@Gargron Greetings! Thank you for creating and releasing Mastodon for everyone to build communities, make connections, and support a decentralized Internet. I’m really curious about the long-term vision for Mastodon. As the network grows, what are some of the things the development team is most excited about building or improving, while still staying true to the principles of decentralization and user control?
Having lots of fun using Delta Chat. I've set up two accounts on my mail server, one for myself and one for my husband. We're both surprised at how fast it is compared to more traditional centralised chat apps like Signal. It's so cool to be able to self-host this and not rely on centralised infrastructure that is outside of my control.
Now I just need to convince everyone I know it's really cool :)
Groups v2: How to upgrade your group chats on #Session
One of the things I've been advocating for years - and where I want to raise my voice even louder - is the importance of owning your data. #OwnYourData
Over the past few days, I’ve come across two examples of how misinformation is causing immense damage, leading people to believe that there's no alternative but to hand over their data to big corporations, putting themselves entirely in their hands.
- A well-known lawyer, just before a meeting, warned about using Teams and its new "virtual assistant," which joins conferences before anyone else and transcribes everything. When I pointed out that it would be wise to use alternative tools (like Jitsi, for example, but there are others), he abruptly ended the conversation, saying, "We've lost this war. There's no alternative anymore."
That wasn’t the right moment for a detailed discussion, so I just noted that alternatives do exist - but if no one starts using them, and if we passively accept certain behaviors from certain companies, things will never improve for us.
- Just now, I received another one of those emails that hurt more in the heart than in the wallet: "Our e-commerce is taking off, so we’re moving it to Shopify to better manage our growth."
I replied, trying to explain that handing over a growing e-commerce business to a third-party company (right now, they have full access to their own server - meaning all their databases, data, etc., are under their control) means losing ownership of it. Prices could change at any moment, contract terms could shift negatively, and, worst case scenario, if Shopify itself faced issues (which seems impossible today, but think of giants like Kodak), they could lose everything. Of course, they’ll do what they think is best, but I feel obligated to warn them.
Luckily, others are making the opposite choice. But I keep wondering: since these big platforms aren’t exactly cheap, rather than "selling themselves" to them just for (potentially) fewer headaches, wouldn’t it be worth paying someone (not me, of course, but someone working exclusively for them) to handle these things - ensuring they retain full ownership of their business and their data?
This is a good piece on #Flipboard joining the #Fediverse.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/technology/mike-mccue-surf-browser-decentralized-internet.html
It touches on #Ghost, #Medium, and #WordPress too, but not traditional #publishers. It makes me wonder. Will traditional publishers ever join the Fediverse? What will it take to persuade to them try, even as an experiment? Who will go first? How can we help?
"Bluesky is a nascent “Twitter-like” and decentralized social media network with novel features and unprecedented data access. This paper provides a characterization of its interaction network, studying the political leaning, polarization, network structure, and algorithmic curation mechanisms of five million users. The dataset spans from the website’s first release in February of 2023 to May of 2024. We investigate the replies, likes, reposts, and follows layers of the Bluesky network. We find that all networks are characterized by heavy-tailed distributions, high clustering, and short connection paths, similar to other larger social networks. BlueSky introduced feeds—algorithmic content recommenders created for and by users. We analyze all feeds and find that while a large number of custom feeds have been created, users’ uptake of them appears to be limited. We analyze the hyperlinks shared by BlueSky’s users and find no evidence of polarization in terms of the political leaning of the news sources they share. They share predominantly left-center news sources and little to no links associated with questionable news sources. In contrast to the homogeneous political ideology, we find significant issues-based divergence by studying opinions related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Two clear homophilic clusters emerge: Pro-Palestinian voices outnumber pro-Israeli users, and the proportion has increased. We conclude by claiming that Bluesky—for all its novel features—is very similar in its network structure to existing and larger social media sites and provides unprecedented research opportunities for social scientists, network scientists, and political scientists alike."
.@protonprivacy ditches #Mastodon for #Reddit (see bio in link)
“#Mozilla is made up of several organizations, one of which is the #MozillaCorporation, which develops Firefox and other technologies, and another is its nonprofit and tax-exempt #MozillaFoundation, which oversees Mozilla’s corporate governance structure and sets the browser maker’s policies. Much of Mozilla’s work focused on advocating for #privacy, #inclusion, and #decentralization of #technologies, and “to create #safer, more #transparent online experiences for #everyone,” which ultimately benefit the #browser maker and its #users.
Announcing the layoffs in an email to all employees on October 30, the Mozilla Foundation’s executive director #NabihaSyed confirmed that two of the foundation’s major divisions — #Advocacy and #GlobalPrograms — are “no longer a part of our structure.””
There you go. One side of Mozilla builds the tools of the Internet, the other does… I can’t for the life of me see what. It’s the #MozillaFoundation who cant engineer the tools that are doing “deals” with others to make things safer.
The power to make change for the better of the Internet is being moved from direct impact, ie: basic technology and applied applications TO soft corporate influence through manifestos, papers, jobs and pay for influencers and collaborations with third parties…
I know what is more effective. Basic engineering and applied products because it scales.
#WhiteCollar / #Layoffs / #CorporatePolicy <https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/05/mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-staff-drops-advocacy-division/>
You heard it right there! Bluesky is not decentralized like Mastodon is!
Centralized control and then poof something disappears.
That is the opposite of freedom of speech.
The only thing left is for a billionaire to buy bluesky too and your part of the web: GONE!
You’ve probably heard it by now, or have seen my many posts on here about Bluesky, and their false claims of decentralization, or of what kind of social network they’re even trying to be. From their blockchain, crypto investors, to the extreme right-wing accounts they refuse to moderate: Welcome to Twitter 2: The Reckoning.
What I’m writing about today, is more on that same subject, and also in...
Read more: https://mkultra.monster/socialmedia/2025/02/26/thats-very-decentralized-of-you-bluesky.html
In the past few months, I built my own DIY music streaming service so I could move away from Spotify and achieve more privacy, autonomy, and control over my music and music consumption, and better compensate artists for their work.
I just published a guide for others to do the same. It doesn't require coding or system administration (I don't know how to do either). Let me know what you think!
https://tech.raphmim.com/build-your-own-music-streaming-service-to-achieve-more-control-and-autonomy
#OpenSource #Privacy #Decentralization #Linux #Music #Streaming #Tech
@alternativeto Voilà pourquoi je ne recommande plus depuis longtemps #Telegram.
Depuis que le ou les mécènes on coupé le robinet ils n'ont fait que cherchez à rentabiliser avec 1000 et 1 fonctionnalité farfelus ou dont la pertinent est moyenne ...
Au lieu d'en faire une étape de transition vers un financement inspiré de #Mastodon et #Fediverse.
Peut-être que y'a pas trop le choix pour un aussi gros projet – centralisé –, mais ça me refroidit quand même.
If we put the three (decentratlization, federation, self-hosting) in a triangle of needs, #Decentralization should be the foundation.
Tech is political, yes. Let’s unpack the key *political* concepts behind *technical* features that indicate a good sign (singular because they have to be complete) for platforms:
1. #Decentralization - expression of celebrating multiple cultures. For-profit organizations will do their best to dilute this concept because multiple voices are harder to sell
2. #Federation - the layer on top of decentralization that allows interaction between cultures; it facilitates “crossing borders”
3. #SelfHosting - empowering individuals and communities to have sovereignty on their digital lives
Governments are tightening control, hoarding wealth, and eroding our liberties. I explore how this is happening.
What I find fascinating as an autistic person is how often I envision an anarcho-syndicalist society. Every day, I imagine a world built on freedom, solidarity, and mutual aid, a society where people are empowered to live with dignity and autonomy.
Yet, when I look around me, I see the overwhelming reality of the system I’ve been suppressed by for nearly 25 years. It’s a system that feels broken, unjust, and dehumanizing, a constant reminder of the garbage we’re forced to endure.
"NGOs, grassroot orgs and bottom-up structures like #opensource #openstandards #openhardware and similar will replace the gap that #corporate structures left in the 5th economic revolution that is happening now. They can handle #decentralization, #regenerative, #mesh #networking and #federations. Fossile structures can't handle that and therefore become parasitic, see #musk"
The lack of an algorithm sometimes makes me lose track of my timeline. And that’s okay.
Because in return, as I scroll, I come across boosts and posts from people I don’t know. Real people - not bots, not paid influencers pushing a product.
I see stunning photos taken by someone with just 10 followers - photos I’d never see on a commercial platform. I read opinions, ideas, and advice from everyday people, like me, passionate and eager to share their thoughts with others.
This is what the Fediverse is about: communication, sharing, dialogue - not numbers.
