this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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This magazine is dedicated to discussions on the federated social networking ecosystem, which includes decentralized and open-source social media platforms. Whether you are a user, developer, or simply interested in the concept of decentralized social media, this is the place for you. Here you can share your knowledge, ask questions, and engage in discussions on topics such as the benefits and challenges of decentralized social media, new and existing federated platforms, and more. From the latest developments and trends to ethical considerations and the future of federated social media, this category covers a wide range of topics related to the Fediverse.

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Meta will release an ActivityPub-enabled Twitter clone/competitor this summer. Will you join in or defederate? (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 year ago by ci@kbin.social to c/fediverse@kbin.social
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Here is what we know about it so far:

  • It will most likely be called Threads.
  • It is not known what domain it will use for usernames.
  • In mockup screenshots, a user replies to someone using an @mastodon.social handle, it's very likely that they will federate.
  • It will be side app of Instagram. It's not clear how much of the new network will be baked into the main app.
  • Your username and verification status will carry over, so early adopters won't have an advantage for their preferred username.
  • Your followers will not carry over but there will be an easy way to pick and follow people on your Instagram list.

Personal observations:

  • Many people that I talked to about it think that this will be Meta's attempt at an "EEE".
  • Some Mastodon instance admins that I chatted about it say that Meta will "likely attempt to pull their user data", and they "will defederate immediately".
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[–] wagesj45@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Many people that I talked to about it think that this will be Meta's attempt at an "EEE".

probably. but the normies wouldn't have joined a federated service anyway. and when the "extenguish" part comes, it will just go back to the status quo (i.e. normies on private FB service, the rest of us on federated instances)

Some Mastodon instance admins that I chatted about it say that Meta will "likely attempt to pull their user data", and they "will defederate immediately".

got bad news for anyone that thinks meta wouldn't just run a crawler and scrape anything they want from your server.

at worst i'd see this as a net-neutral to the fediverse.

[–] MeowdyPardner@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm of the same mind - I'll watch with great interest and welcome interaction with users on Meta-run instances, but I don't think it'll be much of a threat to the fediverse. The increased activity from Meta will in some ways be a rising tide that adds to the appeal of existing instances, and their development on top of ActivityPub will potentially be useful as case-studies of what kinds of UX can feasibly be built on top of ActivityPub, and may serve as lessons to existing fediverse projects that we can learn from as we find ways to provide good UX on top of a complex federated system - either as good examples of ways to present federated data structures in ways that are easy to understand, or as examples of what not to do if they do something that doesn't work well.

[–] atypicaloddity@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

their development on top of ActivityPub will potentially be useful as case-studies of what kinds of UX can feasibly be built on top of ActivityPub

Absolutely. Devs at Facebook, Twitter, etc have built a ton of great things that have been adopted by web devs across the industry. I'm looking forward to what they do with ActivityPub that we get to 'steal'

[–] Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

My limited understanding of this is once a Meta instance user follows or communicates with another user or magazine/collection on a kbin, Lemmy, Mastodon or any other Fediverse instance, that account is now accessible to everyone on that Meta instance. Other people with Meta accounts can see those kbin etc. posts on their federated timeliness. What that also means is that there is less of a reason to visit kbin, Lemmy etc. for their content and create an account in one of their instances. Meta becomes the face of the fediverse.. In other words, it can kill off the need for non-Meta instances. (Maybe I am misunderstanding this. If I am, please someone provide the correct info!)

I personally do not want a Meta instance account because I like the anonymity of my kbin and Mastodon (and Reddit) usernames. I updated my FB pic once and Meta automatically updated my IG one. My IG handle was automatically that of my FB one. It was very annoying (and inhibiting). I don't want everyone and their Nana seeing what my interests are.

Plus, it may just be another way to data mine and will be filled with ads and boosted posts from magazines im not subscribed to and people and hastags I have no interest in.

[–] kux@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It will most likely be called Threads

Meta going for the nuclear option

[–] Briaxe@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Probably so. They have to do something now that the "Metaverse" is dead.

[–] 0xtero@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I don't use their products, so I won't be joining in, but I am cautiously interested about their ActivityPub functionality.
Hopefully they'll work with W3C with the standard (instead of building own extensions) and perhaps even open source some of their tools. I don't think that's going to happen, but one can hope.

Also - if all 1.2bn MAU's from Insta are suddenly "fedi-enabled" maybe I'll be able to follow some of the things that haven't transitioned over the fediverse (chess players, Formula 1, NHL etc). Would be awfully nice.

[–] jcrm@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I don't see this as a bad thing. I hate Facebook with a passion, but if it means more money going into UX development of federated services, I'm all for it. To me that's the biggest problem with them right now.

The concerns about data use are worth noting, but I don't think are to be worried about. They can get the data anyway, and what we really need is better data privacy laws in place in general.

[–] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Like most of Meta's recent projects I don't expect many to care for it, let alone for it to survive. Especially if it gets defed'd immediately (which I am fully expecting). Bluesky has a better shot than this.

[–] operator@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

AHAHA i can already see whats gonna happen.

  1. Meta pouring millions of dollar into the development
  2. Meta releases their new network
  3. Most instances, especially the big ones, defederate(*)
  4. Metas app fails due to failing content and engagement.

The only option they have is forcing everyone from insta & co over to Threads.

*) I am not a fan of defederation, but I'd rather defederate Meta than freely give them all the data. Makes it harder for them to crawl^^

[–] DataVortex@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Since I already have an Instagram account, I will probably try it out, mainly because I'm curious about how will it work and look. I want to see what their take is, and how they approach certain things. But that's about it. I won't be using it past that, because I'm already on Mastodon using Mona and that's where I'm staying at.

In any case, I guess that I could follow some people over there from my Mastodon account.

[–] stormageddon@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know this is an upopular opinion to have in the Fediverse, but I'll probably try it out. Twitter, as mush as it pains me to admit, had its uses pre-Musk. And a lot of people have stayed on the platform because they don't have anywhere else viable to be (because of the size of their audience or how complicated jumping into the Fediverse can be, for example). So a mainstream alternative to Twitter that's not run by the dumbest boy in school is very much a market Meta can take advantage of. And while I doubt they have good intentions behind including ActivityPub, I'm in "wait and see" mode for now.

[–] EnglishMobster@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Bear in mind that there are already large ActivityPub platforms that are run by bad actors. Most of the users of those platforms don't even know they're on the Fediverse.

The one that comes to mind is Trump's Truth Social. Internally, it's built on Mastodon. It can technically federate with anywhere else.

Most places defederate with Truth Social because they don't want to be associated with it - but it's still Fediverse and still technically can interop with everyone else.