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Better for what? Even though I agree the Fediverse is better, it's useful to ask that question. There seems to be a gap in the understanding around what the in

Better for what? Even though I agree the Fediverse is better, it's useful to ask that question. There seems to be a gap in the understanding around what the internet is and what it's for, and the gap is a social one around the concepts of the Private and Public spheres. I use caps for them because they are ancient, named concepts (look up "polis and oikos," the private sphere wiki page has been vandalized). The 90's internet was initially an extension of, and a bridge between Private spheres of individual thought, competence, family, niche communities of interest, and preserved this with conventions around both anonymity and tribal, benevolent-dictator style governance. The Fediverse seems to replicate some of that, but to me it still seems like an anti social media reaction technology and not one that grows organically from a higher-order use case. Social media was the act of hauling out these Private sphere relationships into a Public sphere, for which they were not adapted, and to satisfy the infinite vaccuum of need for attention that defines the Public. The Public sphere has always necessarily fed on the Private, and the Private used the Public for its civilizing social benefits. I'd go so far as to say that the insanity of the Public sphere right now is the direct result of scarcity of Private sphere culture to sustain it and it's cannibalizing itself. Viewed through this broader lens, the Fediverse doesn't need social media features, it needs a Private sphere purpose for people to create and build things together, and then it can be more careful in adding bridges to the Public sphere. Anyway, abstract comment, but the question shouldn't be whether the Fediverse is an adequate social media replacement, it should be, "what are we going to make?"

jlkuester7 6y ago
Some very good points here! I host a Mastodon server whose users are a small group of close family. We mostly post with the semi-private "Followers-only" visibility since our goal is to share things with each other and not publicly. However, I do enjoy being able to also follow a ton of other open source projects/enthusiasts on my Mastodon feed too! The fediverse has become a very interesting place, but there are some features I think it needs to help it more successfully support its "Private sphere purpose" (e.g. private groups: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/139 https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/139).
egypturnash 6y ago
I run a small Mastodon instance. It has a purpose - it's a place for me and my friends to socialize, and talk about small things that matter to us. I grew up with the Internet so I can compare it to, say, Livejournal with its much-missed subtle privacy controls, or a local BBS with a Fidonet hookup, or a PHPBB forum, and find it wanting in some ways - but it's being run like one of those places. It is not being run for profit. It is not anyone's job. It has no VC investment to pay back. It is paid for about 50/50 by my money and by user contributions. And maybe a little by the fact that it's a nice audience for when I say "hey my commission schedule is open, who wants to trade some money for art?". I don't want it to be any bigger, and actively work to keep its growth slow. Personally I think the fact that the public sphere is a for-profit affair is a lot of why it's such a terrible thing, all that matters is keeping users around and feeding them more ads, doesn't matter if they're happy or angry, doesn't matter what they're being sold. I think that's a perfectly fine thing to make. A place to have a conversation without someone trying to turn it into a source of money. YMMV, if you have more grandiose dreams that you try to build on top of these shared protocols then good luck, and I will probably block whatever you do for breaking the "being or representing a corporation is a bannable offense" rule of my instance.
chrisweekly 6y ago
+1 insightful. Excellent question. What I am personally most interested in is sort of flipping the script on this private -> public dynamic: ingesting the content I contribute in Public, aggregating and curating it in Private.

jlkuester7 6y ago

Some very good points here! I host a Mastodon server whose users are a small group of close family. We mostly post with the semi-private "Followers-only" visibility since our goal is to share things with each other and not publicly. However, I do enjoy being able to also follow a ton of other open source projects/enthusiasts on my Mastodon feed too! The fediverse has become a very interesting place, but there are some features I think it needs to help it more successfully support its "Private sphere purpose" (e.g. private groups: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/139 https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/139).

egypturnash 6y ago

I run a small Mastodon instance. It has a purpose - it's a place for me and my friends to socialize, and talk about small things that matter to us. I grew up with the Internet so I can compare it to, say, Livejournal with its much-missed subtle privacy controls, or a local BBS with a Fidonet hookup, or a PHPBB forum, and find it wanting in some ways - but it's being run like one of those places. It is not being run for profit. It is not anyone's job. It has no VC investment to pay back. It is paid for about 50/50 by my money and by user contributions. And maybe a little by the fact that it's a nice audience for when I say "hey my commission schedule is open, who wants to trade some money for art?". I don't want it to be any bigger, and actively work to keep its growth slow. Personally I think the fact that the public sphere is a for-profit affair is a lot of why it's such a terrible thing, all that matters is keeping users around and feeding them more ads, doesn't matter if they're happy or angry, doesn't matter what they're being sold. I think that's a perfectly fine thing to make. A place to have a conversation without someone trying to turn it into a source of money. YMMV, if you have more grandiose dreams that you try to build on top of these shared protocols then good luck, and I will probably block whatever you do for breaking the "being or representing a corporation is a bannable offense" rule of my instance.

chrisweekly 6y ago

+1 insightful. Excellent question. What I am personally most interested in is sort of flipping the script on this private -> public dynamic: ingesting the content I contribute in Public, aggregating and curating it in Private.