4 ms·

Ouch! This isn't my area and you're right I haven't researched this topic in any depth (though I did look at Diaspora), so I'm not surprised it shows. My origin

Ouch! This isn't my area and you're right I haven't researched this topic in any depth (though I did look at Diaspora), so I'm not surprised it shows. My original comment was around meta-ethics and this is pretty far from that starting point. Decentralized platforms like Diaspora may be viable alternatives someday, but my possibly ill-informed pragmatic gut tells me they won't be viable alternatives for many years to come. Thanks for your patience and persistence. It was interesting!

nobody9999 6y ago
>Ouch! This isn't my area and you're right I haven't researched this topic in any depth (though I did look at Diaspora), so I'm not surprised it shows. Thanks for responding. I'm glad you understood (at least I hope you did) my comment wasn't meant as an attack on you. Far from it, it was just my honest assessment. And I do appreciate the discussion. >Decentralized platforms like Diaspora may be viable alternatives someday, but my possibly ill-informed pragmatic gut tells me they won't be viable alternatives for many years to come. Network effects[0] give platforms like Facebook and Twitter their power and influence. Creating (and more importantly, using) decentralized alternatives is, IMHO, the only reasonable way to counteract that advantage. Which is why I made the suggestions WRT APIs (to level the playing field and give alternatives a chance), ISP upload speeds (to make self-hosting viable), content licenses (to give control back to the creators of content, rather than the aggregators) and tracking/advertising opt-ins (to reduce the money making power and incentives to track/spy/collect data of the big guys). Your pragmatic gut is pretty spot on. Without at least some of the above, alternative platforms will have a hard time gaining traction (although they do exist and are viable in a number of areas) in the social media space. I'd say that the success of decentralized alternatives rests on the willingness of people like you and me to use and advocate for those alternatives. Perhaps it's time to install a Diaspora pod[1] or Mastodon instance[2]? >Thanks for your patience and persistence. It was interesting! Likewise. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect [1] https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation [2] https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/

nobody9999 6y ago

>Ouch! This isn't my area and you're right I haven't researched this topic in any depth (though I did look at Diaspora), so I'm not surprised it shows. Thanks for responding. I'm glad you understood (at least I hope you did) my comment wasn't meant as an attack on you. Far from it, it was just my honest assessment. And I do appreciate the discussion. >Decentralized platforms like Diaspora may be viable alternatives someday, but my possibly ill-informed pragmatic gut tells me they won't be viable alternatives for many years to come. Network effects[0] give platforms like Facebook and Twitter their power and influence. Creating (and more importantly, using) decentralized alternatives is, IMHO, the only reasonable way to counteract that advantage. Which is why I made the suggestions WRT APIs (to level the playing field and give alternatives a chance), ISP upload speeds (to make self-hosting viable), content licenses (to give control back to the creators of content, rather than the aggregators) and tracking/advertising opt-ins (to reduce the money making power and incentives to track/spy/collect data of the big guys). Your pragmatic gut is pretty spot on. Without at least some of the above, alternative platforms will have a hard time gaining traction (although they do exist and are viable in a number of areas) in the social media space. I'd say that the success of decentralized alternatives rests on the willingness of people like you and me to use and advocate for those alternatives. Perhaps it's time to install a Diaspora pod[1] or Mastodon instance[2]? >Thanks for your patience and persistence. It was interesting! Likewise. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect [1] https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Installation [2] https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/