Myth: The #Fediverse™ Is Decentralised™
I run my own #Mastodon instance just for myself. An instance of one. What does that mean on today’s fediverse?
It means I’m on mastodon.social.
What?
That makes no sense!
Let me explain:
Since I have my own instance, surely I decide who I follow and anyone can follow me, right?
Wrong.
For ~1M accounts, Eugen decides. If he blocks my instance, a large number of people who follow me today will no longer be able to.
So I may as well be on his server.
I run my own #Mastodon instance just for myself. An instance of one. What does that mean on today’s fediverse?
It means I’m on mastodon.social.
What?
That makes no sense!
Let me explain:
Since I have my own instance, surely I decide who I follow and anyone can follow me, right?
Wrong.
For ~1M accounts, Eugen decides. If he blocks my instance, a large number of people who follow me today will no longer be able to.
So I may as well be on his server.
Tio likes this.
reshared this
Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Look at how many of the people you interact with are on the handful of the largest servers and imagine that just those handful of servers blocked your server.
Come, let‘s take this further…
Apparently Facebook/Meta is “joining” the fediverse. How nice of them. Now imagine that the largest instance is run by Zuckerberg. (Or <insert your favourite Silicon Valley billionaire here>.)
Imagine they become large enough to do the same thing to mastodon.social…
Rokosun reshared this.
RhiMG
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Malevolent intentions will wreak havoc.
Jaime Soriano
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan reshared this.
J35T3R KRV5H
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •NBGAF style.. END IT !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62VjlkIg29Q
/// can happen again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i55dafZQvFA
WASTE OF SPACE (///) avion de basura! END IT from Baltimore is a great band///
YouTubeDave Winer ☕️
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Desikner
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •1. You block anything related to Meta. You exclude everyone that use Meta.
2. You do not block anything related to Meta. You welcome everyone that use Meta.
Meta will probably embrace, extend and extinguish whether you choose 1. or 2. that doesn't matter, but with choice 2. you at least will have some people who will be signing up with an instance not Meta.
Regardless of choice, you'll end up with 2 separate networks.
Gina B Fla
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Nico Jensen :fcsp2:
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •The task is not to demonize Meta for the fact that they come to the Fediverse, but the task is to ensure that those who come additionally to the Fediverse, also distribute themselves and not all go to Meta, because there is star A or Influencer B. And then at some point you no longer have the problem that 10% of the users fall away because an instance falls away (block or delete).
Crazy Pony
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Perhaps this instance here is already muted or blocked to reach the big servers, i dont know
Mark likes this.
Fabio Valentini
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Fabio Valentini • • •https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/
What is the Small Web?
Aral BalkanBrandon
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Nice thing about mastodon is that if you're not happy on one server, it's not much work to move. The popular vote will win here bc if any one instance owner does something the majority disagrees with, they will migrate elsewhere.
Of course, they might not. But that's democracy.
Do I like it? No, because it is a risk that the majority is objectively wrong or immoral. Do we have a choice? Probably not?
Mehrad :kde: :emacs: :rstats:
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Lets replace mastodon.social with gmail in your sentence: "If gmail blocks your domain, you might as well create an account on gmail"
Now, how does it look?
Michał "phoe" Herda
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •I hate Eugen's approach as much as you do, but please stop spreading FUD.
Fediverse Observer checks all servers in the fediverse and gives you an easy way to find a home using a map or list.
fediverse.observerAral Balkan
in reply to Michał "phoe" Herda • • •Let’s see in a year or two whether this was FUD or not.
I hope that unlike the web, XMPP, and email that this time, for some reason unbeknownst to me at this time, it will be different and I will have been wrong. Will be celebrating if that’s the case.
Michał "phoe" Herda
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •I've followed you for a while and I know your intentions are good, but making a conscious lie in an attempt to achieve your goals isn't going to work.
Aral Balkan
in reply to Michał "phoe" Herda • • •Seriously, fuck off.
Parade du Grotesque 💀
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Stop using Mastodon, the software, which is not very good and extremely resource-hungry, from what I understand.
Make the Fediverse truly decentralized again.
Aral Balkan
Unknown parent • • •(They have the power to control whether or not you reach a huge percentage of the people on the fediverse. So they’re not just moderating their own servers, they’re moderating the fediverse. The larger they or others get, the more pronounced that effect will be. It’s about power differentials.)
m@thias.hellqui.st :verified-skull: likes this.
m@thias.hellqui.st :verified-skull: reshared this.
CartyBoston
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •I *just* need to be comfortable with my choice of moderators not everyone else's.
(my moderator is me, it's a privilege and I will figure out how to contribute to the community as a result)
Aral Balkan
Unknown parent • • •Gustavo
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
Unknown parent • • •ራስ ባሪያው Rass Bariaw
Unknown parent • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to ራስ ባሪያው Rass Bariaw • • •https://social.vlekken.net/users/joeri
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Jaime Herazo
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •So.
Fucking.
What?
None of us is here chasing big follower numbers or any of the big social media games, we're here to communicate with people. We lose a bunch of followers and are unable to connect to that big instance, we just carry on, the Fediverse becomes temporarily smaller, then carries on and continues to grow organically again. Plus you underestimate how many of us will move out of the big instance if it becomes not to be trusted.
Aral Balkan
in reply to Jaime Herazo • • •🌻 Thoralf Will 🇺🇦🇮🇱
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •While your assessment is spot on, you miss one point:
Even with mastodon.social being that big, it's not the only big instance (and will probably never be).
So, while Eugen could block you from >1 mio. users, he can only do that for those.
Additionally, the users are still in power and can move to any other instance when they want to.
Both are fundamental differences compared to Facebook and Twitter.
Is it ideal? Not at all!
Is it better? Hell, yes!
Babu Menos 🎵
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •As much as I agree with your general idea that large servers are a bad idea, I humbly disagree with the notion that therefore, it’d be a “myth” that the fediverse is decentralised. Of course it still is, not matter the influence of any or all large instances!
Firstly, I’ll have to agree with @phoe and this reply, https://functional.cafe/@phoe/110570567349604055
Secondly, if you are looking for as many followers as possible, what you say has some relevance. But if you are looking for meaningful conversation with like-minded people, the “rest” of the fediverse with its thousands of small servers/instances will certainly be a great place still.
@karinC77
As much as I agree with your general idea that large servers are a bad idea, I humbly disagree with the notion that therefore, it’d be a “myth” that the fediverse is decentralised. Of course it still is, not matter the influence of any or all large instances!
Firstly, I’ll have to agree with @phoe and this reply, https://functional.cafe/@phoe/110570567349604055
Secondly, if you are looking for as many followers as possible, what you say has some relevance. But if you are looking for meaningful conversation with like-minded people, the “rest” of the fediverse with its thousands of small servers/instances will certainly be a great place still.
@karinC77
Michał "phoe" Herda
2023-06-19 11:09:23
Dave Winer ☕️
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •ራስ ባሪያው Rass Bariaw
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Jakub Klawiter :mastodon:
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Cam
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Nemo_bis 🌈
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Far worse for me would be to be defederated from the dear people of (in order of frequency):
fosstodon.org
chaos.social
eupolicy.social
social.coop
wikis.world
fabriek
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Jeroen Baert
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Stevens R Miller
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Michał "phoe" Herda
Unknown parent • • •Still, I can't really complain about centralization if what I'm doing is exchanging messages between https://functional.cafe and https://thias.hellqui.st/ and https://mastodon.ar.al, which three instances have a total of 216 users and don't strictly need to care about the rest of the Fediverse.
If I can make a prediction about the future as well: we've survived centralized social media, we'll survive Eugen too. The tools are already here, we'll just need to wait for the Fediverse molochs to join the club of inevitably-crumbling-under-their-own-weight.
@aral
Functional Café
Mastodon hosted on functional.cafePaulo Laureano
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •I have been running and participating in online communities for 40 years (since fidonet / bbs days). I have never been blocked by anyone. Honestly, why would your experience be any different?
Also, I have no issues with big tech companies joining the fediverse… you can silence/block their instance if you wish (something I would not do myself, but hey, it’s up to you as an instance manager).
Although I dislike Facebook / meta with a passion, and do not use any of their sites, I do not have a problem with the people that make different choices. Glad to follow and be followed by some of them.
I really don’t get it. I follow you, love reading your posts, but do not share some of your views. I respect others, with different opinions and perspectives, live and let live.
aneel
in reply to Paulo Laureano • • •reshared this
Rokosun and Freedom=Growing Each Other reshared this.
steve mookie kong
in reply to aneel • • •Rokosun reshared this.
Freedom=Growing Each Other
in reply to aneel • • •Content warning: MASTODON AS MAIL!
@aneel @pls
MASTODON AS MAIL! (Semi-related... based on existing direct messages and activity pub style smtp, only accepting white-listed messages as to not need much spam management)
Includes some interested people and graphics I did for it in posts below...
https://qoto.org/@freeschool/108521437249228849
https://qoto.org/@freeschool/109240443194281837
https://qoto.org/@freeschool/109626152626446989
https://qoto.org/@wes/107792520583552969
https://qoto.org/@freeschool/108748319656535301
https://floss.social/@ademalsasa/109240451438432825
https://fedi.tyil.nl/notes/9527aivuij
https://social.touha.me/@dragnucs/108986525927214688
https://qoto.org/@freeschool/109737999583943396
https://qoto.org/@wes/107862014346507474
Freedom=Growing Each Other
2022-06-22 13:48:39
Jagermo
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Chucho :gnu: :freedo: :guix:
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Is it the ideal? No
Is is better? Yes.
dick_turpin
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •At least with your own instance, you have choices, using someone else's server you need to abide by their rules and potentially warped views. 🤷♂️
Arnel Šarić Sharan :verified:
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •technikhil
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •knoopx
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Ridin' with Biden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Ridin' with Biden • • •Ridin' with Biden
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Ridin' with Biden • • •Mikael Gramont
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Thinking about this, I think we need to think in terms of dynamic behaviors, not just instantaneous snapshots: if mastodon.social removes access to you for a lot of followers for whatever reason, at some point, the policies they set in place are going to upset their own users, so those will start to pressure the admins. Either the admins cave, or eventually they will lose users in a migration.
amd
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to amd • • •Throw Away
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •