5 ms·

Google isn't really a good example, they love killing off services on a whim. Meta closing down Facebook would be much more... dramatic, shall we say.

monocasa 4y ago
MySpace and AIM might be better examples then.
- edgyquant 4y ago
  No, there are no good examples is the point because we’ve never been here before
  - nix23 4y ago
    Oh the youngsters....
- dimitrios1 4y ago
  Not even. Still a fraction of the userbase and daily activity we are talking about with today's social sites.
- lapcat 4y ago
  MySpace today still has more active users than Mastodon.
  - monocasa 4y ago
    MySpace deleted all content prior to 2016, making it effectively a new network from the Myspace people normally talk about.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- deelowe 4y ago
  Or geocities.
  - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    Yahoo Groups
howenterprisey 4y ago
Google+ is a great example of the point that once a community's platform gets shut down, it's often tough to find another place to meet, and some people don't survive the transition.
- galaxyLogic 4y ago
  Right. So what happened to UseNet-News? Would that not be an ideal federated platform with a standard protocol and everything?
  - louky 4y ago
    I'm back on Usenet, and hey my 5 digit uid on /. Still works! Meta-moderation!
  - vidarh 4y ago
    Maintaining federation of USENET was a massive effort. I used to run an NNTP server, and spent way too much time dealing with ensuring we had redundant feeds and kept up with the volume. And on top of that handling spam. It worked well for what it was at the time, but it was nowhere near an ideal federated platform.
    - vgel 4y ago
      What has Mastodon improved on this process, though? It seems the same issues are in place -- difficult to administer technically (this post) and hard to deal with spam (have heard before, don't have a link on hand unfortunately). This is a genuine question -- I wasn't around for USENET so maybe this is a "quantity of difference becomes quality of difference" issue where the degree of effort for maintaining it was just way harder than it is now.
      - jlkuester7 4y ago
        I deployed and have been maintaining a very small Mastodon server (~10 active users) for several years now and I can say that at my scale it is not difficult (for someone with modest technical abilities but no professional sysadmin experience). Sure if your instance is as large as Mastodon.technology and you are the only admin doing it as a hobby/side-gig then things can get rough. Regarding spam, there is some (seemingly inevitable in any community involving humans). But frankly Mastodon, right from the beginning, focused heavily on Moderation tools. Figuratively speaking, no expense has been spared to make it easy and convenient to block bad actors (or instances) from your account (or your whole instance).
riffic 4y ago
Google's the best example to be honest.

monocasa 4y ago

MySpace and AIM might be better examples then.

edgyquant 4y ago
No, there are no good examples is the point because we’ve never been here before
- nix23 4y ago
  Oh the youngsters....
dimitrios1 4y ago
Not even. Still a fraction of the userbase and daily activity we are talking about with today's social sites.
lapcat 4y ago
MySpace today still has more active users than Mastodon.
- monocasa 4y ago
  MySpace deleted all content prior to 2016, making it effectively a new network from the Myspace people normally talk about.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
deelowe 4y ago
Or geocities.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  Yahoo Groups

howenterprisey 4y ago

Google+ is a great example of the point that once a community's platform gets shut down, it's often tough to find another place to meet, and some people don't survive the transition.

galaxyLogic 4y ago
Right. So what happened to UseNet-News? Would that not be an ideal federated platform with a standard protocol and everything?
- louky 4y ago
  I'm back on Usenet, and hey my 5 digit uid on /. Still works! Meta-moderation!
- vidarh 4y ago
  Maintaining federation of USENET was a massive effort. I used to run an NNTP server, and spent way too much time dealing with ensuring we had redundant feeds and kept up with the volume. And on top of that handling spam. It worked well for what it was at the time, but it was nowhere near an ideal federated platform.
  - vgel 4y ago
    What has Mastodon improved on this process, though? It seems the same issues are in place -- difficult to administer technically (this post) and hard to deal with spam (have heard before, don't have a link on hand unfortunately). This is a genuine question -- I wasn't around for USENET so maybe this is a "quantity of difference becomes quality of difference" issue where the degree of effort for maintaining it was just way harder than it is now.
    - jlkuester7 4y ago
      I deployed and have been maintaining a very small Mastodon server (~10 active users) for several years now and I can say that at my scale it is not difficult (for someone with modest technical abilities but no professional sysadmin experience). Sure if your instance is as large as Mastodon.technology and you are the only admin doing it as a hobby/side-gig then things can get rough. Regarding spam, there is some (seemingly inevitable in any community involving humans). But frankly Mastodon, right from the beginning, focused heavily on Moderation tools. Figuratively speaking, no expense has been spared to make it easy and convenient to block bad actors (or instances) from your account (or your whole instance).

riffic 4y ago

Google's the best example to be honest.