If you're used to centralised networks like Facebook, you may be wondering why Mastodon and the Fediverse are spread across thousands of sites. Why not just have a single site where people sign up?
There are many important reasons, but maybe the most important is this:
Networks on single sites tend to be bought by bad people when they get popular 😠
It happened to Instagram (bought by Facebook), it happened to Whatsapp (bought by Facebook), it happened to YouTube (bought by Google). It can happen to ANYTHING built entirely around one site.
No matter how much you trust the people who run a site, when someone offers them billions of dollars they may just take the money.
Decentralised networks, where there is no central site, are much more resistant to buyouts.
No one owns the global email network, thousands of indie players like @Tutanota and @protonmail are able to offer alternatives, and if one provider behaves badly you can switch to a different provider.
#FediTips #Fediverse
There are many important reasons, but maybe the most important is this:
Networks on single sites tend to be bought by bad people when they get popular 😠
It happened to Instagram (bought by Facebook), it happened to Whatsapp (bought by Facebook), it happened to YouTube (bought by Google). It can happen to ANYTHING built entirely around one site.
No matter how much you trust the people who run a site, when someone offers them billions of dollars they may just take the money.
Decentralised networks, where there is no central site, are much more resistant to buyouts.
No one owns the global email network, thousands of indie players like @Tutanota and @protonmail are able to offer alternatives, and if one provider behaves badly you can switch to a different provider.
#FediTips #Fediverse
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8Petros
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •Geotechland
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •FediTips has moved!
in reply to Geotechland • • •For example, the Internet Movie Database was originally a community project, but it got bought out by Amazon within just a few years because it got popular 😔
As long as the Fediverse stays decentralised though, there's much less risk of this happening.
Gamliel Fishkin 🮱
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •@finallycanuck@tech.lgbt has moved
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •FediTips has moved!
Unknown parent • • •Decentralising means no one is tempted to sell the entire network, because it's not possible.
j@mastodon
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •Very happy to be resilient. Might even get a shot at self-hosting an instance 😀 Me being dumb could be a risk though ;)
Still @kakure has a point. Recently I had an account on fediverse that was completely deleted because the instance went down forever. Unfortunately there just isn't a way to upload the contents anywhere else. Without a previous warning and backup, the content would be lost forever. Which is normal on the internet, but still wish for a workaround.
FediTips has moved!
in reply to j@mastodon • • •Mastodon Server Covenant
joinmastodon.orgj@mastodon
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •What are the blockers to just upload your previous toots somewhere else?
FediTips has moved!
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •But there are also other reasons why decentralising makes sense for the Fediverse. Maybe the next most important reason is the ability to choose our own rules.
Each site (or "instance") on the Fediverse can decide its own rules for acceptable behaviour. This makes dispute resolution much more civilised, as people who disagree with an instance's rules can move to a different instance (or even start their own).
It also makes a lot more sense than having a massive megacorporation trying to make yes/no decisions on the entire world's disagreements.
Instances can also choose to block other instances. The worse an instance behaves, the more other instances will block it, until eventually the worst-behaved instances are just talking to themselves.
The Masto developers summed this all up well in their official video:
https://tilvids.com/w/hRzMpJwSkqEK3ZTNPbSuqu
#FediTips #Fediverse #MastoTips #Mastodon
What is Mastodon?
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Rokosun
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •This is a TROMcast with the developers of friendica, taking about moderation in the fediverse, how its different from other platforms and how we can deal with it. Its very interesting 😀
67. Moderating the Fediverse
videos.trom.tfMark likes this.
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Aroop Roelofs :verified:
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •FediTips has moved!
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •The Fediverse is made up of thousands of independent instances. Every instance runs separately, usually on separate servers. Even the largest instance only has a fraction of the Fedi's total users.
Additionally, different instances may use totally different software (Mastodon, PixelFed, PeerTube etc) written by totally different teams, so software bugs will probably only affect a fraction of the Fedi at any one time.
By being so diverse and spread out, the Fedi minimises the impact of any technical problems.
Centralised networks are much much more vulnerable because they aren't diverse, they put all their technical eggs in one basket. That's why we regularly see Facebook down, Instagram down, Whatsapp down etc.
#Fediverse #FediTips #MastoTips #Mastodon
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Adamas Nemesis
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •adnan360
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •Even though Email is flawed but many things have been fixed to increase its security. But the standard remains the same. This characteristic has made it survive till this day.
We just have to use it. Fediverse is the future!
Mark
Unknown parent • •(webdev Tory) :emacs: likes this.
GadgetComa
in reply to FediTips has moved! • • •FediTips has moved!
in reply to GadgetComa • • •But great that you have found what you need on here 😃