@davidtoddmccarty @sysop408 That's not being argumentative, that's a very important observation!

But it's clear that these are steps in the right direction, and I think ActivityPub has the potential to be the killer app for the Server-in-a-Box normalization.

[Well, AP would be the ”killer protocol”, could Mastodon be the killer app?]

Just my 2c, interesting convo 👍

Yes, and thank you for articulating this.

'with ten thousand server administrators who donate their time for user safety'. I'm regularly grateful for the fact that complete strangers, individual private people, all around the world, voluntarily run, maintain and moderate instances and servers on behalf of other individual private people. Both figuratively and literally, we can't put a price on the human-sized not-for-profit social media space they have created.

yes to this!

Regarding safety, I’m on a moderation team for one of the biggest Mastodon servers. We donate a lot of time to the cause, but there is a return.

The world feels unsafe and sorrowful. It’s so empowering to have some level of control as part of a moderation team. We get to protect ourselves and others. What a gift.

Sensitive content Click to open/close

with no ads, even without ad blockers!
With no engagement-reinforcing force-feeding of content
with no arbitrary rules that only exist to keep the platform "advertisable" (there are still arbitrary rules, though 😅)

just wanted to extend your list by some additional noteworthy selling points

@DJGummikuh It would be nice if we could come up with language that captures the difference between ads and “posts that someone paid to place on timeline”.

There are ads on Mastodon, such as the artists who post to promote their work or services for sale. They are generally a good thing because you only see them under the same circumstances that you see any post.

But there are no posts that are forced onto your timeline.

@macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh
I call it self promotion. I engage in a bit of self promotion here, although the things I promote don't involve money changing hands. Fedi accounts that only exist to promote a substack account are a bit of a pet pet peeve, and I tend not to boost, but I coexist without complaint with advertising that is not of a "pay to play" nature.

Even in the commercial web, I don't ad block, but I do tracker block (with Privacy Badge) and of course I get accused of ad blocking by the ad blocker blockers. THAT business model makes me vomit.

@n8chz @macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh The first post is self promotional but boosts are just advertising. I think the main difference currently is that there’s no money (or other tangible incentive) changing hands.

That’s not guaranteed though. If someone collects a hundred thousand followers on Mastodon, companies are likely to start asking them to boost posts in exchange for enticements. The only differences between that and something like LinkedIn are that the reach is limited to people who follow the big account and the money goes to the person who did the boost (who is, at least, explicitly linking their reputation to it) and not the platform.

Nothing in the Fediverse is intrinsically immune to advertising, though being able to flag accounts as spam and have them blocked (and possibly their instances if they fill up with marketing drones) may help.

@david_chisnall @macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh
Boosts are indeed advertising, which is why when stuff is seriously morally reprehensible such as Nazi shit we go out of our way to avoid signal boosting it.

In less sinister cases I think most of us are constantly amplifying (boosting) signal and attenuating (muting) noise, and the effects are synergistic, and more effective as a "relevance" filter than any "algorithm."