Comment on Mastodon CEO steps down as the social network restructures

• Blaze@piefed.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Thank you for sharing

  Mastodon is bigger than me, and though the technology we develop on is itself decentralized—with heaps of alternative fediverse projects demonstrating that participation in this ecosystem is possible without our involvement—it benefits our community to ensure that the project itself which so many people have come to love and depend on remains true to its values. There are too many examples of founder egos sabotaging thriving communities, and while I’d like to think myself an exception, I understand why people would prefer better guardrails.

  That’s nice of him.

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  • naught101@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Eugen has always seemed pretty clear-eyed about this kind of thing.

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    • ademir@lemmy.eco.br ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I don’t think so. He often hold down PRs and when push them almost all the times makes sure that they wont be compatible with the majority of activtypub implementations.

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      • andypiper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        That may have been some time ago? The team has been larger than just Eugen for quite a while now. In terms of “won’t be compatible with the majority of AP implementations”, is there a specific PR that has been changed to make something incompatible? I’m not sure I understand what you are describing. I’d love to know where we can improve, here.

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• cabbage@piefed.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I love and hate how Eugen starts this whole project, leads it into being something truly unique and wonderful that directly challenges some of the most evil and wealthy people on the planet, sets up institutional guardrails to make sure it will not be corrupted by any one individual gone mad with power, gives away his position after 10 years once he’s sure the organization is in good hands, and then concludes in reflection that he does not “have the right personality” for running a project like this.

  I hope it has not been to hard for him, and that he’ll look back at it all as a positive experience in spite of the negative interactions. I don’t think any sane person has a personality that is “right” for the kind of abuse public figures receive on the internet. But from the perspective of Mastodon and the Fediverse, it seems pretty clear that he was exactly the right type of personality for the job—including by stepping down when the time felt right.

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  • rozodru@pie.andmc.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I get it and don’t hate it. If one of my projects took off like that and gained traction the absolute LAST thing I’d want to be is CEO of the whole damn thing. That’s just not who I am. I’d hope I’d be able to find and hand it off to someone more qualified for that position. So I totally get where Eugen is coming from as I would have done the exact same thing.

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    • cabbage@piefed.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      What I hate about it is that this unwillingness to be in a position of power is so correlated with actually being suited for it.

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      • verdi@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

        100% this.

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    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I was on a non profit board where the founder realized he wasn’t the right person for the job after 20 years of growing the org. It finally got to a point that he felt like the growth was beyond what he ever imagined or wanted.

      He was, on every metric, very successful. He grew the org from nothing, got millions of dollars in donations, amassed a huge base, and no one would have thought different if he just kept going.

      I remember sitting down with him one-on-one and asked him why. He thought about it for a minute and said, “It’s time for someone to make it even better.”

      Looking back, I think I see the exhaustion. To constantly innovate, to push people forward, to push the org, the mission…it was all one person at a time. He reached a point in both age and in life that it just wasn’t something he could keep doing.

      He loved the mission so much he knew it deserved better.

      If that isn’t leadership, I don’t know what is.

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  • p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    leads it into being something truly unique and wonderful that directly challenges some of the most evil and wealthy people on the planet,

    Everybody switched to BlueSky, not Mastodon. So, I feel like this whole project has been a failure, especially in the marketing dept.

    BlueSky barely got started in Feb, and people immediately jumped ship from Twitter by the millions. Mastodon started nine years ago, and people hardly know what it is.

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    • cabbage@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Bluesky hardly challenges the establishment as far as I can see, they’re just more venture capitalists waiting to enshittify.

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    • Blaze@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      How is Bluesky nowadays? Seems very quiet the last time I checked

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• naught101@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  That first post is very good. I really appreciate the way he’s handled the first 10 years, and I hope he has fun doing whatever he does next.

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