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The goal of decentralized social media is not to be another network like the massive ones that already exist, but to replace them all. Really to have them all become part of the universal social network.
If you're not afraid of a company somehow becoming the focal point of that enormous thing, perhaps where most people come to search it or see what's trending, you're not paying attention.
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@wjmaggos I agree with what @cwebber said in a pair of posts about ATProto;
https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/
https://dustycloud.org/blog/re-re-bluesky-decentralization/
BlueSky is fine as a large-scale, short-term Titter replacement, but a poor long term solution to decentralising the social web. I'm hopeful that people will see the problem in due course and migrate again.
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In the meantime, the best thing we can do is pave the migration paths between the AP and ATProto networks, and try to learn from BlueSky's UX. Both successes and failures.
There could be many ways to apply those lessons to the fediverse. Improving the UX of AP implementations. Maybe updating the AP and related social web specs to make that easier. Like formalising some aspects of the FEP process within the specs, so new implementers reading them know where to go for extension standards.
until we answer the question of why we care about decentralization, these decisions re how to be more appealing to more people could destroy the value in the whole affair.
@wjmaggos
> until we answer the question of why we care about decentralization
I think the first of @cwebber's posts linked above answers that pretty well.
I read that a long time ago and not sure I see what you're referring to on the quick skim now.
If it's about power re communities, mostly. I think we have to separate social networking from social media. and then our goals for social media between entertainment and news.
if you want to organize, that's social networking and I'd recommend privacy. if you want entertainment, decentralization isn't needed. social media news distribution should be our focus.
@wjmaggos
> not sure I see what you're referring to on the quick skim now
Sorry, it's the second one that does the deep dive into why decentralisation matters, mainly in the section on "Decentralization and federation terminology". Please excuse my patchy memory.
