this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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34
How long until we have corporate instances in the Fediverse? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
75 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Not willing to give them ideas so fast.

That's something that popped in my head as soon as I started in here, not so long ago.

But there's nothing to prevent that, right? I mean, Meta could very well create a meta instance on Lemmy or Kbin or Mastodon or in all of them, bring a bunch of users, sprinkle in some ads because why not.

Sure, they could be defederated from more restrictive insfances. In the bigger picture, every other instance could boycott them, but they would surely federate among themselves (Elon meets Mark, ugh). They also have all the computational power and would have no problem being the largest instances in the Fediverse.

Then what? Is that feasible? Probable? My utopian future about a free, descentralized Fediverse is a lie?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

honestly it would be better than it is now. currently content is in what we call silos or walled gardens. if my grandma posts to Facebook i can't see it because I'm not with Facebook.

If Facebook (/ mEtA) went on the Fediverse, that would also mean exposing any and all content over the ActivityPub standard. Every user can decide themselves if they want to see posts from Facebooks servers, but there would at least be the opportunity to see the content at all.

Also it would make switching away from big platforms way easier, because why would i stay with Facebook, when i can just switch to e.g. tchncs.de or my own server and keep in touch with all my old contacts.

TL;DR Big cooperations federating their content silos would be good, that's why (for the most part) it's not going to happen

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Wow that would really be a wonderful development honestly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

This wouldn't be a problem at all, or possibly even a good thing. If one instance is supported by shitty ads then people won't go there and they'll sign up elsewhere. That's the whole value of the fediverse - choice and no lock-in.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

I was actually just thinking this when thinking about switching to @pixelfed i was thinking what if Instagram just converted to federated instance. How that would look

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There are already corporate instances, like Trump’s Truth Social.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@exohuman @RomanRoy truth social doesn't really count as their mastodon fork doesn't federate

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They choose to not federate, or no one will federate with them?

I can't imagine creating an instance and then just choosing not to federate. Lol kinda defeats the purpose.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I can't imagine creating an instance and then just choosing not to federate. Lol kinda defeats the purpose.

Isn't that just taking working open source code and privatizing it? Makes sense to me. If you want a Twitter clone you have that in an instant.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Corporate instances would be a sign that this thing is gaining traction. Obviously there are downsides, but it would give a lot more credibility to the fediverse and get more people to give it a try. And someone has to pay the hosting costs anyway. Financing will increasingly become an issue as user numbers grow. The point where you can't just do this as a hobby project any more is going to come sooner rather than later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The point where you can't just do this as a hobby project any more is going to come sooner rather than later.

Will it, though? I thought one of the big points of the fediverse is that you can host your own small instance, federate with other instances, and get the content you care about. It's certainly not easy enough for most people to do right now, but it seems like ernest and others are working on making it easier.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

You can for yourself, hosting a large instance for others does require time, financing, a legal entity (if for nothing else, liability purposes). Most people are much more likely to use what is already there unless they have an itch to do it themselves.

Mastodon is a non-profit that also hosts the largest mastodon instance, ultimately I think there will be a ton of small hobbiest instances and a few big ones - they should preferably be run by non-profits to help avoid the current Reddit situation (more like other open source projects).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I’m all for corporate instances as long as we get a bunch of them - the one thing we really do need to avoid is a situation where one company dominates the β€œopen” Fediverse to the extent that they can turn around and murder it, like Google did with Usenet.

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