4 ms·

Which social media giant do you suppose will buy/copy* them before they become too much of a threat? * - edit

by ikeyany 10y ago

mhuffman 10y ago
This is the correct answer to OP's article title. Any social network that looks viable will be killed in its cradle* or integrated into one of the big boys. * of course I mean acquired
- narrowrail 10y ago
  Perhaps we can convince some hedge funds to subsidize the effort while simultaneously shorting the publicly traded social networks (SNAP won't be eligible for shorting for a few months though :)?
- michaelchisari 10y ago
  This is an open source, decentralized network. It has many existential threats, but being bought out isn't one of them.
extropic-engine 10y ago
There's nothing to buy... it's a bunch of servers run by individuals.
CarolineW 10y ago
There isn't really a "them" to buy. It's open source, and there are lots of instances. As it currently stands, if one instance sells to a company, I suspect the vast majority of people will migrate to other instances. Indeed, I expect that a migration tool will be developed soon for exactly that reason - it's exactly the paranoia-inducing scenario that will provoke the type of person who runs an instance. I certainly wouldn't sell my instance.
dentemple 10y ago
Well, mastodon is completely open source, so it's more of a question of: "Which social media giant will shamelessly copy over mastodon's code and try to beat them at their own game."
- xj9 10y ago
  Mastodon and most other ostatus projects are free software, licensed AGPL.
metaphorm 10y ago
none of them. mastodon is not innovative from a UX or business model perspective, it's an explicitly derivative product meant to be like Twitter. there is already a Twitter and it is already not much of a threat to other social networks. the innovations in mastodon are how the network is administrated and (arguably) the differences in culture that network federation creates as an alternative to a centralized platform. those innovations can't be copied or bought by a company already committed to centralized administration, which is almost certainly a compulsory thing for a for-profit business.
- ikeyany 10y ago
  This is good to hear--I'd like to know more about how network federations scale when they approach things like critical mass. I hope they have mechanisms in place to safeguard against influence from centralized platforms.

Which social media giant do you suppose will buy/copy* them before they become too much of a threat? * - edit

by ikeyany 10y ago

Which social media giant do you suppose will buy/copy* them before they become too much of a threat? * - edit

This is the correct answer to OP's article title. Any social network that looks viable will be killed in its cradle* or integrated into one of the big boys. * of course I mean acquired

narrowrail 10y ago
Perhaps we can convince some hedge funds to subsidize the effort while simultaneously shorting the publicly traded social networks (SNAP won't be eligible for shorting for a few months though :)?
michaelchisari 10y ago
This is an open source, decentralized network. It has many existential threats, but being bought out isn't one of them.

extropic-engine 10y ago

There's nothing to buy... it's a bunch of servers run by individuals.

CarolineW 10y ago

There isn't really a "them" to buy. It's open source, and there are lots of instances. As it currently stands, if one instance sells to a company, I suspect the vast majority of people will migrate to other instances. Indeed, I expect that a migration tool will be developed soon for exactly that reason - it's exactly the paranoia-inducing scenario that will provoke the type of person who runs an instance. I certainly wouldn't sell my instance.

dentemple 10y ago

Well, mastodon is completely open source, so it's more of a question of: "Which social media giant will shamelessly copy over mastodon's code and try to beat them at their own game."

xj9 10y ago
Mastodon and most other ostatus projects are free software, licensed AGPL.

metaphorm 10y ago

none of them. mastodon is not innovative from a UX or business model perspective, it's an explicitly derivative product meant to be like Twitter. there is already a Twitter and it is already not much of a threat to other social networks. the innovations in mastodon are how the network is administrated and (arguably) the differences in culture that network federation creates as an alternative to a centralized platform. those innovations can't be copied or bought by a company already committed to centralized administration, which is almost certainly a compulsory thing for a for-profit business.

ikeyany 10y ago
This is good to hear--I'd like to know more about how network federations scale when they approach things like critical mass. I hope they have mechanisms in place to safeguard against influence from centralized platforms.