ActivityPub is not going to change the way the Internet works.
Edit: many people want different things from a social network. ActivityPub does not cover much of the usefulness of Facebook or Twitter, socially or technologically (and is ideologically opposed to some of the uses).
Some have expanded on it already, but a couple angles:
Celebrity, companies, news. Centralization, canonical resources, proof of identity, authority all benefit these kinds of content. William Shatner tried to join Mastodon, realized any kid could pretend to be him on any instance, and decided it was unsafe for him to claim to be there.
Most people will always want a Target, Walmart, Starbucks experience. ActivityPub shards a Twitter-style public square into complex and proprietary local pubs. I may be wrong, but it hardly seems to be an answer to the Facebook paradigm, technologically or socially/culturally.
I realize these are just beginnings of arguments, but you might get the thrust of it. There’s a lot to critique in “it’s like E-mail” and “it will change the way the internet works”, too. Glad to hash something out. ;)
ActivityPub does not cover much of the usefulness of Facebook or Twitter
Facebook I’d agree with, but Twitter seems pretty much covered with Mastodon and Pleroma – at least for me. Of course it’s not a 1:1 replicate, but afaik it’s not the goal.
And after all, Facebook has a very different structure, much more private. Maybe I’m biased, but I get the feeling as if these kinds of networks are getting less and less popular, often enough just using it for chat.
I guess that’s a big factor for many people (again, I’m fine with who I can find on Mastodon).
But to others having fewer people (and especially fewer trolls, “sea lions” and other provocateurs) is a value in itself. I can’t confirm it, but people say it’s like the early days of Twitter.
This is in no way an inherent problem with the federated social platform. Twitter didn’t start out as the place where everyone was, and while network effects are hard to break, they’re not invincible.
I don’t know the history of Twitter. I think their founders wanted huge market share and/or getting rich. They did whatever they thought led to that. Neither knockoffs or decentralization usually achieve that. Rarely if ever.
You’re talking about Twitter like how it started is in any way similar to Mastodon’s goals and tech. I don’t see a comparison. Mastodon will be a tiny shadow of Twitter for a long time unless Twitter tanks for reasons having nothing to do with Mastodon. Most people will have still not heard of Mastodon. I’d like it to be otherwise but saying it will happen would be a lie for me.
Not sure if you’ve seen the relatively recent article about some huge Mastodon-wide drama. It doesn’t necessarily run against your claim, especially given that it’s hard to predict future; but I find it very interesting especially in observing that apparently Mastodon got hugely popular in Japan:
“[Accounts on a particular Japanese instance] might be around 60 million today - a little less than half the entire population of Japan, and probably a majority of Japanese people who are active on the Net.”
IIUC this happened because of Twitter being in some particular ways (described in the article) culturally unfit for Japanese people, de facto by being globally uniform and tied to “western” culture.
Yeah, that was the main thing other than mass psychology that made me think Mastodon was going nowhere for now. It was even worse than an unpopular product or one used for illegal activities like (gasp) sharing movies. It was something used a lot in Japan for sharing what U.S. considers child pornography. That’s damn near a worst-case scenario for tech branding given how important U.S. adoption or push of protocols often is. Actual child pornography or something similarly horrible being the worst-case scenario. I was thinking, “They need to get a new, killer app or use case other than this shit before media articles make Mastodon stay tiny.”
There are a handful of iOS and Android clients for Mastodon which can provide a push notification. I use Amaroq on iOS.
Having never looked into it, I don’t know how technically difficult it is for a web service to provide push notifications (especially if it’s something that each server operator would have to set up).
Do people have multiple accounts in different mastodon servers? If not, what is a good home base for someone from lobsters? Does lobsters have a mastodon presence?
Do people have multiple accounts in different mastodon servers?
Most people are only active on one account, I sometimes see people with two or three accounts, where each account is related to a specific topic. Another thing is people sometimes “move” from one instance to another, by pointing from their old account to their new one, in case they change their mind about an instance (eg. my old account, my current account).
If not, what is a good home base for someone from lobsters?
My advice would be to check out a general purposes instance first, unless you are very active in a specific community (eg. BSD Users like https://bsd.network, …). From there start following people you might find a bit interesting, since they will lead you to people you might find more interesting. Pining certain hashtags has helped me too. It takes a bit to get into it, since there is no thorough recommendation system, but then it clicks it’s comfortable – in my case far more than twitter ever was.
Does lobsters have a mastodon presence?
There was a thread a while back where people shared their accounts, that’s when I really started using Mastodon.
ActivityPub is not going to change the way the Internet works.
Edit: many people want different things from a social network. ActivityPub does not cover much of the usefulness of Facebook or Twitter, socially or technologically (and is ideologically opposed to some of the uses).
Could you expand a bit on your edit?
Some have expanded on it already, but a couple angles:
Celebrity, companies, news. Centralization, canonical resources, proof of identity, authority all benefit these kinds of content. William Shatner tried to join Mastodon, realized any kid could pretend to be him on any instance, and decided it was unsafe for him to claim to be there.
Most people will always want a Target, Walmart, Starbucks experience. ActivityPub shards a Twitter-style public square into complex and proprietary local pubs. I may be wrong, but it hardly seems to be an answer to the Facebook paradigm, technologically or socially/culturally.
I realize these are just beginnings of arguments, but you might get the thrust of it. There’s a lot to critique in “it’s like E-mail” and “it will change the way the internet works”, too. Glad to hash something out. ;)
Facebook I’d agree with, but Twitter seems pretty much covered with Mastodon and Pleroma – at least for me. Of course it’s not a 1:1 replicate, but afaik it’s not the goal.
And after all, Facebook has a very different structure, much more private. Maybe I’m biased, but I get the feeling as if these kinds of networks are getting less and less popular, often enough just using it for chat.
A huge part of the Twitter value proposition is people are already there. You don’t get its impact with Mastodon. So, it isn’t covered by a long shot.
I guess that’s a big factor for many people (again, I’m fine with who I can find on Mastodon).
But to others having fewer people (and especially fewer trolls, “sea lions” and other provocateurs) is a value in itself. I can’t confirm it, but people say it’s like the early days of Twitter.
This is in no way an inherent problem with the federated social platform. Twitter didn’t start out as the place where everyone was, and while network effects are hard to break, they’re not invincible.
I don’t know the history of Twitter. I think their founders wanted huge market share and/or getting rich. They did whatever they thought led to that. Neither knockoffs or decentralization usually achieve that. Rarely if ever.
You’re talking about Twitter like how it started is in any way similar to Mastodon’s goals and tech. I don’t see a comparison. Mastodon will be a tiny shadow of Twitter for a long time unless Twitter tanks for reasons having nothing to do with Mastodon. Most people will have still not heard of Mastodon. I’d like it to be otherwise but saying it will happen would be a lie for me.
Not sure if you’ve seen the relatively recent article about some huge Mastodon-wide drama. It doesn’t necessarily run against your claim, especially given that it’s hard to predict future; but I find it very interesting especially in observing that apparently Mastodon got hugely popular in Japan:
IIUC this happened because of Twitter being in some particular ways (described in the article) culturally unfit for Japanese people, de facto by being globally uniform and tied to “western” culture.
Yeah, that was the main thing other than mass psychology that made me think Mastodon was going nowhere for now. It was even worse than an unpopular product or one used for illegal activities like (gasp) sharing movies. It was something used a lot in Japan for sharing what U.S. considers child pornography. That’s damn near a worst-case scenario for tech branding given how important U.S. adoption or push of protocols often is. Actual child pornography or something similarly horrible being the worst-case scenario. I was thinking, “They need to get a new, killer app or use case other than this shit before media articles make Mastodon stay tiny.”
Right, that’s a good point.
Also lack of push notification for Mastodon makes me to forget it’s existence
There are a handful of iOS and Android clients for Mastodon which can provide a push notification. I use Amaroq on iOS.
Having never looked into it, I don’t know how technically difficult it is for a web service to provide push notifications (especially if it’s something that each server operator would have to set up).
I’m digging it! Hopefully it will work out and won’t get killed by the big kids on the block.
If it becomes big we can expect it to be extended and extinguished, I’m sure.
Do people have multiple accounts in different mastodon servers? If not, what is a good home base for someone from lobsters? Does lobsters have a mastodon presence?
Most people are only active on one account, I sometimes see people with two or three accounts, where each account is related to a specific topic. Another thing is people sometimes “move” from one instance to another, by pointing from their old account to their new one, in case they change their mind about an instance (eg. my old account, my current account).
My advice would be to check out a general purposes instance first, unless you are very active in a specific community (eg. BSD Users like https://bsd.network, …). From there start following people you might find a bit interesting, since they will lead you to people you might find more interesting. Pining certain hashtags has helped me too. It takes a bit to get into it, since there is no thorough recommendation system, but then it clicks it’s comfortable – in my case far more than twitter ever was.
There was a thread a while back where people shared their accounts, that’s when I really started using Mastodon.