this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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There's quite a bit to unpack in this article, even if some of it is only mentioned.
It's a saddening read. There are issues with Fediverse culture and surrounding technical discussion at wide, but also with interactions between law and new technologies like ActivityPub—and that's on top of the law, on it's own, already doing a horrible job way too often, in my opinion. None of this is news, but it always hurts a little to be reminded so.
I've been thinking about trying to get into mastodon, to form my own opinion on several topics it intersects with. I'm a little uncomfortable with how popular it is compared to other fediverse software, considering how poorly they seem to integrate. I hoped some time on mastodon would dispell this feeling, or at least give me insights I could work with. To be honest, every day it gets a little harder to justify that idea.
But that's just a personal thing. Maybe I'm simply not fit for micro-blogging. Really, I don't care which software is the most popular, I literally just wish they'd integrate better. Despite my misgivings, I'm grateful for the positive impact mastodon has made in the social/tech circles, changing how many people see social media and their relationship with it.
The us-versus-them mentality is unreal. The only valid them, to me, is proprietary closed platforms. We should strive for more decentralized networks that shift control over user experience back to its users, because we need and deserve safer, healthier social networks. This is not it. I can only hope culture will improve, because I'm not sure how you'd tackle a problem on this scale.
And if mastodon can't fix itself? Screw it, and keep an eye on what comes next.
It's not a competition, we're in a team effort to build a part of the internet that can resist enshittification inevitable in closed platforms; so long as the platform is open, I'll keep my mind open as well. If my lemmy instance decides to migrate to Sublinks, that's fine. Worst case, I'll migrate elsewhere. Assuming Bluesky turns out OK as a company, even atproto taking the lead over ActivityPub might be fine. Hell, some of the original AP creators are still experimenting with new ideas.
I fully agree with the point that too many people act like the fediverse, or their specific brand of it, is more open-minded and kinder than what they're trying to replace. I hope it's possible to make that true, one day.
P.S. Sorry, brevity is the soul of wit, and I'm an idiot. This ended up as an outlet for issues that have been frustrating me for a while.
An unfortunate part of the fediverse is that it attracts people who were too obnoxious for even the more annoying parts of Reddit/Twitter/etc. I've made plenty of attempts to "get into" Mastodon and can confidently say that's a miserable experience across the board if you aren't willing to do the work to curate your feed. Even if you do get a feed that is free of bad actors, conversations rarely veer off-course from Linux, programming, computers, tech, etc., at which point that's fine, I guess, but it's hardly diverse. Also, for all the complaining about "techbros" ruining the fediverse, it sure is full of them.
I have more faith in Bluesky currently. If they're able to achieve their own kind of federation then I'll gladly jump ship since their userbase is a lot friendlier and more diverse that Mastodon IMO.
I honestly feel like this is applicable to any social media, federated or not, and could arguably even be extended to socializing in general, in terms of choosing one's friends wisely. Technological or otherwise, navigating society is neither easy nor smooth sailing.
Although this is by no means to dismiss your experience, only to chip in with my own across different social media and otherwise. Finding one's place among others, curating/filtering one's connections, has always felt like a struggle to me no matter where I've found myself.
That's a shame, thank you for the input. I guess I could try Bluesky ~~instead~~.
Not sure how up to date you are on Bluesky's situation, but it might interest you to know they've recently started doing early-access federation. It's... not ideal (opinion), but it's moving along (fact).