But there are also some important differences! For one thing, we've got the benefit of learning from the XMPP experience. And that's only the tip of the iceberg ...
What do others see as key similarities and differences between the two situations?
I don’t believe the EEE narrative about Threads federation. The number of #fediverse citizens isn’t large enough to justify the (substantial) investment in Fedi/Masto/ActivityPub interop if the goal is just to bring them to Meta. @mosseri explicitly said that the goal was to enable people to move off Threads and I believe him, because…
The discourse in the last few days regarding #Meta and #Threads gives the impression that the entire Fediverse is already blocking Threads. I wanted to take a look at the numbers and they speak a different language. The data source for my calculation is https://fedipact.veganism.social/?v=2.
Measured by user count, 76 % of all users are federated with Threads. Remaining instances with 24 % of users either block Threads or are limited (e.g. infosec.exchange).
The fedipact.veganism.social list of 2k instances used in https://social.tchncs.de/@mialikescoffee/111607872804167774 probably has most of the instances which block, but many of the ~8k instances it doesn't list are probably not blocking.
Looking at 6-months active users is probably more interesting though.
A poll: if you're planning on blocking Threads , do you want your posts to federate there so that hate groups can interact with them and Meta can track you?
The way blocking works on Mastodon, if your instance hasn't enabled "authorized fetch", blocking Threads won't actually prevent your posts from federating there if somebody on another instance who hasn't blocked Threads boosts your post. This means that anybody on Threads can still potentially see your posts, including hate groups like Libs of TikTok and Gays Against Groomers. And Meta's privacy policy says they'll use the information to target advertising and improve their products by training AIs. And most large Mastodon instances today haven't turned on authorized fetch.
If you're planning on -- or considering -- blocking Threads, do you still want your posts to federate there?
I did the requisite responsible reading about Threads federating, and I decided to domain block them after thinking about it.
Anybody who wants to view my public posts can still view them.
This is mostly an infosec account, and there's AFAIK zero infosec community presence on Threads.
I'm not really interested in helping Threads grow an infosec community presence.
I don't think there's any Mastodon admin ready for the network effects of several million users suddenly joining the network. There is shockingly little discussion about problems like coordinated inauthentic activity, which are going to come at that scale. I'm REALLY not interested in seeing or interacting in any way with chinese state disinformation campaigns lol
Mastodon servers and clients are held together by duct tape and prayers by people in their spare time. Threads is held together by people paid full time salaries at a large multinational corporation. Threads can make a better fediverse app and a better fediverse server than anything that currently exists. I think any future where people start downloading the Threads app as their default client to interact with the fediverse, and where people start using threads.net as their default server, is one that is very dangerous for the existence of the fediverse as a set of interoperable clients and servers built on open standards. I'm doing my part to make this as unappealing and as high friction as possible 🫡
fuck libs of tiktok, and fuck threads which is currently platforming them. The impact of accounts like Libs of TikTok on rolling back LGBTQ rights in the real world is a very good example of why network effects, discoverability, and social media amplification are dangerous.
Thanks to @jerry for letting people on this instance make this choice themselves. Having this kind of choice is a welcome change from other social networks.
Seems there are a lot of people on fedi now that are absolutely fucking clueless that for the last 6 or so years we’ve been enjoying being away from bullshit corporate surveillance advertising platforms.
Absolutely blows my mind they have no idea why this network even exists, why we all moved here.
I am gobsmacked that people have found their way here that are actually this thick.
The thing about ActivityPub, the greatest social networking protocol ever devised, is that it's so obviously brilliant and resilient that it should be the backbone of every single social service going, but also if Threads interfaces with it even slightly, the whole thing will collapse and be full of ads and unusable. That's just how it works and the people pushing this sort of crap are not catastrophising at all. #meta#fedimeta
DID YOU KNOW that if Threads users can look at your toots then it allows Mark Zuckerberg to travel across the Internet and molest your instance with his unknowable sex organ or "proboscis", permanently tainting it in the eyes of the Lord? This is just one of the many very real and not at all imaginary ways in which this could cause a problem. #meta#threads#zuckerberg#proboscis#fedimeta
@evan Have they considered doing it in smaller stages with subsets of users, for example only users in a certain language or geography? That would also allow to pay closer attention to the most affected federated instances, instead of having to observe effects scattered everywhere all at once.
@evan For example, I presume at the moment any user/post reports from Mastodon are just blackholed. Reports are difficult to handle even between Mastodon instances with different languages, rules and practices, let alone different ActivityPub software or proprietary software. It will be far easier to start testing the process with a limited scope than with hundreds of geographies and languages suddenly attacking moderation teams from all directions.
so lately ive been bouncing between the evil one (threads) the slightly less evil one (tumblr) and of course here
threads still feels meh and i dont like the demographic that much, the algorithm seems to be pretty good actually but the algorithm can only do so much when the content is lacking
tumblr i dont get enough engagement to say anything lol i thought i was using popular tags but i guess not? but tumblr is tumblr i still love writing there
Instead of using an #intransparent#blocklist that is maintained by people more unwilling than unable to accept valid criticism and reflect upon it, consider choosing one that is #tranpsarent and that is actively maintained by people that #DoBetter!
Please include your pronouns in your bio. :otter_peek: It's such a necessity when trying to figure out how to address people.
Plus, if you're using the Mastodon app or one of its forks, you can have a "Pronouns" section and it'll appear next to your username in the home feed. It's very useful. :meowuwu:
I could not care less whether you like Pebble or not, but brigading their instance with spam, harassment, and DDoS attacks is some reddit-tier shit. Don't be like that.
Don't like the people? Block.
Distrust the company? Defederate.
Think they're a danger? Fediblock.
But don't attack the instance, that's just shitty and accomplishes nothing positive.
Die Suche auf Mastodon ist - für mich - kaputt :-( .
Ich weiß schon, dass das - Volltextsuche - ein Feature ist, viele(sich das gewünscht haben);
aber ich hätte gern das alte Verhalten zurück: durchsucht werden (nur) meine Beiträge und die, die ich gestern oder gefavt hab.
Kann ich das irgendwie erreichen?
( #Mastodon, #Webinterface)
I really need to start keeping links around on Fedi meta conflicts. If only to have a chance to figure out whether the side currently calling bullshit on the other side is actually telling the truth or trying to gaslight me into questioning what I read a week ago.
This idea that the people voicing complaints or criticism over the Fedi HOA are somehow “scared” because they’re racist bigots and are getting found out is foolish. Actual terrible people doing terrible things are not afraid of some silly ass block list or the jokers that are running it.
People that are trying to exist and build a community, however, are concerned and worry about it. Because their connections and community are in constant risk of dissolving over fucked up whims.
As a server admin, what are the things you would like to know before applying a domain block (and/or a #blocklist), or what kinds of steps would you like to perform?
Some of my thoughts:
How many people would be impacted on our server and theirs?
How significant the impact would be for those impacted?
I didn’t understand why I would keep seeing toots from Ro in my timeline since we have him defederated. It is because people on FireFish and Akkoma and all that can quote toots which makes it show up as a link to a website on Ivory. So then I added a keyword mute for ubiqueros and like magic they are gone now. Whoop whoop!!
But someone needs to throw him a life raft for real he is drowning in his own ego over there. :neocat_shocked: #FediMeta
When thinking about #moderation, federation, and #defederation, it's important to center why we are engaging in these activities in the first place: to make decisions about interpersonal boundaries and accountability.
Accountability is a practice of honoring connection and repairing harm through active listening and mutual acknowledgement of context and power.
@victor :ablobcatbongoangry: I should not have said anything and we have his instance suspended but people on FireFish can quote toots and that’s why it was in my feed. So of course I can’t help myself and I read more of his toots. He is a grifter and a transphobe!! We need to create an honest alternative to his blocklist site. He fights people saying that he doesn’t add instances to the list but all of his trusted sources are bigot friends of his. #FediMeta