I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
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I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
The Fediverse, and Mastodon in particular, showcases what social media can be when designed for democratic dialogue rather than profit.
It’s open source, so its rules and algorithms are transparent and accountable.
No single company owns it, so no billionaire can unilaterally shape speech.
It’s also interoperable, meaning people can move freely instead of being trapped in walled gardens.
Because it doesn't depend on outrage for ad revenue, it fosters healthier, more civil conversations.
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I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz
Mastodon etc. are like a bulletin board on campus, or at work,
or City Hall, or a public library, and you don't need permission from your employer, school administration, government etc. to post on it, and they can't take your posted stuff down. A friendly volunteer makes sure that there's not really nasty stuff posted. If you don't agree with what the volunteer might remove, you can always post your stuff to a different bulletin board. -
I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz No "blue checks" are needed to prove account authenticity when the server instance is self-managed by a government/organisation/private-person. It's opt-in; you'll only see messages from those you follow, or what they boost, or from those on the same server. There's no single organization behind it with absolute power over the servers and it's data (no addictive algorithms), or that can suddenly change the rules after it becomes very successful.
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@taylorlorenz No algorithm, no advertising. Completely customizable content.
@LShashaty @taylorlorenz That is the way, that is the only path to internet for good.
That is also why internet is, overall, huge net negative given user base of platforms like Instagram et al.
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@taylorlorenz No "blue checks" are needed to prove account authenticity when the server instance is self-managed by a government/organisation/private-person. It's opt-in; you'll only see messages from those you follow, or what they boost, or from those on the same server. There's no single organization behind it with absolute power over the servers and it's data (no addictive algorithms), or that can suddenly change the rules after it becomes very successful.
@taylorlorenz I'm glad and happy to read what the people I follow are working on, dealing with, what thoughts and ideas they have, etc. That's what social media should be about. It's so much better than a timeline contaminated with ads and influencers you don't follow. It feels healthier, more natural.
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I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz For me, "not owned by billionaires" is the key. I can use social media without an algorithm designed by a billionaire chum of Epstein shoving *his* favoured opinions into my feed, or shadowbanning me or closing my account for saying something that *he* disagrees with.
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@taylorlorenz no one can buy the whole network and trash it
@thedansimonson @taylorlorenz I'm betting that with a 44 billion buy in Elon could do whatever he wanted to fedi, flood anything server with so much traffic, takedown requests, legal threats, etc., to make running an instance unviable.
Like with most things, I think the audience that fedi has attracted, who tend to filter out other audiences, matters more than the tech it's built on.
It's the same with Nostr. Nostr isn't uniquely a Bitcoin thing, but it's filled with all the Bitcoin people cause that's what they went with. -
I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social fancy meeting you here! big fan, read the book and everything.
this isn't at all what you asked for, but i wrote an essay once that might be useful in more of a bigpicture/media-industry context.
you might also find to check out (or interview) elena, who is kind of our resident fedifluencer <img class="not-responsive emoji" src="https://activitypub.space/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f49e.png?v=0b03a81bb1f" title="
" /> -
@thedansimonson @taylorlorenz I'm betting that with a 44 billion buy in Elon could do whatever he wanted to fedi, flood anything server with so much traffic, takedown requests, legal threats, etc., to make running an instance unviable.
Like with most things, I think the audience that fedi has attracted, who tend to filter out other audiences, matters more than the tech it's built on.
It's the same with Nostr. Nostr isn't uniquely a Bitcoin thing, but it's filled with all the Bitcoin people cause that's what they went with.@parker @taylorlorenz you’re still talking about trying to capture hundreds of independent servers, which would only grow as efforts to take out the bigger servers started
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@cholling @taylorlorenz There are other ways... like redirecting before serving the page.
@philpetree @taylorlorenz How does that stop crawlers (and not other traffic)?
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@haubles I think this is very much a problem caused by the low level design of the fediverse. The way instances work in ActivityPub leads to a few people in powerful positions and that's very much an effect of the technology, not a purely social one.
@aesthr @haubles I see instance/account as analogous to a landlord/tenant relationship. The single-user instances, I suppose are the homeowners. Self hosting costs money. It's small money, but it's money. I think the emerging wireless mesh networks have the right network topology but unfortunately have various proprietary softwares and firmwares in the stack, but it seems exciting, possibly more exciting than the fediverse. -
@weezmgk Yeah, it's been a core part of the platform as long as I've been a user (since 2022...?), but it's a process you need to actively initiate. I don't remember where it is exactly, but if you open the web app, there should be a section in your account settings, to initiate a migration and deactivate your existing account...
@WolvericCatkin @weezmgk I crashed just after I found out my instance was shutting down, and by the time I was well enough to come back it was gone and I couldn't migrate anything. Thanks, #LongCovid.
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@taylorlorenz as a platform it is not and can never be adversarial or extractive to you as a user, the way twitter, Facebook, instagram, TikTok and others are or will be.
@taylorlorenz @ben Certainly non-adversarial data export was a distant memory before I found the fediverse. -
I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
Twitter was like being stuck on a cable news panel of people shouting at each other. Every interaction was fraught and involved people obsessed with correcting or reinforcing each other's opinions.
Mastodon is like a coffee break at a conference. Like walking through a constant stream of interesting conversations that I can drift in and out of without fuss or pressure.
I don't have to surf an emotional high as I scroll. People here read posts all the way through and engage intellectually and emotionally instead of only emotionally.
And I curate my timeline, so I can manage how much emotional exhaustion I'm willing to incur and I mostly don't get random crap that infuriates me or is designed to upset me.
There are still microbloggers, and there are moderation problems, but Mastodon doesn't track "influence" so I don't get many influencers in my feed.
It's restful.
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Sorry, shitty hosting, I'll get one from YouTube(!)
But only that's because I'm too sloppy to find other fediverse posts...... Thanks for the feedback though, C44 peertube is running on a bottom tier VPS, it's an experiment
@_elena @Tamtam @n_dimension @taylorlorenz C44 appears to be #ytdlp compatible and therefore works for me. It's on my playlist for tonite. -
It's like, imagine if a single company owned all the TV stations and news outlets?
The Fediverse, and Mastodon in particular, showcases what social media can be when designed for democratic dialogue rather than profit.
It’s open source, so its rules and algorithms are transparent and accountable.
No single company owns it, so no billionaire can unilaterally shape speech.
It’s also interoperable, meaning people can move freely instead of being trapped in walled gardens.
Because it doesn't depend on outrage for ad revenue, it fosters healthier, more civil conversations.
#LeaveX -
I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz for me- I enjoy posting without anyone trying to monetize me or my data
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I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz it's not trying to steer society towards fascism, All the algorithmic social media chucks far right content at you now, The algorithms have been tweeked to prefer it. They also block searches for "democrats" for instance . Or "Trump dementia". The CEOs have adopted the strategie to bring up fascist regimes so they will not be regulated. Also: Trump has people on the board of meta now.
Open source is our only chance at keeping a democratic society. -
Sorry, shitty hosting, I'll get one from YouTube(!)
But only that's because I'm too sloppy to find other fediverse posts...... Thanks for the feedback though, C44 peertube is running on a bottom tier VPS, it's an experiment
@n_dimension @taylorlorenz @_elena by the way, how do I find a peertube instance, that would host my channel and has better hosting than this example, we just saw?
Is it possible to make a living off of peertube? does anyone know anyone who does is? Like offering services on patreon and solely getting their audience from the fediverse, never posting on YT??
