YSK about corporations' strategies to kill open source protocols - eviltoast

Why YSK: If we want to keep the Fediverse in the hands of its users and prevent “enshittification” (search it), it’s good to know how corporations kill grassroots projects like this.

I saw this in another thread on /c/Showerthoughts. I think it’s important for this to be circulated widely so that the broader Fediverse community is aligned. We don’t want admins second-guessing their decisions when users start infighting. We should be united in our thinking and ready to protect our platform.

  • Wooster@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Okay, but realistically, how can we prevent this from happening in the future?

    We’ve already, according to the article, dodged one bullet; but there’s no reason to expect that it’ll be the only one.

    Also, due to the nature of the Fediverse being open source, there’s no way to prevent Facebook or other corporate monstrosities from building their own hooks.

    I think we need to be prepared to preemptively defederate from the likes of Google, Reddit, Facebook or whatever. Not just this instance, but the greater Fediverse should have a United policy to reject association with those who would consume us and spit us out.

    • TheBeege@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Agreed. We need to treat this like OUR platform. It’s not the admins’ platform. It’s not the devs’ platform. It’s OUR platform. We create (or at least link) the content. I think that if we maintain this mindset, people will reject corporate attempts to inject themselves into our platform.

      Edit: Not to say we shouldn’t appreciate devs and admins. See the thread continued

      • Ech@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Excluding admins and devs from the start is just petulant and short sighted. Treating them like the enemy will only encourage them to silo off from the community.

        • nova@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s not that they’re the enemy - it’s just that the platform is controlled by its users. If an admin goes bad, users have the ability to change instances or stand up instances of their own. We are not tied to a single entity’s will.

    • memchr@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It would be nice to have some sort of mutually assured destruction with these mega corps.