- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- technology@lemmy.world
The company announced on Monday that it is beginning to switch its user accounts to ActivityPub, which means that everyone curating stuff on Flipboard is now doing so in a way that apps like Mastodon can see and interact with.
Everyone’s been dumping on Meta for integrating ActivityPub support, but I wonder if perhaps that’s what’s precipitating smaller projects like Flipboard and Discourse to be making similar announcements more. Here’s hoping it’s the start of an avalanche.
More competition is better, but Facebook is still the 800-pound gorilla. It took a landmark court case to stop Microsoft from taking over the Web. We might need something similar for social networking.
A large portion of the Fediverse is composed of people who walked away from Twitter and Reddit, who are also 800-pound gorillas. If Threads decides to play silly buggers with the ActivityPub protocol, people can walk away from that too.
The Threadiverse in particular is actually ideally suited to not care about what Meta is doing because generally speaking people don’t follow other people here (like they do on Mastodon and its ilk), they follow topics. There’s no benefit from having a single gigantic pool of users all piled into the same community, and maybe even some significant downsides.
Two main reasons I can think of for each camp. For smaller projects and groups, removing walled gardens means they stand a chance to actually get users. For larger groups, it means they can argue they aren’t monopolistic.
Or maybe, activity pub is doing way better than anyone thought and they want to get in on the action. You sound like a positive person, what positive thing would Meta do for the fediverse other than bring lots of people to it?
Best case scenario it becomes a Linux Kernel situation where the big players invest heavily into the project, and it becomes corporate-y and boring because it’s become the standard and not the weirdo in the corner
Boring tech is awesome.
You’re asking me “other than the positive thing that Meta would do for the Fediverse, what positive thing are they doing for the Fediverse?”
That’s it exactly. They’re bringing people to the Fediverse and spreading usage of the protocol.
Ok, great scene. Now what’s comparable to the aqueduct and sanitation that Meta is bringing.
… I just said. You said it too. It’s the thing that we both keep saying. They’re bringing people to the Fediverse.
Again, that’s not a good thing. I also noticed you didn’t say they were bringing great people to the fediverse, just people. lol.
Free and open discussion, but only for the people you like?
Be picky about which communities you join. Use the block feature if you have to. That already applies to the Fediverse.
Most people are good. If the versions of people we see online are bad, it is because the systems we are using have failed to help us communicate properly.