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   LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Thursday, 29-Dec-2022 11:20:57 JST LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
   https://500ish.com/mastodon-brought-a-protocol-to-a-product-fight-ba9fda767c6a
   
   #Medium link; don't be surprised if it does weird things before showing you the article.
   
   "Mastodon brought a protocol to a product fight"
   
   > Yes, yes, the network is under immense strain as people flee the Elon strain infecting Twitter. But come on, there are folks who really believe this is going to replace, or even stand alongside Twitter, as a massively scaled social network? I call bullshit. While it’s impressive that millions of users have apparently given Mastodon a try, the product is far too slapdash and clunky to keep folks engaged. A lump of coal.
   
   No, it isn't meant to be a #Twitter replacement. Keep your Twitter account until you no longer want it--or the company closes and the site shuts down--you can use Mastodon alongside Twitter.
   
   And the #Fediverse networks are much more than just #Mastodon. Don't think you have experienced the network and all it has to offer if all you've done is briefly tried to use Mastodon, because you haven't experienced it.
   
   > I’ve somehow avoided signing up for the service up until now. Largely because signing up was and is so comically obtuse — pick your server everyone, hope you choose wisely!
   
   Have you not used e-mail? It works the same way. You pick a server, such as Gmail or Outlook dot com, and sign up. Please tell me you realize that the people you communicate with are not all on the same e-mail service that you use.
   
   > But, but, it’s not a product, it’s a protocol. Yeah, that’s a nice thing to say. And to believe in. But I truly believe the ship has sadly sailed for such idealism in this space. Jack Dorsey can talk about how this should have been what Twitter was from the get go until he’s bluesky in the face. It’s just not going to happen. And he’s more to blame for that than most everyone else. As is he for the Elon element of this current equation. But that’s a different story.
   
   Okay, so how about this story: Twitter has only been profitable two or three years of its entire history. Since it started, it has existed by burning through investors' funds. Eventually, with or without Elon Musk's ownership, that runs out. Without such funding, their corporate-centralized ( #corpocentric ) model cannot exist very long. And same for their centralized competitors, such as Post.news, Gab, Parler, and so on. What is left is either #federated or #peer-to-peer approaches, where no single entity is responsible for funding and managing the entire network. So whether it is the #Fediverse ( with #ActivityPub and #OStatus and their successors ) & the Federation ( with #Diaspora ) or #Bluesky, or #Twister, or #NOSTR, the eventual future of #socnets is #decentralized, if not entirely peer-to-peer unless a national government takes over Facebook and Twitter in order to provide effectively unlimited resources. It is the protocol that makes it possible for thousands or millions of instances to displace and replace one big centralized instance.
   
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   • Embed this notice
     LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Thursday, 29-Dec-2022 11:21:26 JST LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to
     > For now, I’ll just say that while I fully understand why everyone wants Mastodon to be the new Twitter. Or the better Twitter. The more ideal Twitter. Or whatever. It’s just not going to happen. Mastodon brought a protocol to a product fight. Maybe Ivory or another client can iron out some of the product jank, but the protocol element — the power that so many want to believe in — is what is going to keep holding the product element back, would be my prediction.
     
     The "fight" as you call it is far from over, and without the protocol, product-focused activities will run out of funds before they reach critical adoption. Twitter just happened to get lucky and reach sufficient size that investors have continued to be patient and hopeful despite the indications that it can never become steadily profitable. They would have eventually awakened, but now that the main investor is a single individual whose wealth is quickly eroding, the cuts and schemes we've seen are just the beginning of the attempts to cut costs and generate revenue. The hope for the future is that protocols produce sufficient uptake across diverse products to sustain a network.
     
     > Anyone who has been around long enough has seen this play out far too many times. Elon has created a new opening here for a new way, without question. But I have yet to see a product, including Post News and the others, that actually answer the call. A product call. Not a protocol.
     
     If you think about it, the smoothness you like about Twitter wasn't there in the beginning ... or for a number of years afterward. Twitter was full of sharp edges and corners, and it only became pleasant as people independently developed client software. When Twitter felt that its site and its own apps were pleasant enough, they restricted their API and killed off most of the client ecosystem. And the site (I haven't used their apps, so I cannot comment) is still unpleasant to use, though they did buy #Tweetdeck, where the most irritating parts are suppressed.
     
     I mean, you are welcome to pretend that you know what you're talking about and to praise Twitter the product over the Fediverse protocols ... and over products such as Post News. But when the end comes, and it will, where are you going to go? You had better be trying out all the different corpocentric "products", so you'll know which product meets your needs.
     
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