My issue with mastodon is it’s strayed so much from its vision. I use misskey but there is not a ton of clients for it at the moment.
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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Sorry I don't really use it, what was it's vision, and how did it stray?
I’m also curious what they mean
How it started:
"Oh, non-profit tech company! How noble! I trust that!"
How it's going:
I have no interest in these hollow PR dance moves until CEOs are publishing compelling outlines of how they have instituted complex legal frameworks that mean they can't reverse (or others can't reverse) these cynical moves to temporarily sway public sentiment during a building phase without say... Being legally compelled to immediately forfeit all historical stock earned and donate any historical salary and bonus compensation to the Red Cross or children's cancer research. They won't though, at best, this is an option, subject to change at will.
Remember that Zuckerberg initially allowed those tampons in the men's rooms and got a little praise, because some men do have periods and require tampons. They were in little wicker baskets, with the lids propped open on full display as you walked into any of their global offices. Zuckerberg then quietly told them internally to start closing the lids in the basket by default, still there, but closed, and then to place them on a lower shelf out of the way and ultimately, you now see the headlines that he ordered them fully removed performatively.
Declarative statements matter from people with proven, consistent integrity - that trait is inconsistent with anyone who can successfully rise to the level of modern CEO.
Open ai going for-profit will be funny/terrifying to see. They can't even break even right now. Even if they try to sell AI powered advertising or something it will be so stupidly expensive for them.
Micro-blogging didn't click for me, it's just so much less exciting than the forum format of Reddit / Lemmy :)
I heard of Mastodon a couple of years ago. I was still on Twitter and Facebook. I am not really tech savvy, so I didn't bother to go over to Mastodon. It was until just recent, I thought I would give it a try.
Long story short, I am on Mastodon, and I decided to ditch both Twitter and Facebook. Because, I like the layout and the format much better than the two. I even joined Friendica (open source platform like Facebook). So, as I started getting used to these open source social media platforms. They are much better and I would support Mastodon with some donations from time to time.
I mean, why pay $8 to Elon Musk, when you can do pretty much the same things on Mastodon? I wasn't going to throw in my 8 bucks just to get a stupid tweetdeck. Mastodon has its own deck, and it's totally free!
I am still investigating other various social media (open source) sites. I may even join Pixelfeed (alternative to Instagram).
I know you have to make money....but for a guy like Elon Musk, who owns Tesla, Space X, and a few others...why does he really need to charge people money to use his platform? I mean, I know he can do whatever he wants...but he has the money to keep the site going...without charging people 8 bucks to get "Premium" service.
The only thing Mastodon doesn't have that X (Formerly Twitter) has, is the fact that you can watch (or upload) live streaming.
Maybe, in the future Mastodon will do that?
I think it's unlikely that Mastodon (or other federated short form blogging platforms e.g. Pelorama) will integrate live-streaming as it's pretty far outside of the normal content they are built for. There is a project that does support live streaming and is federated though: Peertube https://joinpeertube.org/
yould like for it to pickup - it is a google killer app
WebRTC could be used to provide peer-to-peer streaming. The load on the servers would be very minimal since the feeds would be sent directly from the host to the viewers. A lot of live streaming and video conferencing apps already use it to keep their hosting costs down.
The downside is that the IP address of the viewers will be exposed, even over a VPN unless precautions are taken by the user or the application.
I believe that since Tiktok is about to be banned - if no buyer is sought by Sunday, January 19; that a lot of people will flock to Red Note. Another Chinese-owned social media. Having said that, more and more people will start to try new alternative places. I like the idea of open source sites. I wished I have known this much sooner.
I like Odysee - an open source to Rumble - minus the ads. Unlike Rumble, you don't have to pay to remove ads (among other features). Odysee never has ads on their platform. Which I like a lot.
I am also on Pixelfed. That site is pretty cool!
Another Chinese-owned social media.
Doesn't that mean it's just law enforcement noticing it exists and applying the law that bans TikTok away from also being banned?
uh... ok? So now it'll be controlled by someone who DOES want to be the next Musk or Zuckerberg?
No it is the opposite, this is the first paragraph in the article:
Mastodon announced Monday that it's shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization—"affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."
Can anyone savvy to the nuance here please let me know how this is any different from Altman and ChatGPT?
As o followed along lightly, my read was that they used non-profit foundation structure to win public trust and calm initial opposition to them creating an unethical product that will ultimately destroy us all and then they fired all the people focused on ethics and codified the non-profit status.
Is this meaningfully different, or likely a similar tactic?
I am no professional but:
https://sfstandard.com/2023/11/21/openai-governance-structure-explainer/
This is what I have found about the governmance structure of OpenAI. It's complicated but basically the working company is a for-profit controlled by a non-profit, controlled by employees and other investors, the non-profit is also controlled by a board of driectors. Also it's all based in the US.
The Mastodon model is probably going to be a lot simpler and will probably not allow big investors to take ownership of the company. Also they are looking for a suitable country in the EU that will enforce the non-profit's obligations to the people. Being based in the EU is in itself a huge difference, and by choice. They have not set anything in stone yet so it's all specualtion essentialy.
Also there is the trust thing: OpenAI does not need trust from people, other AI companies are for profit too and work just fine. Mastodon is build around the fact that it is different from things like twitter. If they start doing maliciuos stuff, they will loose trust and in turn their main selling point. Also openness.
Also it is open source is it not? So any progress they have made can be used to create a competitor. Basically the whole business model is different.
Thank you, but look at the publish date on that, I think this info may be out of date at this point. Altman headlines in past year.
Also, seems his own sister is suing him for sexual assault, so that's something to get to at some point as well I guess...
I haven't seen their governance structure yet, but I don't think it will ever be like Altman and OpenAI. Eugen just doesn't have that cult of personality around him, and there's not that much money in a free and open-source platform that doesn't lock people in.
I'm amazed, he actually stopped corruption before it started
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