Success! After a solid month of trying, I finally got a Hubzilla instance up and running at atomicpoet.org!

For a brief moment in the 60s, rock bands were like, "Indian music is fantastic—let's put sitars and tablas in everything!"

And we collectively just forgot about that.

Meanwhile in India, they continue making the world's best party music.

All right, who's self-hosted a mail server on a Raspberry Pi? You'd think that if you can self-host anything on a Raspberry Pi, it would be email.

@colin This is interesting reading. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMTPS

Did you ever have a Geocities site like I did? Do you miss it? 🤔

Neocities picks up where Geocities left off! Today, I'm reviewing a few Neocities sites and talking about its possible impact on the future Internet🧵 https://blog.peerverse.space/exploring-neocities/

People I don't see on the Fediverse:

1. Politicians
2. CEOs
3. Celebrities
4. Journalists
5. Stans

Right now, it looks like the bulk of the Fediverse is:

1. Programmers & open source software advocates
2. Crypto bros
3. Furries
4. LGBT folk
5. Anarchists

For all intents and purposes, Facebook (i.e., "the blue app") has become the Internet's retirement home. Young people are staying away. Facebook? More like Boomberbook. https://www.business.com/articles/facebooks-user-base-is-getting-older-what-does-this-mean-for-marketers/

That leads us to WhatsApp. Yes, it's still the top dog, but signs aren't good when Brian Acton, the founder of WhatsApps releases a competing product and it immediately experiences hockey stick growth.

Instagram is still popular with Millennials. But you know who they're not popular with? Gen Z. TikTok has crept up and overtaken Instagram as the haven for young people. Where young people go, so does the Internet. https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/instagram-and-gen-z/

Speaking of the FTC, Meta has an active antitrust suit that will take years to resolve -- so their growth options are extremely limited. https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/news/252515715/Long-costly-road-ahead-for-FTC-antitrust-case-against-Meta

Okay, so if all three of Meta's platform's are in trouble, why don't they just acquire another growing platform? That's not easy when the FTC is breathing down your neck. https://uploadvr.com/meta-supernatural-acquisition-ftc-probe/

What if a rock star employee developed a new killer app, thus saving Meta's future?

Not with company morale the way it is. Nobody wants to work there. If a coder wants to build something, they won't stay at Meta. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-01-13/meta-is-immune-to-scandal-except-when-it-comes-to-employee-morale

Why doesn't Meta just copy the competition and grow that way? They have. Reels is supposed to do what TikTok does. Yet they're still losing. https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/02/04/facebook-meta-growth-zuckerberg-reels-tiktok-videos-creators-pay/?sh=7d5954d44008

Meta doesn't motivate talent to build amazing new things.

Instead, they motivate talent to become whistleblowers. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/tech/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-what-we-know/index.html

Meta's own behaviour towards the metaverse reeks of desperation. They're demanding a 47.5% cut from sales of digital assets. Problem? Sellers on the metaverse have options, including NFTs. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-parent-meta-set-to-take-nearly-50-cut-from-virtual-sales-within-its-metaverse-11649885375?siteid=yhoof2

Obviously, bean counters at Meta know the trends are looking bad. This is why they're pivoting to the metaverse (hence the name from Facebook). But the metaverse probably won't go mainstream soon. https://nypost.com/2022/01/08/experts-predict-living-in-the-metaverse-by-2030/

(Sidenote: NFTs are controversial, but with Meta demanding a 47.5% cut, even the biggest detractors of NFTs would admit they're a better option than Meta.)

Thus far, I've only pointed out symptoms of Meta's death. But now let me explain why Meta is deader than a corpse -- and we should bury it.

If Meta could survive revenue contraction long enough, maybe the metaverse is a decent "Hail Mary" prediction.

Problem: a judge just ruled that Meta's plans now require shareholder approval. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-07/meta-loses-bid-to-quash-vote-on-the-future-of-metaverse