3 ms·

I figured connecting to Mastodon would serve as a PoC for tracking and marketing to people there. A kind of hedge that even if the fediverse took off, they coul

I figured connecting to Mastodon would serve as a PoC for tracking and marketing to people there. A kind of hedge that even if the fediverse took off, they could still make money from it.

mcv 3y ago
That frankly sounds like a rather obvious use case for a big corporation. The Fediverse is entirely open, so if a company just creates their own server and follows people from all other servers, they can easily get access to all that open communication. I've recently been thinking about whether it's possible to add some form of limited distribution using encryption. Perhaps hitch-hiking on WebAuthn public keys? I have no idea if that would work, though.
- elsjaako 3y ago
  In normal operation, Mastodon doesn't send all it's public posts to everyone. It only sends posts that someone on the receiving end has subscribed to. This can be confusing for beginning users. There is a link in the interface for "global posts". It doesn't actually show all posts, only the public ones that someone on your instance has subscribed to. For someone on a small-ish instance with like minded people this is a good thing, as it means there's a higher chance of a post being interesting to me.
  - mcv 3y ago
    Not entirely. It is possible to see posts from people you're not following. I'm not sure how Mastodon does it exactly (I'm not on Mastodon, but the Fediverse is more than just Mastodon), but I think it also has a tab where you can see other content. In the end, if any user on a server follows the poster, the post will end up on that server, and it's up to the server to decide who gets to see it, which could be everybody.
    - elsjaako 3y ago
      I mentioned that, didn't I? Or am I misunderstanding you? > There is a link in the interface for "global posts". It doesn't actually show all posts, only the public ones that someone on your instance has subscribed to.
- xethos 3y ago
  > some form of limited distribution using encryption I can't claim to know what your exact vision is, but that seems to line up with AUTHORIZED_FETCH [0], an existing (off by default) setting on Mastodon servers. [0] https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/config/#authorized_fetch https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/config/#authorized_fetch

I figured connecting to Mastodon would serve as a PoC for tracking and marketing to people there. A kind of hedge that even if the fediverse took off, they could still make money from it.

mcv 3y ago

That frankly sounds like a rather obvious use case for a big corporation. The Fediverse is entirely open, so if a company just creates their own server and follows people from all other servers, they can easily get access to all that open communication. I've recently been thinking about whether it's possible to add some form of limited distribution using encryption. Perhaps hitch-hiking on WebAuthn public keys? I have no idea if that would work, though.

elsjaako 3y ago
In normal operation, Mastodon doesn't send all it's public posts to everyone. It only sends posts that someone on the receiving end has subscribed to. This can be confusing for beginning users. There is a link in the interface for "global posts". It doesn't actually show all posts, only the public ones that someone on your instance has subscribed to. For someone on a small-ish instance with like minded people this is a good thing, as it means there's a higher chance of a post being interesting to me.
- mcv 3y ago
  Not entirely. It is possible to see posts from people you're not following. I'm not sure how Mastodon does it exactly (I'm not on Mastodon, but the Fediverse is more than just Mastodon), but I think it also has a tab where you can see other content. In the end, if any user on a server follows the poster, the post will end up on that server, and it's up to the server to decide who gets to see it, which could be everybody.
  - elsjaako 3y ago
    I mentioned that, didn't I? Or am I misunderstanding you? > There is a link in the interface for "global posts". It doesn't actually show all posts, only the public ones that someone on your instance has subscribed to.
xethos 3y ago
> some form of limited distribution using encryption I can't claim to know what your exact vision is, but that seems to line up with AUTHORIZED_FETCH [0], an existing (off by default) setting on Mastodon servers. [0] https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/config/#authorized_fetch https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/config/#authorized_fetch