Some good-faith questions of some seemingly apparent benefits of a potential Corporate Fediverse, and the detriments of defederating from a Corporate Fediverse. Could I get some answers? - eviltoast

Hey guys. I admittedly am mostly a layman to the Fediverse as a concept. So I am coming into this post with the knowledge that I don’t understand the technical intricacies of it.

I fully expect that Meta will act in as bad of faith as possible, that is something that I think we all agree on. But from what I understand about the Fediverse, I’m just having a hard time understanding how we would not be shooting ourselves in the foot unless we at least try to federate with Threads.

I am aware of Embrace, Extend and Extinguish.

Here are my understandings of the goals as a non-corporate fediverse:

  1. We love decentralization
  2. We love privacy
  3. We love self-reliance
  4. We would love to see the non-corporate federation grow

With those understandings, here are my questions:

Doesn’t the fediverse have an inherent protection and/or immunity from corporate take-over?

As I mention above, I am aware of Embrace, Extend and Extinguish. But, how is that a risk for the Fediverse?

QOL features, and gimmicky capabilities can be replicated.

The only thing we may not directly be capable of are 1st party Meta acct/apps integrations.

Aren’t we protected?

Threads requires effectively all personal data from its users. But only their users. We are not forfeiting any personal data by federating with Threads; we are isolated to, and protected by, our individual instances.

Is there anything currently stopping Meta from scraping the Fediverse for our content?

If even anonymized privacy is a concern, why do we think that defederating will protect us? We’re all posting our content on private servers which are wide-open to the public.

Won’t we grow & educate?

If we keep corporate instances in the federation, isn’t is safe to assume that the non-corporate instance will grow massively? Connecting with Threads and others will allow us to proselytize the benefits of moving off of threads, and improving their digital wellbeing. If we are not connected, they will largely remain oblivious to us.

EDIT: I think this is a benefit because the people who want off of Threads and into the Fediverse are the people who strive for Freedom. This atricle claims the fediverse is not looking for growth, but we do want it to grow with people who agree with its goals, right?

Aren’t we worried we’re forcing an ultimatum while the Fediverse is still in its infancy?

If we disconnect now, we are telling everyone “choose the shiny new Threads, or the clunky up-and-coming Fediverse”. This affects prospective users, and existing users.

What’s the harm in pulling the ripcord if we try it, and it’s truly not a good fit?

If we pull the ripcord now, we allow Threads to grow in their walled garden.

If we pull the ripcord later, we make an informed decision.

If we never pull the ripcord, we allow Threads to pull the ripcord if they ever so choose. That encloses them into their walled garden, which is exactly where they’d be if WE pull the ripcord now.

“What about an influx of low-quality content?”

This is a whataboutism I’ve heard. What’s stopping individuals from blocking their disliked communities?

“What if Meta doesn’t moderate well?”

This is another whataboutism I’ve heard. I personally think that Meta has a vested interest to moderate Threads enough to stay out of the news. As a publicly traded company, it’s in their best interest to not scare off their advertisers and shareholders.

If some low-quality moderation does persist though, we still have the ability to block users & communities.

Thanks for taking the time to answer any of these. I will likely have follow-ups, and if/when I do please understand I am asking them in a good-faith effort to try and clarify/understand.

  • MrMusAddict@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    34·
    1 year ago

    Thanks for taking the time to answer. I did read all of it, and was planning on responding to each individual point, but it all kind of melded into one combined thought.

    I guess from what I’m thinking, it’s sounding like this is the pessimistic expectation:

    • Threads will do all that they can to entice people onto their platform.
    • They will go for people with low standards of privacy and high expectations of networking, and try and win them over with features.
    • Once they’ve been won over, they become Meta’s product, and once they have enough products they will cut ties and leave us high and dry.

    But, if we “make a stand” against it now, because we expect to be a frog in boiled water if we don’t, how exactly does that improve the above outlook? We’ve walled the garden for them. The people with lower standards will be won over by default.

    I guess it may just be a difference of opinion, where you think it protects us, but in my view it just makes the decision easier for those individuals since they are forced to choose. I’m thinking that with coexistence comes the opportunity to rip users of similar ideologies over to our side while Threads grows.

    • normalmighty@programming.devEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      For what it’s worth, I wanted to pipe up in these comments and say you’re not the only one with these opinions. Just thought I’d say so here because the nature of the post is getting you blasted pretty hard with people who’ve made up their mind that federating with threads is damning your soul for eternity.

      Imo we have more to gain than lose, and all of the doomsday scenarios laid out by people - though more than possible - are no better than the outcome if people don’t federate with them.