A community index of servers added a new rule recently, that requires every participant to defederate from Threads. Some admins are unhappy.

Server indexes of places for newcomers to join can be instrumental for Fediverse adoption. However, sudden rule changes can leave some admins feeling pressure to change policies in order to remain listed.

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    12·
    8 months ago

    imo it doesn’t matter for Lemmy right now one way or another, and maybe not ever. Being federated with Threads doesn’t do anything yet. Defederate or not, the only change (from my understanding) is about making a statement, or standing with other microblog platform instances that made a choice.

    On mastodon however, I’ll likely either use a federated instance or run two accounts. It’s very likely that some person I want to follow will be on Threads, and until people can convince them otherwise ¯\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

    What’s nice though is that if Threads is on activitypub, you won’t need to log in to see the content. It’s only if you want to engage with the content, and that can be done from a second Mastodon account.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
      30·
      8 months ago

      It’s very likely that some person I want to follow will be on Threads, and until people can convince them otherwise

      You realize that it makes it a lot more difficult to convince people to come to the rest of the Fediverse instead of using Threads if people are following them and federating with Threads?

      This is exactly how Zuckerberg wants you to think.

      • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
        9·
        8 months ago

        This is exactly how Zuckerberg wants you to think.

        These conversations we’re having are all speculative, and we won’t know how things play out till we get there. Trying to predict the behaviour of large groups of people is… difficult

        What I predict is that defederation will play right into their selling point. We’re going up against a behemoth of evil with enough money to bankroll creators into joining and promoting their platform. Defederating (when the majority of people don’t understand what that means) will end up with people joining Threads.

        Threads has a very high (artificially inflated) user count, it’s by a company everyone already knows, and all instagram users already have an account. The strongest selling point we can have is “Join Mastodon, you can see all the same stuff but it’s run by a non-profit instead of Facebook” That doesn’t work if the selling point is “Join Mastodon to see different content”.

        For what it’s worth, I’m actively using Mastodon and trying to inform any friends / family that are jumping ship to shift to Mastodon. Best case scenario, Mastodon takes off properly, Threads becomes a failed project by Meta, and we can nail this shut for good.

        • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
          8·
          8 months ago

          But you’re giving Meta the same selling point, right? Join Threads and see all the same content. There’s no point in going elsewhere then. It kinda goes both ways.

          You’re right that we don’t know what will happen. So it could just as well be that Threads would swallow the whole Fediverse and then if Threads blocks an instance, it’s like a death sentence for that instance. That’s the whole embrace, extend, extinguish.

          • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
            6·
            8 months ago

            But you’re giving Meta the same selling point, right? Join Threads and see all the same content. There’s no point in going elsewhere then. It kinda goes both ways.

            Somewhat yes

            • I think Threads doesn’t need that selling point because of the other advantages that it has
            • I find that when X defederates with Y, and people want to see all the content, all else being equal they will pick Y. Usually that means that Y = “We are happy to have X, but they chose to leave”

            We saw a bit of that last July for how some people picked Lemmy instances

            • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
              6·
              8 months ago

              when X defederates with Y, and people want to see all the content, all else being equal they will pick Y

              Hmmm maybe? But I think that’s a misunderstanding from a lot of users. You don’t want to see all content, trust me. Defederating is not necessarily bad. In most cases, it’s healthy.

              • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
                2·
                8 months ago

                Yep I agree with you there :) It’s a useful tool, and it’s great that we have the option