4 ms·

The Fediverse is a misnomer. A better name would be Feudiverse, since it's feudalism by design — complete with instances feuding over control of how the entire

The Fediverse is a misnomer. A better name would be Feudiverse, since it's feudalism by design — complete with instances feuding over control of how the entire thing is run. The admins of the instance have absolute control over accounts (i.e. people) that sign up with them. The instance admins are the law of the land, and can kick accounts off the net for whatever reason, as well as draw up the bridges and prohibit passing through their lands. Like in any feudal system, people are judged by which Lord they belong to (i.e. which instance they sign up with), and will be treated accordingly. Each instance is a clan, with collective responsibility built-in. There is no Federation without a Federal government that ensures rights of the citizens via a constitution. And there's no Fediverse without a central account authority that limits what instance admins can do to any individual account. Mastodon is a Feudiverse.

masterof0 4y ago
Mastodon is not the Fediverse. There is plenty of alternatives out there. What you describe sounds a lot like freedom. Instead of only one entity controlling what is said in their platform, now you have many entities, and the user can pick which community to join, based on the federation links, topics, server performance, etc... or start their own (with a single-user blogging platform like microblog.pub). There is no need for governance, if you like A, then you go to an instance with people who like A. If you are the type of person who prefer to be told what to do,then I'm sure there are also instances for that as well. And again, Mastodon is not the Fediverse.
sschueller 4y ago
You can literally run your own personal Mastodon instance with just 1 account in it and take part in any discussions on the "fediverse".
- romwell 4y ago
  >You can literally run your own personal Mastodon instance with just 1 account in it and take part in any discussions on the "fediverse". Yeah, and I can literally just run my own email server too. I don't, and chances are you don't either. Guess why.
  - arglebargle123 4y ago
    I'm going with sendmail.cf induced PTSD for $100 on this one
  - inkblotuniverse 4y ago
    I do both.
    - romwell 4y ago
      Then you know why 99.999% of the users won't, and telling someone to do it doesn't address any criticism of either system.
      - inkblotuniverse 4y ago
        On the upside, I like having access to a forum that excludes everybody too stupid to run an email server.
- witheld 4y ago
  But other instances will be able to ban him! Heavens to Murgatroyd! He should be able to talk and interact with anyone, regardless what they want!
  - romwell 4y ago
    Questions to you: 1. Do you run your own email server? 2. How do you feel about your email provider reading your messages and banning you based on what you write? 3. How do you feel about not being able to email your friend because their email server admins don't like what someone else writes in Google Groups from an email from your provider? >He should be able to talk and interact with anyone, regardless what they want! Oh right. Like I care about "freeze peach". On that note, this doesn't stop bad actors either, who just create an account on a different instance.
    - witheld 4y ago
      Social media is not email, not a platform for forming communities, so I will ignore all those questions. You should think of social media- forums for example. I expect my forum moderators to read my posts, ban people as needed, and to generally curate a community. Your final argument is that blocking bad actors is ineffective- they could just move. Well, if a bad actor did move- I would report them to the instance admin. If their admin was not interested in dealing with them, I would consult my admin and discuss blocking that instance. My experience with defederation is that in the real world, on the real network, that it is incredibly effective. I do NOT see bad actors on my instance.
      - romwell 4y ago
        >Social media is not email, not a platform for forming communities, so I will ignore all those questions. That's a non-sequitur, and a rather ignorant one at that.
        witheld 4y ago
        The federation is not like email(besides in the technical details). It is like a forum, it is software for mostly public/semi private posts. The email equivalent would be a mailing list, and mailing lists have moderation. I joined my Mastodon instance, just as I would join a mailing list, for the community and moderation. When I ran my own instance, I associated with instances with similar policies. Now, I gave you a real response, and I would appreciate a response from you that is more than yelling out a logical fallacy like a grade schooler.

masterof0 4y ago

Mastodon is not the Fediverse. There is plenty of alternatives out there. What you describe sounds a lot like freedom. Instead of only one entity controlling what is said in their platform, now you have many entities, and the user can pick which community to join, based on the federation links, topics, server performance, etc... or start their own (with a single-user blogging platform like microblog.pub). There is no need for governance, if you like A, then you go to an instance with people who like A. If you are the type of person who prefer to be told what to do,then I'm sure there are also instances for that as well. And again, Mastodon is not the Fediverse.

sschueller 4y ago

You can literally run your own personal Mastodon instance with just 1 account in it and take part in any discussions on the "fediverse".

romwell 4y ago
>You can literally run your own personal Mastodon instance with just 1 account in it and take part in any discussions on the "fediverse". Yeah, and I can literally just run my own email server too. I don't, and chances are you don't either. Guess why.
- arglebargle123 4y ago
  I'm going with sendmail.cf induced PTSD for $100 on this one
- inkblotuniverse 4y ago
  I do both.
  - romwell 4y ago
    Then you know why 99.999% of the users won't, and telling someone to do it doesn't address any criticism of either system.
    - inkblotuniverse 4y ago
      On the upside, I like having access to a forum that excludes everybody too stupid to run an email server.
witheld 4y ago
But other instances will be able to ban him! Heavens to Murgatroyd! He should be able to talk and interact with anyone, regardless what they want!
- romwell 4y ago
  Questions to you: 1. Do you run your own email server? 2. How do you feel about your email provider reading your messages and banning you based on what you write? 3. How do you feel about not being able to email your friend because their email server admins don't like what someone else writes in Google Groups from an email from your provider? >He should be able to talk and interact with anyone, regardless what they want! Oh right. Like I care about "freeze peach". On that note, this doesn't stop bad actors either, who just create an account on a different instance.
  - witheld 4y ago
    Social media is not email, not a platform for forming communities, so I will ignore all those questions. You should think of social media- forums for example. I expect my forum moderators to read my posts, ban people as needed, and to generally curate a community. Your final argument is that blocking bad actors is ineffective- they could just move. Well, if a bad actor did move- I would report them to the instance admin. If their admin was not interested in dealing with them, I would consult my admin and discuss blocking that instance. My experience with defederation is that in the real world, on the real network, that it is incredibly effective. I do NOT see bad actors on my instance.
    - romwell 4y ago
      >Social media is not email, not a platform for forming communities, so I will ignore all those questions. That's a non-sequitur, and a rather ignorant one at that.
      - witheld 4y ago
        The federation is not like email(besides in the technical details). It is like a forum, it is software for mostly public/semi private posts. The email equivalent would be a mailing list, and mailing lists have moderation. I joined my Mastodon instance, just as I would join a mailing list, for the community and moderation. When I ran my own instance, I associated with instances with similar policies. Now, I gave you a real response, and I would appreciate a response from you that is more than yelling out a logical fallacy like a grade schooler.