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   Tim Bray (timbray@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 17-Jan-2025 03:34:59 JST Tim Bray

   In which I consider the announcements from Mastodon and Bluesky-adjacent “Free Our Feeds”, both surfacing on the 13th, concerning fundraising and governance measures for the worlds of ActivityPub and ATProto: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/01/14/Protocol-Churn

   #bluesky #fediverse

   • Embed this notice
     Raphael Lullis (raphael@mastodon.communick.com)'s status on Friday, 17-Jan-2025 03:34:58 JST Raphael Lullis

     in reply to

     @timbray

     Overall a good post, but I still think that "overall AP servers are pretty cheap to operate" is only true if we take the work of admins for granted.

     At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people are not interested in paying $50, $30, and not even $10 per year to have an account at a server.

   • Embed this notice
     Raphael Lullis (raphael@mastodon.communick.com)'s status on Friday, 17-Jan-2025 03:38:16 JST Raphael Lullis

     in reply to

     @timbray

     So AP only has a shot of becoming really mainstream if one of the following happens:

     - we move *away* from servers, and start building client-first applications which are "powered by AP" and the servers are much more lightweight (responsible only for routing messages to the right inboxes)

     - different governance models come up where operating costs are hidden from users: perhaps your phone company gives you an AP account with your plan, or your employer/university/school...

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 17-Jan-2025 03:42:34 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @timbray This is a great analysis, and roughly reflects my own sentiments. At the SWF, we're lending moral support to Free Our Feeds, because we want the ATProto space to be more open and participative than it is now. But we're putting our eggs in the Fediverse basket, because it seems like the better long term bet.

   • Embed this notice
     Raphael Lullis (raphael@mastodon.communick.com)'s status on Friday, 17-Jan-2025 03:56:57 JST Raphael Lullis

     in reply to

     @timbray

     In any case, neither of the following initiatives raised my hopes much.

     - Bluesky/ATProto is still fundamentally broken (https://mastodon.communick.com/@raphael/113796033637861505)

     - Regardless of their for-profit/not-for-profit status: I'm not a fan of Eugen's / Mastodon's "centralized planning" approach and I really don't like how everything they do seems to be in *reaction* to what "evil capitalists" are doing. It's never going to hit mainstream if they keep looking at the rear view mirror.

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org)'s status on Friday, 17-Jan-2025 09:50:01 JST Chris Trottier

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan @timbray I agree. I want Bluesky to succeed, which is why I post there, and also why I’m considering running my own PDS.

     But the gap in actual server counts is huge. And other than Bluesky, there’s few viable apps.

     This week, people migrated to Pixelfed from Instagram and TikTok—not an app that runs ATP.