Meta just announced that they are trying to integrate Threads with ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.). We need to defederate them if we want to avoid them pushing their crap into fediverse.
If you’re a server admin, please defederate Meta’s domain “threads.net”
If you don’t run your own server, please ask your server admin to defederate “threads.net”.
In fact, I agree with your second sentence.
The issue here is twofold:
if threads federates, people will have 10x the content they have now and a lot more „mainstream content“ than rn. If threads starts to push ads with their posts in a year or two, the way back is like losing an arm because everyone got used to the pumped up amount of content. A lot of popular people have a threads account.
the more problematic issue is the possibility of an EEE attempt (embrace, expand, extinguish) which google has done with xmpp years ago. If threads federates and meta starts changing parts of the activitypub protocoll, they might rip apart the fediverse
Dont get me wrong! I‘m not against a possible federation but we need ground rules first. No pushing ads, no changing of the protocol, no commercial usage of federated data, etc.
On your second point, it’s worth calling out that a lot of folks on Lemmy today came from the Reddit API changes. These folks left a very, very active site to a network with substantially fewer users and less content, and still pales in comparison.
I think this serves as sufficient evidence to show there’s a large enough group of people who don’t care for the size/activity of a social network and participate on the principle of less-VC/Wall St funded social media.
I don’t think EEE applies here. Worst case a bunch of servers defederate Threads. If the ActivityPub protocol gets terrible influence from Meta, the protocol spec can be forked.
If, on the unlikely chance, the Lemmy devs start becoming Meta advocates and add ads in Lemmy, the software is AGPL3, it can be forked.
Look at how Linux works around corporate abuse, especially with the Red Hat nonsense. As long as enough people care, a fork is made and maintained, and users will come.
Technically correct but imo not addressing my point:
Even if something gets forked, every time the divide gets deeper and less „social“. The reason why an EEE attempt makes sense is to weaken a competing service with potential. Its enough to weaken it for the devs to eventually lose patience and stuff breaks down.
Because if a million users sees the light and leaves, they have a million instead of the 10 they had before. That is a massive step backwards which took years and years to accomplish.
Do you have the money to enforce those rules? Because meta certainly has the money to get people to profit off what they want.
You will lose. EEE/enshittification will happen. To think otherwise is naive.
Well, I already defederated so I‘ll just scream into to void and hope some peeps hear me.
Because gay rights (as example) also were „never gonna happen“ at some point. We just need to keep on pushing.
What a stupid line of argumentation. You will obviously always lose if you don’t push back
Stupid?
Cynical, sure…Pragmatic even, but not stupid. I don’t have rose tinted glasses that so many fediverse adherents seem to have about this platform. I see the corporate world taking what it wants. They may not snatch it up quickly, but they sure as hell can engage in the EEE slow grind and get what they want eventually.
Sure, fight. We might be able to carve out a piece that remains free. But if they want to commercialize it, they will, and there will be plenty of instance owners that will jump on the bandwagon to make $ or just defray costs.