I’m not the most on point as far as keeping up with the internet so possibly it is actually happening, but I have not yet identified a direct challenge to Facebook from the fediverse that has been settled on by those already here.

I was on Mastodon for a while but realized I hate Twitter-style interactions, as much as I enjoyed posting about all the stuff I’m into - as the Twitter people kept coming like waves of Saxons with funny hair on Britain’s fair shore, I got into some supremely silly arguments and then got out. I didn’t bother to wait for them to burn my village, they’re welcome to it.

I’m now giving Lemmy a go, because as far as participation in platforms, I lasted longest at Reddit, though I was gone long before the recent exodus. Hopefully my dogs, cats, plants and microcontroller projects will get some love from The Internet’s Good Strangers here.

But I was, in the early days, quite an avid FB user and considered it unleaveable until 2016, at which point I realized it was not just leavable but likely to get us all killed. I still have a (good parts of) Facebook-shaped hole in my online life, which is where all my real friends and relatives used to hang out for my daily perusal, and where I could send out my various snarks and know I was amusing at least one or two people who genuinely found my antics delightful. I’m not a troll but I’m definitely a Grouch, and even Oscar needed a hug every now and then.

So given that most of us are here because we recognized the cycle of enshittification at some point and decided to make a different choice, and given that we’ve so quickly embraced replacements for every other big silo, and given again that most of us were probably once on FB and used it to be connected to our real people… why have we collectively shied away from even offering a viable Facebook alternative?

Whenever I ask my more “woke” friends why they’re still there, it nearly always seems to be that their old relatives are all there. I can see that that would be a great challenge, to move them off of that pablum-crack. Maybe the Secret Council Of Woke Fediverse Elders is using all these lesser platforms as gamergate-like test runs to iron out the kinks in federation. Perhaps even the seeming willingness of Mastodon admins to let Meta poke their tentacles in the door is entirely a feint - perhaps Mastodon was never intended to be kept in the first place, but rather, is just a honey pot to gather important battlefield notes for the coming attack!

maybe?

  • JTode@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    What would the risks be?

    Like, context, last month when I was on Mastodon and the great argument about whether to federate with Meta happened, I was very much on the “fuck no not ever” team. In terms of opening the federated door to them, I can think of many ways that ends horribly for us but not so many where it actually hurts them. So it’s not that I discount the danger they represent to anyone who interfaces any part of themselves with their products.

    But a Federation that directly competes with the constructive parts of Facebook’s social infrastructure (mainly, connections to family/friends and groups for local communities/events), and tries to be as easy to use, with no interfacing directly with facebook, I don’t see the risk, other than, they will obviously send their hooligans, but I don’t see what they can do if we just say no.

    I’m still gonna be watching the Threads plot unfold, they forced a good opening but apparently it’s petered off, and they no longer have infinite capital to throw around for Ubering.

      • JTode@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        None whatsoever, other than, I actually was enjoying Mastodon for about two weeks and then two Twitter exodi brought a flood what I can only describe as twitthink, so I definitely know how a userbase can fundamentally alter the character of a community in a relative heartbeat.

        I’m sure there’s all sorts of well-thought-out technical reasons why it can’t work that I haven’t thought of, but in all honesty I don’t find such ministrations very compelling. Fundamentally, I do still believe in the ability of groups of well-informed and competent people to pull things off.

        But again, aside from the stuff I already thought about like server loads, traffic management, all the problems of federation that we’re already aware of, what I’m specifically wondering if I’m missing, is, are there risks specific to going up against FB that are different risks from what we’re already doing to the other sites?