sovereignty over our different fedi-sites is a real question when there's a company with so much technical, economic, and popular leverages.
I'm honestly pretty skeptical about the fediverse aspect of Threads. It suggests that if I open a new fediverse instance and follow their accounts, I can suck in their timeline and do with it whatever I want. In particular, to bypass ads.
Hence, I could make a "best of Threads" fediverse instance without ads. Or maybe put my own ads on it.
Or, I could build my own client on top of the Threads instance.
None of this sounds very Meta to me.
Nobody outside of the HN crowd gives half a fluff about distributed social. They'll use the one that lets them interact with people they know. If that means they can talk cross-instance, sweet, they will. If they can't, Mastodon and ActivityPub in general continues to be a pain that the majority wont bother with.
If that's Mastodon's goal, fair enough. I think it's a bad goal.
But indeed, if the goal is to self sabotage and remain an irrelevant corner of misfits, all good.
That’s a pretty doubtful condition, especially if Threads becomes too successful for the Fediverse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...
> Fediverse users are already planning to boycott any instance
Though if this is true, yeah, I dislike that too. It should be individual admins’ choices.
I wager most Fediverse users aren't worried about this (at least speaking for myself). The status quo is 2 or 3 big private companies and a few thousand federated alternatives. If Meta betrays the community, things will go back to square one and core functionality of their app will start to falter. They need the community more than the community needs them.
Believe it or not, most Mastodon / Fediverse admins & users aren't interested in taking over the world and having a huge reach. They just want a nice community.
I do not plan to follow people who are excessively toxic or negative. If Threads launches, and 100% of its users are toxic, I will not follow anyone on Threads. But that seems unlikely to me.
Edit: I suppose it's true that people I don't follow can still reply to my posts. Idk, I suppose it's possible that federating with Threads would make my replies super toxic. But, like, let's see how the community develops first.
I have zero issue with Meta using ActivityPub, cause whatever they try, it makes them at least somewhat permeable in theory. I do have zero intention of interacting with them on any level though.
