Capturing a hold my beer response here 😄
@Jupiter Rowland Can't vote in Masto polls from Friendica haha... warning > 500 character response. Jupiter, you know many of the topics below but for others, I will post a response. Fedizens, stop now if not interested in reading it ;)
With the Fediverse (a collective of decentralized platforms incorporating W3C social protocols noted at https://the-federation.info/#protocols), my advice to people who don't want to see long posts is to remove any long post from their feed - on Friendica the option is remove locally. This means they would not see news article text, science article text, and other factual articles or interesting stories, opinion pieces, etc. - especially if they block the actual posters of long text articles, opinions, etc.
For those not aware, Mastodon is only one of many platforms and the content type of each platform varies. What does not vary are the users - the federated universe is comprised of users of these platforms. The use of common social protocols empowers users communicating with each other regardless of platform differences.
The Fediverse is not limited to "microblog" social media platforms designed for people too busy to read much or others who desire short posts like Twitter aka X. It is not a replacement even though some attempt to use it as such.
There is one design theory that Twitter was intentionally designed to exploit and create a short attention span platform where advertisers could be monetized after banner ads on websites were defeated by user tools. People of course ignored ads on Twitter also. This made a single revenue stream model stagnate in growth. Some view this as his failed business model. But, it really wasn't because Dorsey, like every tech bro out there, launches platforms with the intent to exit within 5 years. Long-term profitability and sustainability is never a consideration. Their goal is to raise funds and sell short-term. On that point, his Twitter was a huge success after the sale to idiot Musk. Sorry sidetracked...
The Fediverse on the other hand, emerged years ago as experiments evolved from the W3C protocol definitions. The goals of open source developers varied but rarely included commercial interests like tech bros envisioned. More protocols evolved from the experiments and most platforms were based on open source software. A fairly comprehensive list of projects I sometimes refer to is at https://the-federation.info/#projects but an important distinction is often not discussed - visibility.
For example, if a platform does not support Activity Pub, the users on that platform have no visibility of user posts on platforms that support Activity Pub. On the flip side, users on platforms that only support one of the W3C protocols, i.e. Activity Pub, have no visibility of user posts on platforms that do not support that protocol. Friendica and Hubzilla have the greatest visibility in the Fediverse because they support the greatest number of protocols. I happen to have an account on a server that uses Friendica because this is where I began before Hubzilla matured. In a nutshell, greater visibility simply means greater reach into the Fediverse. More on that below.
There are many other UI/UX reasons I use Friendica - ability to edit posts, ability to create long posts, group/forum/circle capabilities, RSS features, ability to save/export posts and lists of contacts (move account to another server seamlessly), and much more. But my interest in other platforms within the Fediverse exists as well. Some alternatives to commercial platforms within the Fediverse are Peertube, Funkwhale, WriteFreely, Lemmy, and Pixelfed. Recently, with the demise of Twitter and the resulting influx of new users into the Fediverse via Mastodon, commercial interest in the Fediverse emerged.
Mastodon servers currently have the greatest number of users in the Fediverse and they support Activity Pub. Diaspora users cannot see Mastodon posts and vice versa. Friendica users can see both. Diaspora users anecdotally say they like smaller community visibility much like G+ circles. There are only a small number of platforms that do not support Activity Pub. So, we are seeing commercial and larger platforms adding support for Activity Pub to gain visibility of those users. WordPress, Medium, Mozilla, Instagram, etc. because their Twitter audiences waned as Musk destroyed the platform.
For me, Friendica provides me with easy to use "macroblog" tools that I can create, curate, and/or archive without dependency on others. I don't have to worry about my content being lost when a service shuts. I don't have to worry about not being able to correct typos after publishing; I don't have to limit my posts to a single idea paragraph; I don't have to restrict my reach only to users of the same platform; and I don't need many accounts requiring copy paste or multi-platform publishing tools. One account to many services is built-in.
Sometimes, my posts and responses are short and sweet. But, for Fedizens who don't enjoy long posts of any kind, feel free to block mine - I don't take it personally ;) Thanks for holding my beer!
♲ Jupiter Rowland - 2024-01-30 13:09:35 GMT
Another poll: When is a long post content warning necessary?Is it necessary? Is it non-sense? Or should posts longer than Mastodon toots be banned everywhere in the Fediverse?
Please boost for a larger sample size.
