Omg that thread was illuminating.
Key points are:
- xmpp was systematically killed by Google by âembrace, enhance, extinguishâ where they federated, added bells and whistles, then de-federated after having essentially all users.
- meta systematically removes competition. It is naive to assume anything otherwise, and both meta and the fediverse is international, so governments have less ability to enforce (and enforcement via govs are mostly via the elite and interest groups)
- control over the fediverse can be lost to big tech via updates to protocol that canât be bug fixed fast enough, a fork being run on big instances via a compromised sysadmin selling out for cash or other benefits
- link sharing is about interesting content (not social inertia like messenger apps and social apps like Facebook) so it is not a perfect analogy.
- there is no negativity on the fediverse yet
- once users become the product (even partially), the fediverse will be driven to enshittification via the same pressures of big tech
Ugh. This crap makes me want to become a Luddite. I wonder if I can move into the Unabomberâs old cabin in the woods. (I promise I wonât make any bombs!)
friendly reminder that Luddites werenât opposed to technology, just wary of its misuse and how it was going to benefit the people higher up rather than the workers.
Or talking in threads like these, having the terrible opinion that talking isnât terrible, even when talking to Meta.
I wouldnât call the discussions in this thread toxic, though. There are simply different viewpoints, some people are rather strict in their rejection of Metaâs advances, and others (such as you) call for more open-mindedness.
Thereâs simply no comparison to the name calling and other bs frequently found on Facebook, Reddit etc. Of course the Fediverse isnât immune to that, but I think weâre doing rather well atm.
As a beehaw user, they also have rude users too. You can read my post about âdebatesâ