@EVDHmn that depends on who you ask. I agree that software diversity is a good thing, but it seems a bit premature to make sure a condemnation. @jglypt@FediTips
Eugen's Mastodon organisation develops the software that is run by Mastodon instances.
The instances could switch to different software, but the alternative software has to exist first, which is why it would be good for the Fediverse to see some good forks and totally different platforms too.
Another thing Eugen controls is the trademark "Mastodon" in relation to social networks. He could demand that anyone using that word uses his software: https://joinmastodon.org/trademark
@FediTips@jerry@EVDHmn oh ok. Yeah I hope they don’t do anything too bad. I doubt they will because they’ve had it like this since like 2016 so to just change big things would be frowned upon & it’s the same CEO still
@FediTips@EVDHmn@jglypt I know we won’t see eye to eye on this, but as the admin of 5th busiest mastodon instance for the past 7 years and someone who is generally all in on the fediverse, I am genuinely looking forward to what the mastodon team can do with additional financial support.
The problem isn't extra money, but the strings that may come attached to extra money. The people raising money have to be really careful not to fall into traps built around chasing "growth", which then makes the project turn to crap.
So many projects have gone down the toilet further down the line because they took money with strings attached.
Look at what happened to post.news, they shut down completely within a year because they weren't growing fast enough.
@FediTips @jerry@EVDHmn@jglypt
Well, look at Linux. The large majority of Linux codebase is written by developers who are paid by big tech companies. I do not we can say that Linux does not deliver a good product.
@FediTips @jerry@EVDHmn@jglypt
OK, fair point.
Now, if you look at the fediverse microblogging, there is mastodon as big player and gotosocial misskey and forks as alternatives. Isn't that similar to the OS space with linux as the big player and freebsd openbsd and netbsd doing their thing.
Or am I missing something?
GotoSocial is still in alpha and devs say isn't ready yet, but seems to be doing well so far with good priorities, that's why I'm trying to encourage support for it.
Forks of mastodon are currently very dependent on the original's code from Mastodon HQ. Hopefully some more independent forks emerge.
Misskey fork development bit unstable at moment, one major dev just vanished suddenly etc.
The instances could switch to different software, but the alternative software has to exist first, which is why it would be good for the Fediverse to see some good forks and totally different platforms too.
I really wish heaps & heaps of peeps would move to #Friendica, coz then i could also return to that as my daily default. It has so many advantages over Masto, but alas each time i spend time on my instance there, i sooner or later return to Masto coz...
...historically Masto was my first #Fediverse experience, & so that's where the majority of my interlocutors are. Most of them don't understand alternatives like F, which does many things differently to M, such that from many Mastodonners' PoV my posts thereat can seem weird, due to the different protocols, features & functions. That problem would become far less important if heaps more peeps were also on F.
I'm very keen to promote Friendica too, but am waiting on them to add a proper abuse reporting system. At the moment you have to manually contact the admin if you see something bad. They need a bit of help with getting it coded:
@FediTips@MsDropbear425@jerry@jglypt
Sorry just now catching up… see I very much enjoy these discussions, someone should forward these over to Eugene perhaps yall could form an advisory board for mastodon with @stux and everyone to help with logistics errors combined with a lower level user advisory for function. Bungie had something like that for halo and destiny. That’s if both and parties would actually want to do that to create the best cohesive community and also for survival of the PF
@jerry@EVDHmn@FediTips btw why/how do you have that badge on your profile? I noticed the @BBCNews account has a golden one and I don’t know how these work - just curious
@jglypt it’s an emoji that I added to the end of my display name. Whichever app you are using appears to pick the first emoji in a display name and add it to the profile picture. This is what it looks like when viewed through the mastodon web interface @EVDHmn@FediTips@BBCNews