4 ms·
The mastodon community of today is very different from what it would be if it had hundreds of millions of users. Once the plaform grows enough to critical mass,
by shkkmo 4y ago
The mastodon community of today is very different from what it would be if it had hundreds of millions of users. Once the plaform grows enough to critical mass, the costs of switching off that platform become high enough that it can close itself off without mass exodus.
The only way I see to end up with anything like what the author lays out is to mandate interoperability for platforms (possibly over a certain size). Unfortunately I have zero faith that our legistlators can craft and pass a bill that does that without bastardizing it to the point that is simply creates moats for the incumbent tech giants. I'd love to be surprised.
- zozbot234 4y agoMastodon is not built for a single community comprising "hundreds of millions of users". Individual users and communities will interact on a far smaller scale, much as they might with email.
- shkkmo 4y agoWhile gmail never reached critical mass and completely closed off, it's anti spam efforts (among those of others) have made running a small mail server fairly impractical. Ending up like email would probably be the best case result for mastodon. It is interesting to think about what stuctural aspects of email prevented hotmail or gmail from reaching critical mass and being able to fully close off interoperability.
- dane-pgp 4y ago> mandate interoperability for platforms (possibly over a certain size) The EU came really close to doing that with its new Digital Markets Act, but it seems that the interoperability requirement will (rather bizarrely) only apply to messaging apps and not social media platforms. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/eu-digital-markets-acts-interoperability-rule-addresses-important-need-raises https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/eu-digital-markets-act...