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There's nothing you can do about it. I can't predict the future. Asking good questions is a start. How about a free, absolutely no fees, peer to peer exchange

There's nothing you can do about it. I can't predict the future. Asking good questions is a start. How about a free, absolutely no fees, peer to peer exchange for anyone. We already have strong peer to peer alternatives in the long run so far. Other than convenience, there's nothing stopping anyone from leaving the walled gardens, destroying all apps, and even scuttling today's web protocol for something much better. I think that there is an appetite and opportunity.

bruce511 2y ago
Niche appetites and niche opportunities, sure. Mainstream though? Nope. My mom and a billion other moms isn't giving up Facebook anytime soon, nor does she want to. What you perceive as "lack of control" she perceives as "communicating with friends". 60 years ago if you had a car you were also a part-time mechanic. 100 years ago there were endless car companies and startups. Turns out what people wanted was reliability. Today there's around 10 large car companies who build a rounding error of 100% of the world's cars. There are also a couple hundred niche companies turning out a few cars a year. The niche exists and keeps them alive, but I don't want to "control" my car, I just want to use it to get somewhere. So yeah, there are a bunch of techies who care about the process more than the result. They run Linux and use Mastadon. (And it's fantastic this exists.) But pretty much everyone else doesn't care about the OS, or web site, they just want to -communicate with friends- . They run windows or Mac and use Facebook. Indeed nothing stops people leaving the walled gardens and removing all apps. Nothing except the fact that they have literally no reason to. They're perfectly happy because they don't care about the tech, the tech is just a means to an end. I haven't worked on my car myself in 25 years. And it's a chore I -really- don't miss. I use a car to get places. It's tool not a hobby.

bruce511 2y ago

Niche appetites and niche opportunities, sure. Mainstream though? Nope. My mom and a billion other moms isn't giving up Facebook anytime soon, nor does she want to. What you perceive as "lack of control" she perceives as "communicating with friends". 60 years ago if you had a car you were also a part-time mechanic. 100 years ago there were endless car companies and startups. Turns out what people wanted was reliability. Today there's around 10 large car companies who build a rounding error of 100% of the world's cars. There are also a couple hundred niche companies turning out a few cars a year. The niche exists and keeps them alive, but I don't want to "control" my car, I just want to use it to get somewhere. So yeah, there are a bunch of techies who care about the process more than the result. They run Linux and use Mastadon. (And it's fantastic this exists.) But pretty much everyone else doesn't care about the OS, or web site, they just want to -communicate with friends- . They run windows or Mac and use Facebook. Indeed nothing stops people leaving the walled gardens and removing all apps. Nothing except the fact that they have literally no reason to. They're perfectly happy because they don't care about the tech, the tech is just a means to an end. I haven't worked on my car myself in 25 years. And it's a chore I -really- don't miss. I use a car to get places. It's tool not a hobby.