@jerry I had no idea you were hosting an akkoma instance! I may have to try it out.

Instagram Co-Founder Kevin Systrom bemoans Instagram’s current existence, says that it’s lost its soul, and says his biggest regret is how commercial it’s become.

I’m sure he’s crying into his stack of billions of dollars.

That said, there is a social network that has Instagram’s old soul: @pixelfed. In fact, @pixelfed is more Instagram than Instagram ever was.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/instagram-cofounder-says-the-app-has-lost-the-soul/ar-AA18J63j

I mean, maybe Bluesky will be the kick in the pants for the Fediverse to get more serious about nomadic identity.

Because I, for one, think people should own their online identities.

But I have no doubt that the many intelligent people working on identity can make this happen on the Fediverse.

There's one thing that Bluesky claims to do better than the Fediverse with its AT protocol, and that's nomadic identity.

But nomadic identity exists on the Fediverse.

There are hundreds of Hubzilla and Streams servers that are online. You can use this right now.

Meanwhile, Bluesky isn't here yet.

And yeah, @Sarahp has a point. The Fediverse already has lots of high profile folks using the service.

It's at the point where, if you're in the tech industry, the Fediverse is the place to be.

I can practically taste @Sarahp's skepticism about Bluesky.

She thinks that ActivityPub is eating Bluesky's lunch.

Interesting! If @timbray were a VC, he’d stay away from the Fediverse.

Yes, let’s spread this narrative.

10x ROI won’t be achievable. Monetization isn’t possible. There’s nothing to see here.

😙🎶

https://hachyderm.io/@timbray/109943677801646774

@ada @fediversenews It actually moved here: @mastodonusercount

@MoonMan Can't wait till someone makes a block list of 20,000 users and distributes this among relays.

@MoonMan I doubt that's what will happen. It will more likely be that a relay operator will see a list of 20,000 users, and say, "I don't have time to verify, I'm just going to take someone else's word for this."

@MoonMan So distributed blocklists now ☺️

Yesterday, I said that the "dark" part of the Fediverse was moving to Nostr.

This is because these folks don't like being "censored" and believe they are entitled to visibility.

They don't like moderation. That's what it comes down to.

They're fine with abuse and spam. In fact, they believe it's a net benefit to social media.

And when you look at Nostr now, that's what it pretty much is right now.

@fediversenews

💀R.I.P. BITCOINHACKERS.ORG💀

The Mastodon instance bitcoinhackers.org has shut down for good.

NVK cites many reasons for this. He doesn't believe Mastodon is "truly" decentralized, that users don't own their identities.

But what truly comes down to it is many instances were blocking them, keeping the crypto crowd out.

Right now, Bitcoin.org is pushing Nostr -- hoping others will follow them. That was predictable.

https://bitcoinhackers.org/

@fediversenews

Also, I disagree with the notion that Nostr is "more" decentralized than ActivityPub.

It just has a different chokepoint.

What happens if everyone uses the same relay? Centralization.

And relays can be moderated.

Granted, it's harder moderate a Nostr relay than a Fediverse server.

But I don't think that's a good thing either.

@fediversenews

Now I'm going to agree with NVK on two things:

1. ActivityPub is not as decentralized as it could be

2. On the Fediverse, most people don't own their identity & data

However, unlike NVK, I believe those two critiques can be worked on.

The way to decentralize further is to essentially make it as easy as possible to start up and run a server.

And new methods for identity management are being worked on as we speak.

@fediversenews

Now I'm not necessarily against Nostr.

I think if they got rid of all the crypto hucksters, it would be fairly nice. But as it stands, the entire community seems to be full of crypto hucksters.

Truth be told, I don't want to read about crypto. It's boring.

I'd rather hear people talk about movies or the weather or science or news, which is why I keep coming back to the Fediverse.

Social media isn't just about tech, it's about the community you nurture.

@fediversenews

This is too funny 😆

Before Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk, they were suing Elon Musk for reneging on the acquisition agreement.

For their efforts, they hired experts to help them along.

But now that Elon Musk has acquired Twitter, Twitter isn't paying them 🙃

What does Twitter allegedly owe them? $2.19 million.

So now they're suing Twitter 🤣

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/twitter-hired-experts-for-case-against-musk-now-musk-wont-pay-them-lawsuit-says/

@darnell @rysiek @axbom Can Parliament-Funkadelic join this mythos?

I know they're not Star Trek canon, but I want them to be.

@me But I mean, with that temper tantrum, would @stux really want him back? I know I wouldn't.

If you're wondering why everyone's talking about Seth Abramson and his complete and utter Mastodon failure, here's the post.

TL;DR: Mastodon is "harrowing" because he got banned 😱

And if you don't want to give post.news clicks, here's a screenshot.

https://post.news/article/2IanIj231d7nc5bxqOxIJpFfGwe