[liberationtech] Wealthy entrepreneurs ask whether you would use a Liberationtech-friendly Twitter clone?

[Julian Oliver]

..on Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 06:39:48AM -0700, Yosem Companys wrote:
> 
> So, I ask: What must Mastodon do to overcome Twitter's network effect? What
> would make it go mainstream? Ideas?

I think attempts to strategically market Mastodon to greater popularity will
only ever be so successful. It will (and arguably should) primarily be members
that draw others to the fediverse. Member-driven adoption helps build in
community ownership, platform morale and confidence.

This was seen with news of the proposed takeover by Musk whose own 'network
effect' drove a huge amount of exposure to Mastodon, with many nodes seeing
their memberships balloon overnight. Existing members of both Twitter and
Mastodon have engaged in a sort of 'guerilla hand-holding' to help folk get set
up and the energy has been really high. 

I'm encouraged enough by what I've seen, and it's plausible a critical mass may
be reached in the coming months resulting in rapid growth. This however assuming
instances, their resources and storage, can meet it (finance will be a SPoF).
Mastodon.social saw such large growth  2 days prior it nearly fell over.

With that said, the last days have also highlighted how much platform distrust
("sysadmins reading ur DMs" esp) is directed at community-run and administered
platforms, and at once how much socially engineered trust major brands like
Twitter have achieved.

For Mastodon to go large, there will be work to do on both community trust and
infrastructural literacy, I think.

(I ought to add a disclaimer that I sysadmin PeerTube and Mastodon nodes for
environmental defense groups).

Cheers,

Julian

> On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 6:12 AM Yosem Companys <ycompanys at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > One thing I will note because it has come up a few times in the discussion
> > already is the following: The founders of the Twitter clone in question did
> > NOT build it for commercial gain. In fact, they are specifically offering
> > to provide it as private, secure, and decentralized FLOSS software run by a
> > nonprofit foundation, if that's what people want.
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 2:43 AM Petter Ericson <pettter at acc.umu.se> wrote:
> >
> >> I would agree insofar as to say that any particular social media
> >> _platform_ is
> >> unlikely to be "liberation" technology, but federated _protocols_ as well
> >> as
> >> specific online/digital places to be and ways to organise can be (and are,
> >> sometimes) liberatory.
> >>
> >> In particular, if it's hard to monetize, it's more likely to be
> >> liberatory.
> >>
> >> And if it is built by "wealthy serial entrepreneurs" it is decidedly less
> >> likely to be.
> >>
> >> Best
> >>
> >> /P
> >>
> >> On 28 april, 2022 - Jillian C. York wrote:
> >>
> >> > While I would certainly welcome a Twitter clone, I'd be really hesitant
> >> > about calling any social media platform "liberation" technology at this
> >> > point. I think we've all witnessed that this tech is/can be/will be
> >> > utilized just as much by malicious actors as by liberatory ones,
> >> regardless
> >> > of the policies implemented or content moderation strategies employed.
> >> >
> >> > On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 12:35 AM Yosem Companys <ycompanys at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > Dear Liberation Technology community,
> >> > >
> >> > > A group of wealthy serial entrepreneurs who built a Twitter clone to
> >> > > foster civic democracy in the 2020 elections just reached out to me
> >> to ask
> >> > > whether you would be interested in using a Liberationtech-friendly
> >> Twitter
> >> > > clone now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter. They want to know the
> >> > > following:
> >> > >
> >> > >    - Would you use a Liberationtech-friendly Twitter clone?
> >> > >    - What would make you want to use it? Conversely, what would make
> >> you
> >> > >    NOT want to use it?
> >> > >    - What would you name it? They said they might even be open to
> >> calling
> >> > >    it Liberationtech, if there were enough interest.
> >> > >
> >> > > Thank you,
> >> > > Yosem
> >> > > --
> >> > > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major
> >> > > commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you
> >> > > moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe,
> >> > > change to digest mode, or change password by emailing
> >> > > lt-owner at lists.liberationtech.org.
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > +1-JILLIAN
> >> >
> >> > "To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger" -
> >> James
> >> > Baldwin
> >> >
> >> > "We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want
> >> the
> >> > seemingly impossible to become a reality" - *Vaclav Havel*
> >>
> >> > --
> >> > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major
> >> commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you
> >> moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe,
> >> change to digest mode, or change password by emailing
> >> lt-owner at lists.liberationtech.org.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Petter Ericson (pettter at acc.umu.se)
> >>
> >

> -- 
> Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe, change to digest mode, or change password by emailing lt-owner at lists.liberationtech.org.