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Comment on Mastodon founder touts Threads' federation, saying it makes his X rival 'a far more attractive option'

dumpsterlid@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Everyone advocating for federating with Threads keeps making technical arguments for why meta supposedly can’t extend, embrace, extinguish the fediverse as if this was a phenomena of technology. I am sorry, I know you love technology, programming and computers but this has nothing to do with those things.

This process is a phenomena of power and politics, and nothing about the fediverse makes it uniquely impervious to it, if anything a loosely organized federation is UNIQUELY vulnerable to a powerful, organized political actor. Meta can easily distort the entire landscape we are operating in with the amount of money it has at its disposal. The only defense we really have is learning from history and a lot of yall seem pretty incapable of that when you stick your fingers in your ears and repeatedly say “lets just wait and see what the face eating leopards do!”.

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HATEFISH@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Exhibit A: see how Google idly fucks with Firefox by getting it to run around in circles the way you might idly taunt your friends cat with a laser pointer

What is this referring to?

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- 27myths@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Probably talking about how there was code found in YouTube that makes playing videos slower on Firefox. It was supposedly a bug but I believe this happened recently along with Google declaring war on ad blockers. So obviously a lot of people believe it wasn’t just a bug.
  
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  - tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The code specifically looked for “Firefox” in your UA and started a 5 second wait timer. There’s no way it was a bug, you don’t just add idle waits into your website.
    
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    worldsayshi@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I mean I’ve seen some weird workarounds when stuff isn’t loading in when they’re supposed to…
    
    But yeah this is probably not that.
    
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- rikudou@lemmings.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I don’t know if they had some specific thing on their mind, but generally Firefox pretty much needs to do whatever Google wants with the web standards, because Firefox is close to becoming irrelevant (which is a damn shame, I’ve been using that browser for forever).
  
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  - anonymoose@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Also, Google is a (the?) major source of funding for Mozilla, so they have a lot of clout with them.
    
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kernelle@0d.gs ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Wait and see is not ignoring anything though, and have not read a single argument against it. Defederation can happen at any time for any reason in the future, why would you preemptively exclude a potential for ActivityPub to get major recognition?

I’m not excluding the possibility an EEE attempt, and meta’s track record definitely shows they will try. But people using ActivityPub right now won’t stop because a company forked it into their own standard, we are here specifically for the exact opposite. Meta literally has zero influence on any of us, if anything it’s the exact opposite.

Also “learning from history” is a weak argument, every server admin as the possibility to defederate at any moment. When even the slightest misstep is placed, everyone defederates and Meta will live in their own little federated world, boo fucking hoo.

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- haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Here you have some arguments then:
  
  Federating with a 10x larger entity that has a ton of very well known names on their list is going to dwarf anything that the fediverse so far has to offer. I‘m not saying in quality but definitely in quantity.
  
  The argument is sound because its the exact same that happens with heroin. Your brain gets flooded with dopamine, you feel as happy as you have never felt in your life and likely will never feel again. The withdrawal symptoms are reported to be cruel. The reason is that „healthy“ amounts of dopamine just dont cut it anymore.
  
  The same happens to people quitting big corpo „social“ media. I felt it and I have read of dozens who felt it as well (Obviously not as hard as heroin but the same mechanic). Now I‘m off the proverbial needle and meta federating is just going to bring us back to old habits. Endless, partly divisive content, potential for pushing ads with the posts and using our reactions for profiling.
  
  Like the frog in the kettle we wont get dystopia tomorrow but like disney pushing their prices 50%, we get it eventually, bit by bit.
  
  If meta ever defederates or limits the capabilities of fediverse instances, thousands of (again) hooked addicts will flock back to them. It’s literally obvious if you have any experience with addiction.
  
  Also, we’ve had this discussion with covid, with climate change, with lgbtq rights, abortion… can we maybe start seeing the pattern here? Its always „not that bad“ while some are abusing and exploiting others and those who call it out have the „woke virus“ and are called fearmongers.
  
  Fearmongering is if the media or the government does it, not people who are actually there using the stuff and suffering under things. That is called asking others for help/to understand.
  
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  - RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You forgot profit.
    
    If Meta/threads sees a way to cram ads into their instance(s), they will. If they offer money to others to put ads on their instances, they will. If they make rules or other demands of those making money - like no defederating from Meta/Threads, or requiring federating with other corporate instances, they will. On top of that, you’re going to get people drawn into the fediverse, like influencers, political spammers, more bots, and anyone else that follows that type of social media. Coders will start writing corporate-friendly instance code that will allow individuals (like influencers) to spin up profitable instances quickly that tie right into the corporateverse.
    
    EEE will happen. We can argue about defederating from these corporate instances, but it’s going to be a running retreat.
    
    Maybe hyperbolic. Maybe not. If, of course, if meta/threads finds the fediverse profitable.
    
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    haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I really enjoyed reading this although it is quite dystopian. Very well put. Thank you.
    
    You know that someone with the ability to write like this could always write to the guy who founded mastodon for example (who apparently is on the hype train himself, who knows, maybe he has been paid already. But I got no evidence).
    
    I‘m actually suspecting a lot of the „wait & see“ peeps to be paid actors or „true believers“ that already have a threads account and are working for the takeover.
    
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    kernelle@0d.gs ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    So then explain to me, how exactly does this impact you? What about you block the meta instance yourself? You will not see any threads content and will continue to use lemmy/ActivityPub in literally the exact same way.
    
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  - kernelle@0d.gs ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    dwarf anything that the fediverse so far has to offer
    
    You curate your own feed, if you don’t like seeing posts from that instance, then block it yourself. Like with NSFW instances, I don’t see any in my feed, don’t like them? Block them. For new users there will be instances who have defederated and those who have not. Why should your dopamine addiction be my problem? Advocating for every instance to defederate preemptively is more than counter productive, it’s the very definition of fear mongering.
    
    So no, your argument does not hold up.
    
    If meta ever defederates or limits the capabilities of fediverse instances, thousands of (again) hooked addicts will flock back to them. It’s literally obvious if you have any experience with addiction.
    
    Then we will defederate, people wanting that algorithmic dopamine hit are already getting it, and people in virtual rehab will know to block anything they want.
    
    There is still no argument against the wait and see approach.
    
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    haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Why should your dopamine addiction be my problem?
    
    The same reason our taxes pay for mental health clinics, addiction therapies, methadone clinics and so on…
    
    Because it is the right thing to do.
    
    and secondly, because its not my problem. I‘m just aware of it. This article explains it well. There is a study about it but I can’t find it rn. marketplace.org/…/new-research-quantifies-why-you…
    
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    pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    There are plenty of arguments. You’re just not listening because you’re likely just some dumb shill getting paid to astroturf for Threads like you assholes always do whenever corporations need your help convincing stupid people online corporate interests are what the majority wants.
    
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- AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What is EEE? Google insists it’s either an expression or glee, or Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
  
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  - kernelle@0d.gs ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Embrace, Extend, Extinguish, is a strategy tech companies (and a lot more outside of tech as well) have used to use existing open standard and over time slowly add, adapt and finally take over those standards.
    
    It’s a genuine concern this might happen to ActivityPub and Lemmy by extension by Meta, who is integrating ActivityPub as we speak.
    
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    AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thanks for the explanation. I can see how this could be a concern
    
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nave@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
How exactly? Let’s say they follow the EEE strategy and eventually drop support for ActivityPub. Then it’s exactly the same as it is now. People bring up XMPP but nobody wanted to use XMPP the majority of people were using Google Talk or Facebook Messenger. By using the Fediverse you are already explicitly choosing not to use Facebook or X or Reddit. The large social media companies already have larger user bases and more content and if people here wanted that they’d leave already.

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- sir_reginald@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  People bring up XMPP but nobody wanted to use XMPP the majority of people were using Google Talk or Facebook Messenger.
  
  Do you realise how hypocritical this is? Using the fediverse is effectively using XMPP in this analogy.
  
  Just compare the 100 million users of Threads vs the 1.5 MAU of the fediverse.
  
  Threads is the corporate-backed proprietary service (Google talk) and the fediverse is the small network of federated servers hosted mainly by volunteers (XMPP).
  
  By using the Fediverse you are already explicitly choosing not to use Facebook or X or Reddit.
  
  By using XMPP you were explicitly not choosing Google Talk or Facebook Messenger. How is this any different?
  
  The large social media companies already have larger user bases and more content and if people here wanted that they’d leave already.
  
  XMPP users said the same about XMPP. And it was true, to a certain extent. The federated XMPP network is alive to this day, I’m in a few chat rooms and have a few contacts there.
  
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  - nave@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    By using XMPP you were explicitly not choosing Google Talk or Facebook Messenger. How is this any different?
    
    XMPP users said the same about XMPP. And it was true, to a certain extent. The federated XMPP network is alive to this day, I’m in a few chat rooms and have a few contacts there.
    
    Thats my point effectively nothing changes if Facebook drops ActivityPub.
    
    XMPP users said the same about XMPP. And it was true, to a certain extent. The federated XMPP network is alive to this day, I’m in a few chat rooms and have a few contacts there.
    
    Aren’t you agreeing with me here? All I’m saying is that whatever happens the fediverse will continue existing in its fairly niche core we of the internet.
    
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pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I can’t wait to post the c/leopardsatemyface threads about all of these hopeless retards who refused to listen to me and even attacked me when I told them the same thing months ago, and then laugh at them when I bounce

No collective action is possible because everyone else is too stupid, immature, arrogant and entitled to humble themselves enough to listen and do what is right.

It’s time for those of us who have noticed the serious problems with federation to build a new platform and move on. Or just build our own separate websites with forums again.

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- dumpsterlid@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Not really vibing with calling people retards bruh.
  
  I understand being upset and wanting it all to burn down but this is the best chance we have.
  
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  - pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not really vibing with you complaining about something minor and petty to give yourself an out from admitting you are doing something egregiously wrong.
    
    You’re the one who’s going to suffer by not listening to me. You claim to hold the world to high standards when you refuse to even follow them yourself, instead choosing the convenience of having a website to use rather than being better than that and building something better. And then you have the nerve to pretend to be offended over something.
    
    Grow the fuck up. The fediverse obviously isn’t working and is falling victim to the censorship and regulatory capture you claim to oppose, so it’s time for you to either move on or accept that you’re okay with corporations infecting everything you build so you don’t have to keep expending precious mental energy you’d rather waste on vide games.
    
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    dumpsterlid@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Have fun trying to build the future by yourself! I hope some people walk by in the distance that you can yell at so you can get your rocks off once in awhile :)
    
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