this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Fediverse
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I think it would be the new Instagram Threads app. It looks like a great way for them to get a lot of free content for their new app.
I'm very interested in what thr Mastodon and Lemmy instance admins have planned. I think there are great arguments made in: https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
I haven't heard counter arguments that are equally well supported, but would love to hear them.
As someone who is cautiously optimistic about Meta's ActivityPub adventure, my main disagreement with the author is over
I'd like to see ActivityPub and the Fediverse at large succeed, that is actually gain significant adoption among the average user, people that don't care about freedom, decentralization etc. I disagree with a very common take on the Fediverse which seems to be "we don't want to succeed, we want to make our happy little garden, it doesn't matter if the overwhelming majority of people stay on centralized social media" because I think widespread adoption of federation (for social media, but also for code forges etc.) and open, interoperable protocols (matrix!) is important for society: less reliance on American tech giants, more resilience (services just shutting down as they run out of VC money impacts less content/users) and so on.
I only see widespread adoption happening through commercial entities setting up instances, the model of donation-supported admins simply doesn't scale. The risk of EEE is very real though, but Meta making an ActivityPub move will hopefully be a signal for others to follow, and the best way of ensuring Meta doesn't subvert ActivityPub development is by having other stakeholders that are just as important to counterbalance its influence, not by having 5k-10k-users instances de-federate from Threads because their admin (rightfully!) doesn't like Meta.
I am also not sure how EEE is supposed to work with decentralized platforms. In the end, everyone can say "that it's all too much for me and I'll build my own network with like-minded people, just like at the beginning of the fediverse."
I see some merit in Ploum's argument that the same way the Google monolith slowed down XMPP development, Meta could slow down ActivityPub development or steer it in a certain direction by forcing others to implement their extensions if they want to keep interoperability, before finally dumping it. But yes the "extinguish" situation would then be a return to the current status-quo, Fediverse as a tiny niche of like-minded people doing their own thing.