• 6 Posts
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Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: May 24th, 2021

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  • What do you think are the better alternatives? I’m interested in the work others may be doing in federated protocols.

    Also remember that protocols need some sort of authority to standardize, and having a reference implementation is extremely helpful.

    XMPP ran into issues with too many non-standard extensions leading to feature fragmentation. I remember it being a source of confusion and part of what allowed Google to do the whole embrace, extend, extinguish dance.

    Having a company back a protocol is a concern, but not necessarily bad. If the protocol is open anyone is free to fork, just like anyone is free to come up with their own protocol. Getting people to use the protocol is a different challenge as well.

    I guess what I’m saying is that you’re right that there are some problems in this space, but as they say, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Mastodon, Matrix, Lemmy, and Bluesky have all taken is a step in the direction of open federation and have started to introduce that concept to more people. They’re not perfect, but a step in the right direction and way better than the closed centralized systems they loom to replace. There’s still a lot to discover in this space, but in the mean time I see no issue in using any of these things for now.












  • I think ignorance (in the non pejorative sense) plays a big part. I can’t really blame my non technical friends for not fully understanding that ditching Facebook for Instagram doesn’t help. Even if they know it’s the same company, it’s still a totally different product, right? There’s also a certain apathy or need to just get something done.

    I’m sure I’ve purchased things at Home Depot that would make a plumber cringe, but I know nothing about that sort of thing and I just need to get my sink working.

    Still, I think those of us who do know should continue to lead by example. My friends know my stance on these things and some of them are coming around.





  • I think that analogy falls apart because of Lemmy’s architecture, which makes it a little bit more complicated. In real life, the reach of people is limited. Extending reach IRL requires setting up external tools, like broadcasting, so there is some (albeit small) cost there.

    But in Lemmy’s case, reach is immediately unlimited (barring an instance being blocked by your instance of course). Instances will automatically pull and display your content with no additional effort on your part. Lemmy is even stranger than other federated software because an instance can host a diverse variety of communities, so defederation may not always be the right choice.

    I agree with you if it was like going to a private forum, but Lemmy’s open architecture is causing me to think about this a little more. Mass downvoting could be a signal that a community may be behaving in an inappropriate way. Or, if a community is organizing mass downvotes, that could also be a signal that they are behaving inappropriately. But the beauty of federation is that then is up to the community on the instance (ultimately the admins) to decide how to react.

    Not to mention that in real life people do go to private events to protest. There were all sorts of protests when Tucker Carlson went on tour. I suppose they may not have been in the venue itself, so a bit different as well, but that sort of thing does happen.


  • Why not vote NDP or Liberal under new leadership? You clearly have not fallen into the cult of personality the conservatives have, so have a look at policy. No party will ever completely align and there may he things you strongly disagree with, but what about points you do agree with? I highly doubt you disagree with literally everything on both party platforms. There are a lot of things I disagree with too so I have to look at the policy I do agree with.

    This is your chance to send a message to the party you were hoping to support that they are no longer acceptable to folks like you. Seriously, we are so polarized that not voting for them is the same as giving them your vote. Look what happened down south.