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Sat, 19 Nov 2022 03:17:22 +0100

hans@social.woefdram.nl

Same here.

And I've also been that weirdo who refused to use #WhatsApp and kept blathering about #Signal and #Matrix. Let's see if we can repeat this Fediverse avant-gardism with WhatsApp :sunglasses:

Tayo 🇺🇦 wrote the following post Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:14:15 +0100

For years, I've been the wierd guy at work that wasn't on FB, IG, tiktok or twitter. I'm the nut that didn't use any google products, using a degoogled phone that always had its VPN turned on and routed all traffic through the TOR network. Suddenly, I'm the cool guy that was the first person in the office on Mastodon.

show all 13 comments

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 03:20:51 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

or D*...

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 17:36:57 +0100 last edited: Mon, 21 Nov 2022 06:07:09 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Hans van Zijst

Let's see if we can repeat this Fediverse avant-gardism with WhatsApp smiling face with sunglasses

While the most part of the Fediverse surely would welcone Elon Musk buying Meta, I doubt that he made himself attractive for Zuckerberg as a major investor, with the #Twexodus he induced.

Plus, I'm not sure if Matrix as messenger galaxy, and Friendica, Hubzilla, and Streams as macroblogging galaxies, are ready to support a #Whaxodus and a #Faxodus with the current starfleet of instances... :shrug

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 17:53:26 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Witcraft Would be nice if the transitioning from WA to Matrix would be a bit more gradual, yes.

But maybe this is the time to spin up a few decent Hubzilla hubs for #Facebook refugees. A lot of people have heard of the #Fediverse by now, and HZ would make not only a decent replacement for Twitter, but also for Facebook. We could ride that wave.

I haven't tried Stream yet, but Tanja sparked my interest in it yesterday, so I think I'm going to start an instance with that one of these days. I work for a hosting company, so I have plenty of resources to play with, and Fediverse is one of our top priorities atm.

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 20:15:05 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Then there is the question of whether we really want Twitter and FB users here...

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 21:33:17 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Adam Hunt

Then there is the question of whether we really want Twitter and FB users here...

I think the question is an important one - And I do not think that this is ours to decide. The Fediverse is an open network. It currently is a bubble with a specific culture, yes. And it might be a challenge, when this culture is confronted with other cultures. But the Verse has different rules, so the game will be different: There is no ad money, no payment for self-publishing, no algorithm, and no owner who sets the culture. And there is filtering. Yes, the public stream might become different. But we have all the tools to cope with that. We cannot complain about walled gardens, the lack of people recognizing the Fediverse, and build a wall around a universe based on federaton once those people are open to join...

@Hans van Zijst

But maybe this is the time to spin up a few decent Hubzilla hubs for #Facebook refugees.

Some large instances or some aid for setting up own hubs would be a good preparation for things that have started to roll and are going to come...

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:06:04 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

@Witcraft you bring up some good points there. I will note on your statement:

no owner who sets the culture

True, but we do have a high bar for culture here:

Social principles - Guidelines for being part of diaspora*’s community

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:12:28 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Witcraft The question if we want all those Facebook and Twitter users on the Fediverse is a very real question indeed, good point for bringing that up, @Adam Hunt. Things on the Fediverse will change if more and more people from different cultures pour in, we've already seen ActivityPub change in the last few weeks. I've seen things I remembered from my time on the birdsite, and I'd rather not see that become the standard here.

At the same time, I don't think it's our decision. I cheer the idea of having an open infrastructure for the whole world to connect and share ideas, even if that will inevitably bring in some lowlifes. I trust that the federated nature of the Fediverse will quickly isolate those people. We have decent tools to protect us from jerks.

I'll dive into Streams and Hubzilla the coming days, see if I can work out how to run something like that for lots of users. My own hub runs on a small VM, but I'm the only user really. Scaling it to tens of thousands of users might require a fundamentally different architecture.

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:27:29 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Adam Hunt

True, but we do have a high bar for culture here:

Many new users have noticed that things are a lot friendlier and more respectul here, I sure hope they will embrace that culture.

But although I'm an optimist, I expect that things will get a little rougher now that a lot of Twitter users pour in and are told that the Fediverse is "like Twitter, only federated". I think it's our task to educate those new people as much as we can.

Only yesterday did I talk to a long time friend of mine, who has been active on the birdsite for years, and has recently opened an account on Mastodon. I might have pushed him a little ;-)

But he complained that it was too quiet, not much happened. Then someone else showed me some of his recent messages on the birdsite... Appalling! Sure, funny in a way, but calling people names like that is not what we would want here. I warned him that behaviour like that is a quick way to get blocked and banned here.

So yesterday he found a new, commercial and closed chat thingy and asked me if I wanted to join. I read a few paragraphs of the privacy statement and that was all I needed. Hard pass.

My point: with all the new people coming here, there will inevitably be a few who bring their bad habits with them.

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:46:11 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Yeah and it will take a bit to all shake out, but you are right we do have the tools to deal with it.

One thing we should do is make sure the new people see:

Social principles - Guidelines for being part of diaspora*’s community

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:51:25 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Adam Hunt Yup, new users should be made aware that the Fediverse is not Twitter. I saw a lot of boosts and favourites when I posted my thread yesterday, let's hope a lot of new users pick it up:

Woefdram (@hans@procolix.social)

Now, a bit about the #FediCulture, the culture on the Fediverse.

I can't stress this enough: THIS IS NOT TWITTER!

There, I said it. We're not supposed to mention the name of the birdsite, but here we are.

What's more important is that we keep things friendly and respectful on the Fediverse. Call us PC, or snowflakes, or whatever pejorative is popular on the aforementioned site, but that's how we roll.

18/26

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:54:34 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Exactly.

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 17:35:49 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Adam Hunt Just found this post, thanks to @івась тарасик for boosting it into my TL:

https://uxdesign.cc/mastodon-is-antiviral-design-42f090ab8d51

It’s possible the influx of newcomers will drift away. They’ll discover that, on some level, they don’t really like the antiviral design and culture of Mastodon; they prefer the buzzy surges of Twitter, its Coney Island of the attention-span.

Or maybe they’ll stay, and change Mastodon’s culture. They’ll gradually inject more viral behavior into the mix.

Good read about #FediCulture and I'm going to post this article on several places :sunglasses:

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 19:57:14 +0100

Adam Hunt

gander22h@diasp.org

Interesting. Social media is changing, let's just hope it is for the better over time.