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Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

wired.com

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Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#81

Post by autokad »

nstart wrote: post #21

Just in case any bright eyed hopeful person is reading this, please don't think "ah shucks" and go away. Some of the biggest things in the internet including the protocols the internet lives on were never envisioned as something that would change the life of billions of people. They were initially created to solve a problem for a small group and then grew into something much bigger over time. Please please don't back…

i could barely read the article. the first pop up blocked the whole screen, and when I clicked the X I also accidentally clicked the ad behind it.

Then, when I was trying to read, the text kept popping up and down as ads moved in and out. I gave up at that point.

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#82

Post by nwah1 »

nstart wrote: post #21

Just in case any bright eyed hopeful person is reading this, please don't think "ah shucks" and go away. Some of the biggest things in the internet including the protocols the internet lives on were never envisioned as something that would change the life of billions of people. They were initially created to solve a problem for a small group and then grew into something much bigger over time. Please please don't back…

It's reverse psychology. The author of this piece is playing 3D chess with us. The surest way to inspire people to attempt something is to say that it can't be done.

(but I am legitimately interested in the systems-theoretic nature of this problem, and hearing the different views, and this view is a valid one.)

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#83

Post by TeMPOraL »

nwah1 wrote: post #82
nstart wrote: post #21

Just in case any bright eyed hopeful person is reading this, please don't think "ah shucks" and go away. Some of the biggest things in the internet including the protocols the internet lives on were never envisioned as something that would change the life of billions of people. They were initially created to solve a problem for a small group and then grew into something much bigger over time. Please please don't back…

It's reverse psychology. The author of this piece is playing 3D chess with us. The surest way to inspire people to attempt something is to say that it can't be done. (but I am legitimately interested in the systems-theoretic nature of this problem, and hearing the different views, and this view is a valid one.)

Related: Cunningham's Law, which states, "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer".

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#84

Post by pnutjam »

amelius wrote: post #33
scandox wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to add one remark to this: everything doesn't have to be huge. We don't have to deal always in millions and billions. Small groups. Even individuals. What they do is meaningful. What we do is not pointless just because it doesn't create some massive impact.

Except in a winner-takes-all market. (This is not about making money, but still needs a critical mass of users to become successful because of the network effect).

Social media is only winner take all because the platforms are closed. If enough people say no thanks, that will change. The social networks might not need any one person, but they need all of us and a significant but small percentage can make a difference.

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#85

Post by dwringer »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #32

"People do not want to operate their own servers" ... oh, how much I hate that argument. There are so many baseless assumptions in there. What does "operate a server" even mean? Is "loading a web page that accepts WebRTC requests" "operating a server"? Obviously, what people mean is some sort of "people don't want to learn how to manage the installation and configuration of a linux distribution on the command line".…

I think if the argument "people do not want to operate their own servers" were true, then ISP's like Comcast wouldn't have clauses prohibiting users from doing it, or filters in place blocking access to common service ports like 22 and 80 from the outside.

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#86

Post by ojr »

decentralized social networks won't work because in order to keep a business running you need profits or the expectation of profits to acquire the talent needed to provide a nice user experience. Solutions motivated by capitalism will not disappear anytime soon.

"But email is decentralized". Actually not true, it is heavily centralized around gmail. Same true with bitcoin, it is centralized around exchanges.

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#87

Post by zeratax »

timwaagh wrote: post #39

the benefits are non obvious. social media does not have bandwith issues and few people want to share illegal text/images. so centralized platforms can work almost just as well as decentralized ones. should social networks become subject to a lot of censorship, this will change.

But that's already happening? I constantly on Twitter see "7 replies", but I'm only able to see 2. Lots of users get shadowbanned.

Now with perspective ai it looks like this will only increase and all of this is never a user choice, it's always the platform deciding for me what level of toxicity I'm able to handle. And it often plain fails. Lots of false positives.

I see this on every platfrom, nontransparent moderation and algorithm filtering everything without my knowledge nor any control.

I personally use mastodon daily, I don't know what a platform needs to reach to be successful, but when I use it daily it's successful enough for me.

Even the pawoo drama makes it sound like the only reason people in japan use it, is to see lolicon content, but the whole pixiv platform is far more than just lolicon. It's like deviantart full of talented artists that don't draw any lolicon content. This platform just doesn't think of lolicon as taboo. Mastodon is constantly growing and it's not just the pawoo instance.

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#89

Post by bashinator »

autokad wrote: post #81
nstart wrote: post #21

Just in case any bright eyed hopeful person is reading this, please don't think "ah shucks" and go away. Some of the biggest things in the internet including the protocols the internet lives on were never envisioned as something that would change the life of billions of people. They were initially created to solve a problem for a small group and then grew into something much bigger over time. Please please don't back…

i could barely read the article. the first pop up blocked the whole screen, and when I clicked the X I also accidentally clicked the ad behind it. Then, when I was trying to read, the text kept popping up and down as ads moved in and out. I gave up at that point.

Reader mode in Firefox is basically made for removing this kind of BS.

Re: Decentralized Social Networks Won't Work

#90

Post by egypturnash »

ojr wrote: post #86

decentralized social networks won't work because in order to keep a business running you need profits or the expectation of profits to acquire the talent needed to provide a nice user experience. Solutions motivated by capitalism will not disappear anytime soon. "But email is decentralized". Actually not true, it is heavily centralized around gmail. Same true with bitcoin, it is centralized around exchanges.

Decentralize the funding; rely on users rather than advertising or VC. Developing Mastodon is now the full-time job of he guy who wrote it, thanks to Patreon. I think he's starting to hire a few people, too.

And a lot of Mastodon servers also have their own Patreons to help out with the hosting costs.

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