4 ms·

> you're basically required to trust your online identity and private message secrecy to an anonymous activist admin with a kitty avatar I have some friends op

> you're basically required to trust your online identity and private message secrecy to an anonymous activist admin with a kitty avatar I have some friends operating a Mastodon server, with a team of volunteer operators, and I'm pretty sure I've met all of them in person. I've only used Twitter a handful of times and don't really like the medium, but it's really not that hard to run a server. And I don't think there's any fundamental reason this doesn't scale. Every single community center runs a website, it's not that much of a stretch to imagine local, trusted Mastodon-type servers operated by all sorts of organizations. You may already be a member of an organization that has the capability and drive in your area, if you just can find the other people who want it.

vidarh 4y ago
There are also paid hosting services, and more are sure to come.
- throwaway290 4y ago
  Such as Tumblr
  - ryukafalz 4y ago
    For those downvoting the above poster, this probably wasn't a sarcastic quip - Tumblr really does plan to federate with the rest of the fediverse. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-...
    - vidarh 4y ago
      I'm guessing some might have downvoted because I mentioned paid providers. As in letting you pay them to run a Mastodon instance. While the above poster seems to have read my "and more are sure to come" as more options in general rather than more paid options. But I didn't downvote as I agree, the promise of Tumblr support is a big deal and will be a good option for a lot of people.
      - throwaway290 4y ago
        I know that's not what you meant but Tumblr is not free like your friendly neighborhood Mastodon instance or a foundation instance, it's for profit and paid for by advertisers and via paid features.
nonethewiser 4y ago
> I have some friends operating a Mastodon server, with a team of volunteer operators, and I'm pretty sure I've met all of them in person. But this will never describe a significant portion of Twitter users. It might work for some, but it wont replace Twitter.
- lukeschlather 4y ago
  You've had the US President tweeting a lot. I'm sure the US government could replace Twitter with a bespoke version of Twitter if they didn't want to use Mastodon. Similarly there are news publications like the NYT which could operate their own bespoke Twitter. Reuters and the Associated Press basically already manage some services which could be described as a bespoke Mastodon instance. Who are the Twitter users who matter who can't afford to operate their own Mastodon server? I'm not suggesting any individual do so, but this is not rocket science. I feel like maintaining a physical building is probably harder, so any organization with a physical building that has ~100+ members should be able to do this - and enough organizations doing this could replace Twitter.

vidarh 4y ago

There are also paid hosting services, and more are sure to come.

throwaway290 4y ago
Such as Tumblr
- ryukafalz 4y ago
  For those downvoting the above poster, this probably wasn't a sarcastic quip - Tumblr really does plan to federate with the rest of the fediverse. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-...
  - vidarh 4y ago
    I'm guessing some might have downvoted because I mentioned paid providers. As in letting you pay them to run a Mastodon instance. While the above poster seems to have read my "and more are sure to come" as more options in general rather than more paid options. But I didn't downvote as I agree, the promise of Tumblr support is a big deal and will be a good option for a lot of people.
    - throwaway290 4y ago
      I know that's not what you meant but Tumblr is not free like your friendly neighborhood Mastodon instance or a foundation instance, it's for profit and paid for by advertisers and via paid features.

nonethewiser 4y ago

> I have some friends operating a Mastodon server, with a team of volunteer operators, and I'm pretty sure I've met all of them in person. But this will never describe a significant portion of Twitter users. It might work for some, but it wont replace Twitter.

lukeschlather 4y ago
You've had the US President tweeting a lot. I'm sure the US government could replace Twitter with a bespoke version of Twitter if they didn't want to use Mastodon. Similarly there are news publications like the NYT which could operate their own bespoke Twitter. Reuters and the Associated Press basically already manage some services which could be described as a bespoke Mastodon instance. Who are the Twitter users who matter who can't afford to operate their own Mastodon server? I'm not suggesting any individual do so, but this is not rocket science. I feel like maintaining a physical building is probably harder, so any organization with a physical building that has ~100+ members should be able to do this - and enough organizations doing this could replace Twitter.