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Comment on 😠Meta just showed off Threads’ fediverse integration for the very first time😠

TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I've seen people bringing this up, but while they talk of EEE and XMPP, it seems like the analogy here is not being quite finished and formulated.

If we apply that to this, it seems like people are saying "if Meta changed the ActivityPub protocol to favor them and become incompatible with the rest of the Fediverse, Fediverse users would choose to return to Meta-owned platforms."

And that's what I'm questioning. Would you? Would you think others here would? I wouldn't. I'd rather go to whatever fork Fediverse devs favor instead. If anything, all the fear being expressed every time Threads integration is brought up only emphasizes that this is not how it would play out

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ToxicWaste@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I hear you. During the reddit exodus i left without having an alternative and stumbled upon lemmy much later. So i am fine going back to not having social media. However, a social network only survives if there is enough content. And if we are honest, lemmy barely has enough content.

Ill give you an example: I like climbing and there is !climbing@lemmy.ml with roughly 2 posts a month and !climbing@sh.itjust.works with less. I am happy to see something about my hobby twice a month. But all my friends still are on reddit, because two posts a month are not enough to them.

If you click on my profile, you will find 4 posts. I am a natural lurker, like most people on the internet, i read, vote and maybe comment. These posts, i made them because i wanted to add some content to this platform. While facebook is federated, there will be much more content. We can see theirs, they can see ours. Sounds like a win-win, right? But it may also make lemmings dependent on facebook content. If there is always more than enough content to endlessly scroll, I don’t need to upload my stuff to the network. However, if facebook pulls the plug after a long time, that leaves barely any content here and lemmy is basically dead.

I would probably still be around: Angrily clicking on some link about random big corpo, once a month smiling because someone shared a picture doing the same hobby as i. But for sure there are still people on old XMPP instances, while motivated dev’s reinvented XMPP: Matrix

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- TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I hear that, but I see it the other way around.
  
  Like you, I have some niche interests, and to be honest the Lemmyverse is still lacking on that sense. I'm here more in hopes of what it might become someday, than because it appeals to me as it is. Most communities I'd like to participate of simply don't exist here. Yeah I know "why don't you make them", but I don't have the time to cultivate and manage a community. I find myself hopping back to Reddit because as much as that place is on a decline, it has those communities.
  
  Like you say, integration or no integration if the communities and content isn't there people will not come, or they will lose interest. This is already happening. Even with the occasional exodus only a few communities manage to be self-sustaining. Facebook can't kill the Fediverse. Obscurity can kill the Fediverse. Your disaster scenario of what maybe could happen with Facebook is something that is on the verge of happening without Facebook anyway, all that might take is that one of the handful of people keeping the little movement there is in some of the niche communities gets tired and gives up.
  
  As much as Facebook may control their platform and integration, they don't control the people, and I'm sure some amount of people will be like "this place sucks" and hop over because they will see there are alternatives. If Facebook sets it up and then cuts it off, there will be people who will miss it and decide to move to the Fediverse for good. A small fraction of Facebook defectors would be enough to make this place much more lively. And again, would people just give up without Facebook content? It still seems like this is underestimating the people who want to make this place thrive or wish not to be beholden by Facebook.
  
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  - ToxicWaste@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It really seems like we are looking at two sides of the same coin.
    
    The coin has already ben tossed. Let’s see on which side it will land - I certainly hope it is the one you described.
    
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Piece_Maker@feddit.uk ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

And that’s what I’m questioning. Would you? Would you think others here would? I wouldn’t. I’d rather go to whatever fork Fediverse devs favor instead. If anything, all the fear being expressed every time Threads integration is brought up only emphasizes that this is not how it would play out

The network effect can be strong. Say you’re now able to contact all your friends via your favourite Activitypub instance, you had to previously use Facebook.com or Threads or whatever but now they’re all here. You delete your Facebook and keep your Activitypub account to speak to all your friends who are on Threads.

Now Meta pulls the federation plug, or adds some feature that makes your Activitypub server not able to fully cooperate (Maybe you can talk, but you can’t video call anymore, or you can’t post GIF/images, whatever). Now what? All your friends are over there and getting annoyed with you. So… you eventually succumb and fire up a Threads account.

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- fuzzzerd@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s no worse than you started. The fact remains nobody is going to get 100% coverage of their contact list on the fediverse without Meta, so trading a Facebook account for a threads account is no different, and it ignores the benefits of that time when you maybe able to live without either.
  
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  - TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Right? I don't know how to express any more clearly for the people who already are here that being here right now is the proof that there are people will choose a better platform over the most popular one. Unless they are admitting they are personally one temptation away from returning to Facebook.
    
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takeda@beehaw.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You mention EEE and forgetting how it works in next paragraph.

Embrace - facebook joins fediverse, existing users rejoice because now the user base was added with threads users

Extend - facebook starts adding proprietary features to their product, many users start switching, because if they use threads.net they can have the new features AND still have access to the entire network

Extinguish - facebook comes to conclusion that there’s not many users on fediverse anymore, and being compatible only holds them up, so they disconnect, suddenly it gets very silent on fediverse, some people will jump to threads.net, because their friends are there, others will quit completely eventually making the network even emptier

This exact thing happened with Jabber/XMPP and it was also realization that vast majority of people are not loyal to some ideals and will switch to whatever works for them. Companies absolutely hate to have product they can’t fully control.
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- TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I'm so tired of this argument. I keep hearing you guys repeating this again and again and again and again and again and it never makes sense. You take way too many conclusions for granted of how it would play out. EEE is not a cursed mantra of inevitable destruction, it's a tactic which relies on public trends, and we are not trend chasers, we are niche users.
  
  Extend - facebook starts adding proprietary features to their product, many users start switching, because if they use threads.net they can have the new features AND still have access to the entire network
  
  WHY?
  
  Would YOU really jump into Threads?
  
  Who is this person that you imagine that dropped Facebook and Twitter, but will jump right back as soon as they so much as see it again.
  
  Such a person wouldn't even be here to begin with, They would already be there.
  
  Extinguish - facebook comes to conclusion that there’s not many users on fediverse anymore, and being compatible only holds them up, so they disconnect, suddenly it gets very silent on fediverse, some people will jump to threads.net, because their friends are there, others will quit completely eventually making the network even emptier
  
  What makes you guys so sure if a shutdown comes everyone will choose to go to Threads?
  
  Because they got more content? Because there are more users?
  
  Guess what, that's HOW IT IS RIGHT NOW. With this logic, how do you even explain that we are here right now? Just because we apparently don't get a single whiff of THE BIGGEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM IN THE WORLD?
  
  It does not make sense.
  
  Do you have so little confidence on what we have here? That nothing we offer could compare?
  
  That's where I disagree the most. I believe many people would like the experience they could have in the Fediverse, yet, unlike Facebook, it isn't something widely known or advertised.
  
  This exact thing happened with Jabber/XMPP and it was also realization that vast majority of people are not loyal to some ideals and will switch to whatever works for them.
  
  Jabber is not a community, it's a communication tool. A communication tool is only fit to purpose if it allows people to communicate with those they want to. Social Media is about community. There is appeal in connecting with like minded people even if not literally everyone you know is there.
  
  And yeah, most people aren't loyal to social media either. WE ARE NOT MOST PEOPLE. We are the people who ALREADY CHOSE ideals over convenience. Or, more cynically, functionality. Because Meta's inscrutable algorithms suck for anyone wishing to tailor their own experience, which is why I doubt they can even meaningfully Expand to begin with.
  
  I would bet that if such integration came and went away, the Fediverse will come out of it bolstered. I don't doubt Facebook would try EEE, but what they stand to gain is insignificant and very debatable, and what we stand to gain is enormous.
  
  Don't take their complete takeover as granted. If things played out as they intended so easily we would all be on the Metaverse paying for digital replicas of street art or some other other unexplicable bulshit.
  
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  - takeda@beehaw.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s silly, you’re just thinking that somehow this time will be different.
    
    it’s a tactic which relies on public trends, and we are not trend chasers, we are niche users.
    
    Maybe you are, but most people aren’t. With XMPP, I was similar, running my own server. I didn’t jump to GTalk, but it still ended up with me shutting it down after I ended up to be the only person on my rooster.
    
    WHY?
    
    Would YOU really jump into Threads?
    
    I don’t, but I’m not the most people. I didn’t jump with XMPP, but it still killed it for me.
    
    Who is this person that you imagine that dropped Facebook and Twitter, but will jump right back as soon as they so much as see it again.
    
    Such a person wouldn’t even be here to begin with, They would already be there.
    
    I think you believe that everyone on fediverse is for the same reason as you are. Though I even doubt that, it’s ironic, since you’re here for 9 months, so you arrived here because of the API change. Don’t you think if it was about principle you would be here much earlier than that? Add to it that you’re still quite active on reddit, so you’re lying to yourself and (at least from the outside) it looks like likely you would be one of those people.
    
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    TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    First of all, gross. Cut it out with the stalker bulshit.
    
    Second of all, you are not making the point you think you are. You just found out that my oh-so-unprincipled self posts in other places. Well, if I was "those people" you speak of, I wouldn't be here. Isn't that your whole point? That people will quit it as soon as anything vaguely more popular comes by? Now I ask, sherlock, what am I doing here?
    
    Maybe you didn't pay much attention while you were combing over some random stranger's whole internet presence, but I literally spelled it out, I wish this place to grow so that communities that I like take root here instead of being non-existent or ghost towns. But since they didn't yet, I hang around in places where they do exist also.
    
    You are right about one thing, people don't have allegiance to any platform. Which also means I can be in multiple places at once. You might have gotten that if you weren't so engrossed feeling lemmier-than-thou.
    
    It’s silly, you’re just thinking that somehow this time will be different.
    
    Would YOU really jump into Threads?
    
    I don’t, but I’m not the most people.
    
    And so are most people who are here, that's the difference. The people who want to be on Facebook, stay on Facebook. How hard can you slam your face on the point and still miss it?
    
    But hey, if you want to wallow in paranoia I'm gonna stop sweating it, because trying to push back against me only got some random creep sniffing through my stuff.
    
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