Skip Navigation
Technology @lemmy.world
some_guy @lemmy.sdf.org

Mastodon’s founder cedes control, refuses to become next Musk or Zuckerberg

His grand vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears in their timelines.

I don't use Mastadon cause I don't care for micro-blogging, but nevertheless, I like this.

218 comments

  • Copy-pasting a comment from Aurich (Ars Staffer):

    I set up the Ars Mastodon instance, and speaking as a relatively educated and technically savvy person I found it extremely confusing. And the more I learned later the more I don't feel remotely bad about being confused, it's honestly pretty messy.

    I put Ars on the main instance, and I think it was the right call. We're not going to maintain our own, at least at this time, and trusting a random instance that's very difficult to vet is kinda sketchy.

    We ran a guest editorial a while back that I think really clearly outlines the various issues:

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/op-ed-why-the-great-twittermigration-didnt-quite-pan-out/

    But you know, it's really okay. It doesn't have to be big, or popular or mainstream. As long as it survives and people like it? That's good enough.

    I think going into an era of balkanization of social isn't the worst thing.

    One of my complaints with Mastodon and similars is that you can't search only for posts of a specific instance, or temporarily mute a single instance from your feed. There's also some sort of "invisible wall" for Pleroma users (niche of a niche), as their public posts simply don't show up in public Mastodon searches, though I don't know whether that's a problem with Mastodon or Pleroma.

    • The Mastodon devs have received a grant to work on a search/visibility tool in 2025, so I definitely expect developments there

    • Now I am wondering if there is a way to blast a message out to various micro blog platforms at once. Kind of like Ryan's Woof idea from the office

      • The app openvibe does that for Mastodon and Bluesky. You have to have an account on both, though. I think they're adding in other services eventually.

      • From my limited knowledge, you'd need one account on each instance and have all of them boosting the original post, which would make them more visible in their local instances.

  • How it started:

    "Oh, non-profit tech company! How noble! I trust that!"

    How it's going:

    I have no interest in these hollow PR dance moves until CEOs are publishing compelling outlines of how they have instituted complex legal frameworks that mean they can't reverse (or others can't reverse) these cynical moves to temporarily sway public sentiment during a building phase without say... Being legally compelled to immediately forfeit all historical stock earned and donate any historical salary and bonus compensation to the Red Cross or children's cancer research. They won't though, at best, this is an option, subject to change at will.

    Remember that Zuckerberg initially allowed those tampons in the men's rooms and got a little praise, because some men do have periods and require tampons. They were in little wicker baskets, with the lids propped open on full display as you walked into any of their global offices. Zuckerberg then quietly told them internally to start closing the lids in the basket by default, still there, but closed, and then to place them on a lower shelf out of the way and ultimately, you now see the headlines that he ordered them fully removed performatively.

    Declarative statements matter from people with proven, consistent integrity - that trait is inconsistent with anyone who can successfully rise to the level of modern CEO.

218 comments