this post was submitted on 07 May 2023
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Technology

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48
Mastodon monoculture problem (rys.io)
submitted 2 years ago by rysiek@szmer.info to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Recent moves by Eugen Rochko (known as Gargron on fedi), the CEO of Mastodon-the-non-profit and lead developer of Mastodon-the-software, got some people worried about the outsized influence Mastodon (the software project and the non-profit) has on the rest of the Fediverse.

Good. We should be worried.

Mastodon-the-software is used by far by the most people on fedi. The biggest instance, mastodon.social, is home to over 200.000 active accounts as of this writing. This is roughly 1/10th of the whole Fediverse, on a single instance. Worse, Mastodon-the-software is often identified as the whole social network, obscuring the fact that Fediverse is a much broader system comprised of a much more diverse software.

This has poor consequences now, and it might have worse consequences later. What also really bothers me is that I have seen some of this before.

I go on to dive a bit into the history of StatusNet (the software), OStatus (the protocol), and identi.ca (the biggest instance) on a decentralized social network "grandparent" of the Fediverse.

And draw an analogy to show why mastodon.social's size, and Mastodon-the-software-project's influence on broader fedi is a serious risk we need to do something about.

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[–] OneFluffyBoi@octodon.social 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@rysiek @KLISHDFSDF I'm also confused as to how marketing would work here, considering that there's no algorithm and I'm probably not following any of the hashtags they'd be using. It'd pretty much have to be a grass roots effort by Mastodon users, would it not? Or the platform itself would have to inform users that these other platforms both exist and can interop with Mastodon.

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

One simple way to start is for UIs (Web UIs, mobile apps, etc) to display information (a simple icon woud suffice) on what instance type a given account is on when displaying posts. That already would show the diversity.

Some instance software projects do that already, I believe Friendica does for example.

[–] noodlejetski@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Calckey does that, too!

[–] OneFluffyBoi@octodon.social 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@rysiek Hm, I do like that idea. A well-placed icon that links to the platform could intrigue people and entice them to check it out.

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Exactly. And at the same time would not be obstructive nor "in-your-face".

[–] admin@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

...display information (a simple icon woud suffice) on what instance type a given account is on...

By "instance type" do you mean Lemmy, Mastodon, Friendica, etc?

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes.

[–] admin@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm, currently, talking to an iOS developer about creating an app that would provide more interoperability between Fediverse platforms (i.e. instance types). If all goes well, we will start by combining Mastodon and Lemmy with the future plan to add more platforms. So, I believe that having instance type icons next to user accounts is a good idea.

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Great! Some other instance types provide the same client API endpoints as Mastodon. So an app that works with Mastodon should work with certain other instance types too.

Double check this, but I think sure examples include Calckey and Pleroma?

[–] admin@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Will do. Thanks.

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] admin@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Probably too early for us to get involved with but thanks for the heads up.