New: Last Week in #Fediverse - ep 100 (!)
This week's news:
- massive growth for @pixelfed, growing from 20k active users last month to almost 200k active users currently.
- @nodebb has officially launched their #activitypub integration
- Meta will not commit or confirm a timeline for adding account migration to #threads
Thank you to everyone for reading and supporting 100 editions of Last Week in Fediverse!
Read at: https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-100/
A good report as always, and agreed about the importance of @nodebb's release.
With @pixelfed , it's important to highlight that the moderation story is a disaster waiting to happen. @dansup himself has said that he still needs to implement key functionality like moderation roles and a dashboard, and that he doesn't have a moderation team in place. Others have pointed out multiple unfixed bugs related to reporting.
A high-profile Pixelfed fiasco (or worse, blatantly illegal content) could not only destroy the reputation of Pixelfed, but the sharpnel could have an impact on fedi as a whole -- especially at a time when regulators in the UK are clarifying enforcement of the Online Safety Act, and anti-LGBTQIA2S+ fascist oligarch who run social networks that compete with fedi are in power in the US.
It would be great if Dan changes his stance -- turning off open registration on pixelfed.social until he has the moderation situation under control would be an easy first step that could make a big difference.
And also, we really need to think about what we can collectively do to limit the damage to fedi as a whole.
thanks!
yeah totally agreed with you. Its quite disheartening to see fedi promote itself as a network with better governance and be completely uncritical about the governance on their own platforms
ill try to get a confirmation from dansup on mod team after growth, that is very concerning
@laurenshof disheartening indeed.
On a different subject, you mentioned Meta still isn't prioritizing account portability. Mosseri was actually quite candid about this back when Threads was announced -- perhaps more than he actually intended.
"“I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators, particularly for the newer creators who are more and more savvy, if we are a place where you don’t have to feel like you have to trust us forever.”
From their perspective, the important thing is a story so people don't feel like they have to trust Meta. Of course if you actually think about it, they don't have any incentive to make the portability real any time soon; for chat applications, when portability is legally mandated, they're engaging in malicious compliance. But hey it's a story. From @doctorow's latest
"One of the Fediverse's largest servers (Threads) is owned by Meta. Threads users who feel the bite of Zuckerberg's decision to encourage homophobic, xenophobic and transphobic hate speech will find it easy to escape from Threads: they can set up on any Fediverse server that is federated with Threads and they'll be able to maintain their connections with everyone who stays behind."
Wait a second. 99% of Threads users haven't turned on federation so you can't maintain your connections with them. Threads blocks domains unless they have public feeds so if you want to turn a privacy-friendly platform like GoToSocial you won't be able to maintain your connections with your friends on Meta. You can't even export your followers lists!
But hey, it's a good story, and it feels like people have options. Mission accomplished, I guess!
@laurenshof @thenexusofprivacy PixelFed could have learned from the past, when mastodon.social kept growing into a large "almost centralized" silo, isn't it ?
A propos, there is a PixelFed alternative in Beta https://vernissage.photos currently invite only.
I hope PixelFed will get more alternatives. Mastodon having had "competition" from Pleroma, Akkoma, GoToSocial, snack2, honk, Bonfire and so on, was a very good thing imho! 🥳 #fediverse
omg he actually posted that jesus
also you cut to the core very well, it is fundamentally about the story
*insert baudrillard picture here*
Hahaha from Cory's latest
"The reason Bluesky is so centralized is that it's really expensive to run an alternative Bluesky server that provides a home for users who have left the main server (a "relay" in Bluesky-ese)."
No that's not even remotely what a relay is and no relays aren't the expensive thing to run.
