ActivityPub is sort of the protocol though. Mastodon is just the platform incorporating it that is becoming the twitter replacement. Maybe not for everything, but programming andtechwise my mastodon feed sure is more interesting than any of my other social media feeds in the wake of Elon.
I think it's hard to say where things are heading though. We had RSS before, and that didn't stand up to American tech giants. I have my doubts this iteration of ActivityPub and the "fediverse" will, but I do think we need a decentral protocol like it if we want an interesting internet going forward. I mean, which of your centralized social media feeds are interesting in 2022? Even HN is becoming a page I visit on a weekly basis rather than on a daily basis, and this is the SoMe I use the most aside from mastodon and LinkedIn. Maybe I'm just the oddball, but at least in my circle of influence things like Facebook are now solely used to arrange things like Blood Bowl tournaments.
I think thing the biggest threat to mastodon will be the “mods” and “admins.” It’s a matter of when, not if there will be drama and it’ll be interesting to see how that is handled.
A lot of subreddits went so far as to make a bot that will ban users for posting on other subreddits. With mastodon that’s more or less “built-in.”
You’re right though. Social media in general seems to be going downhill. Can’t really put my finger on “why” but “uninteresting” being a word I wouldn’t disagree with.
Oh I don't doubt that. I'm referencing the fact that some subs will run a bot that checks your post history and will ban you if you have previously posted in a sub they don't agree with or like.
I've personally been "mass-banned" from a string of local sub reddits because I had an argument with a mod about the weather. (not global warming, literally about humid vs dry heat)
I am very politically aligned with the reigning opinions in the sub centered on my hometown/nearest urban centre. Nonetheless I managed to get shadowbanned for reasons that remain unknown to me. Being that that is the only place where local matters get discussed, that was the beginning of the end of my relationship with the site; any place where whoever happened to get there first is able to erase whomever they want with no accountability is a non-starter as a public square of any sort.
> I mean, which of your centralized social media feeds are interesting in 2022?
Don’t you choose who you follow? I’m not sure how that is related to decentralisation anyway, other than the revelations in the Twitter Files about manipulation of the network. Still, the Mastodon network isn’t free from that kind of censorship either so it seems I’m still at a loss.
I think it's hard to say where things are heading though. We had RSS before, and that didn't stand up to American tech giants. I have my doubts this iteration of ActivityPub and the "fediverse" will, but I do think we need a decentral protocol like it if we want an interesting internet going forward. I mean, which of your centralized social media feeds are interesting in 2022? Even HN is becoming a page I visit on a weekly basis rather than on a daily basis, and this is the SoMe I use the most aside from mastodon and LinkedIn. Maybe I'm just the oddball, but at least in my circle of influence things like Facebook are now solely used to arrange things like Blood Bowl tournaments.