@feditips I totally agree. This seems super dangerous to me as well. I think it's an example of why no one person should control the lion's share of Fediverse software.

I SUSPECT that Eugen & Co are doing this from good intentions. The SINGLE biggest hurdle to Fediverse adoption, or at least what we hear the most kvetching about, is the fact that you have to decide which instance to join.

This is ludicrous for those of us who've 'lived here' a while, but in a world where people are used to being force fed by the Algorithm, choice is a burden rather than a boon.

I honestly don't know how to fix that.

From a concrete perspective, what should we do? Eugen owns Mastodon. It's an open source project, so if they go forward with this people are free to fork.

Or even better, perhaps this is an opportunity to signal boost other instance software that doesn't funnel everyone into mastodon.social?

@feditips $44b each 😂

@feditips I didn't realise there were that many people on mastodon.social! Pretty sure it's under 100K users here on mstdn.social thankfully.

I have a Calckey backup which has something like 700 or 800 users if something ever happens though.

@feditips fediverse is not only mastodon, get out the fud bubble

@feditips It's always inevitable this will happen. There's a starting point, and then it becomes too big to manage it alone, and with infrastructure scaling requiring money (let alone paying developers), a business will be made.

No one has to use the official apps, they simply just exist. Mastodon is trademarked to protect the name. If the owner doesn't do it, a malicious person would.

@feditips

This is bad.
This is very, very bad.
Mastodon does not need a BDFL. It should belong to all of us.

@feditips It's sad to see these replies completely missing the point of why many left Twitter, yet they'd allow it to happen here. You'd think history wouldn't repeat itself so quickly.

@feditips
A gGmbH is probably no interesting investment for VC.

There are very very hard terms to use or pull any created capital.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinn%C3%BCtzige_GmbH

@feditips

Maybe @Gargron should cap off an instance after 25 million users, then start a new instance @mastadon.social2, .social3, etc.
#SeparateButEqual
Let others on his team moderate their own social instance.

People need to leave Twitter in a jiffy, .social is the catch all. It will be lovely when all our toots can easily migrate with us to any instance/server instead of feeling like starting fresh.

Maybe I'll feel artsy for six months, maybe I'll want to nest in travel for two months...

@feditips Good heavens — how did mastodon.social suddenly become an evil menace, and Eugen some kind of villain? It seems to me you’ve spun out a dystopian fantasy of how things *might* go bad, and now you’re whipping up public alarm over that fantasy, *as though it were really happening*. But it’s not! The fediverse is growing and thriving. New communities are being spawned and existing ones are growing in reach and vitality. We can thank, among others, @Gargron for a lot of that.

@feditips Serious question: how is all the infrastructure paid? If the fediverse really should grow beyond a marginal point it will at some time require corporations that are willing to pour money into it - and get more money out of it. Plus a lot of people simply want to see corporate content from streamlined marketing agency's or just follow their favorite brands. As long as none of those happens the fediverse is in no "danger" to lose its niche status.

@feditips Can you recommend other servers? Looking for ones with a common-sense moderation policy that aren't over heavy-handed on free speech.

@feditips I think we need to calm down and stop fearmongering.

@feditips Aaaaand an unfollow

@feditips

That's only true if users are the product, but in this case they aren't. I have very little interest in which instance my account is on, I'm fairly sure not many others really do either.

@feditips The bigger mastodon.social becomes, the more people are likely to use it.
Like it or not, most users don't care about the theoretical implications of using a technology; they care about the practical ones.
If users are afraid of centralization, then they can choose any other server.
If they don't care, then directing them to one main server is an excellent solution.
The people who disagree with this are just staunchly against centralization of any kind and want everyone to be like them

@feditips I am very worried about this as well. Rochko's original idea of Mastodon was good, obviously, but what he's doing is making himself vulnerable to a buyout and fragmenting Mastodon's integrity. (And making only himself rich).

I do hope that accounts that have been on Mastodon Social for a while consider migrating to smaller, more personable instances.

If enough accounts migrate (as a continuous thing), it would keep the risk somewhat lower at least.

@feditips mastodon, the biggest cp pics place

@feditips Any1 who’s dealt w/ Elon, or Jack on Twitter, should be on board making sure that .social doesn’t get so big some creep wants to buy it. We should be telling #newbies about it when they migrate before they’ve done a lot of posts that they could lose, they should look & see if a different instance would suit them better. If you’re concerned, talk to atleast one newbie a week! We can make a serious dent in this problem. #mastodon #Twitter #TwitterMigration

@feditips buyout can only occur if there's an agreement to sell

Just don't sell out. Simple.