shepherd

I supported a pre-emptive Threads defederation, because I expect them to Embrace-Extend-Extinguish the fediverse for the sake of profit.

For the BBC, I don’t feel as overtly opposed. They don’t really have the user base to overextend us with, even if they tried to get their audience on mastodon lol. They haven’t seemed blatantly profit driven in the past. And they’re starting their own instance, using fediverse tech.

Does anyone think this is the BBC’s Embrace step? It’s not sparking any alarm bells for me, but can I get a sanity check?

Here’s their accounts, for the curious:

@BBCRD

@BBC5Live

@BBCRadio4

@BBCTaster

@Connected_Studio

@BBC_News_Labs

I feel like it would be nice to pull at least some content when the first person opens the box lol. Maybe the last 10-100 posts, or from the past 30-90 days, or whatever.

Maybe do this kind of smaller sync every time another user subscribes to it until it’s fully synced up, 'cause that means we all really want the content lol.

Kbin could do that independently right? Or would ActivityPub need to change to allow that?

Hmm interesting. I do think it’s just as important that we double-defederate unfortunately. Meta/Threads has to be treated as if it’s contagious.

If we stay federated with an instance that has accepted the Embrace, what do we do when the Extend happens? Is that when we defederate? Will we even recognize it?

EEE only works because it’s difficult to see it happening to you. Instances that ally with Meta/Threads will actually present the same threat of EEE, or even a greater threat, because the Extend step may appear to come from non-Meta instances.

Imagine ActivityPub upgrades developed by a Meta/Threads-ally, let’s say improved inter-instance moderator tools. That sounds good right?

It’s basically all the exact same arguments again, but with a middle man.

• Meta/Threads have different foundational priorities (namely, profit) and real incentives to monopolize.
• Meta-ally instances have real and implied incentives to accommodate
  Meta/Threads.
• And we have incentives to accommodate the instances that we federate with, so of course kbin would use the well-developed new mod tools right?
• Seems crazy not to, even if it was developed by a Meta-ally. Right?
• Great! Repeat for thousands of tiny changes, that’s called Extend.

That’s how accepting EEE works, each little step looks great but big picture we’re unknowingly in trouble. We’ll have to treat any Meta/Threads-ally as if it is Meta/Threads. (Hell, some of them probably will be lol, the fediverse is just asking for astroturfing lol.)

We can trust instances that don’t have economic incentives. But any instance that shows they can be swayed by money, or that shows they’ll accommodate instances driven by profit, well they’re showing that they’d consider eating us to become the next reddit.

@KapmK This morning I was looking at write freely.org, and paper.wf. I’m not sure it’s exactly what you want, but they may help someone else who’s looking for something similar!