I am actually looking forward to threads taking off. I, as a mastodon user, will be able to follow my friends, celebrities, artists and interact with them when federation is activated. It is hard to get friends on to mastodon. The software is great and is better than Twitter, but the people are not on Mastodon but on Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Now, I know platforms by Meta (Facebook) are terrible and spy and leech out pretty much all the data from users. I am also aware that Meta has some hidden agenda behind the launch of threads. Yes, I also read about EEE(Embrace, Extend and Extinguish). Even if Threads decides to drop federation/activitypub, I don’t think the fediverse will be harmed. I quote the founder of Mastodon
There are comparisons to be made between Meta adopting ActivityPub for its new social media platform and Meta adopting XMPP for its Messenger service a decade ago. There was a time when users of Facebook and users of Google Talk were able to chat with each other and with people from self-hosted XMPP servers, before each platform was locked down into the silos we know today. What would stop that from repeating? Well, even if Threads abandoned ActivityPub down the line, where we would end up is exactly where we are now. XMPP did not exist on its own outside of nerd circles, while ActivityPub enjoys the support and brand recognition of Mastodon.
I think many instance admins are all ready to defederate with threads. It just doesn’t feel right. Imo, we should welcome users from threads and see how it goes.
What are your thoughts?
I don’t think any fediverse user is concerned about their data being taken. The concern comes from the obvious threat of embrace-extend-extinguish.
Meta’s intent is irrelevant; EEE is basically a given of a large corporation because it helps maximise profit.
https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
this makes a lot more sense. I’ll read the link, thank you
edit: yeah, that’s a bigger risk. I’m a bit more torn… I’m frustrated, the promise of an open protocol is having access to the content without signing up to mainstream services. I would really love that and it’s what the protocol was designed for. cutting ourselves off feels like it’s just going to doom the whole idea to being underused and fringe.
do you think xmpp would have done far better without google?
It definitely would have done better. It not necessarily would be the current big thing, but would have way more usage and versatility now.