"... advocacy is one of the things that we currently lack within the network and we really need to execute well on, if we want to help bring more people in. The network's growth is kind of dependent on that, and if we don't keep growing, there's some concern that we might not be able to maintain the momentum that we've built up to this point."
@deadsuperhero, 2025
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/fediforum-june-2025-recap/
I'm all for organic growth, but we don't need it to improve service.
We need to be wary of falling into a 'growth is good' mentality, which can ossify into a 'growth by any means necessary' approach. To me this is the fundamental ideological driver, lurking beneath the various political-economic factors @pluralistic identifies as the causes of enshittification on the platforms.
That said, I do agree with @deadsuperhero on the larger point he's making here. #Onboarding and #UX do need a dedicated pan-fediverse focus, like we have with IFTAS on Trust & Safety.
"I think one of the big barriers that a lot of organisations [have] - even we have at the @newsmast Foundation [and] we have fulltime employees ... - it's spreading yourself across the platforms, and maintaining the heavy [publishing] schedule you need to actually be seen on some of them. It's so much work, and for individual projects, I can understand why they can't do that."
#SaskiaWelch (@saskia), #NewsMast, 2025
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/fediforum-june-2025-recap/
(1/3)
"So I think one of the answers to that could be a collective effort. If we help each other out, and kind of have a combined front as we go out to the outside world."
#SaskiaWelch (@saskia), #NewsMast, 2025
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/fediforum-june-2025-recap/
Bang on. The challenge here is to agree on the nature and the boundaries of this collective identity. Eg Do we promote projects that are technically useful, even if some people associate the lead devs with politics they strongly demand we disassociate from?
(2/3)
But putting the political alignment difficulties aside, this was one of my goals with the Fyre Exyt/ Fire Exit project I dreamed up a few years ago.
To have a narrow group identity that was about maintaining a minimal presence within the DataFarms. Showing people some of the human-respecting software and services they can use instead, and how to get started. Ideally with automated migration tools.
(3/3)
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
