Post AhNknLb679P8domCAa by ninavizz@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by ninavizz@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AhJhdFs97rWzO5Bhfk by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-27T14:50:54Z
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Co-founder of Twitter joins new Mastodon board of directors. Right, so federating with Threads wasn’t a mistake. This is just the direction Mastodon is going. Oh, well. Another Mozilla emerges.https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/04/mastodon-forms-new-u.s.-non-profit/#Mastodon #BizStone #SiliconValley #BigTech #Threads
(DIR) Post #AhJhhsbP4RfWfGYsvA by jenzi@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T14:51:53Z
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@aral it's up to servers to federate... threads stole the code, what can you do except block them... not mastodon's fault
(DIR) Post #AhJhpDowZzqwV1OchE by compi@mstdn.org
2024-04-27T14:52:47Z
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@aral Just go to instances which block Meta.
(DIR) Post #AhJi2m2oeE3wPILYwK by FinchHaven@sfba.social
2024-04-27T14:55:36Z
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@aral And this is interesting, from our boy #Gargron:"We’ve always been worried that developing Free and Open Source Software would not be recognized as a charitable cause by the German tax system, so we were glad when the tax office originally approved our non-profit status in 2021. But now we have received a notice from the same tax office that our non-profit status has been withdrawn. This came with no advance warning or explanation."Apparently chanting "free and open, free and open, free and open" while raking in sh1t-t0ns of money didn't fool the German tax authoritiesSo move to the United States, where the tax system and the IRS are deliberately intended to benefit the richGot it....https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/04/mastodon-forms-new-u.s.-non-profit/
(DIR) Post #AhJi8e49DzPVOpllYG by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-27T14:56:44Z
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@jenzi Threads didn’t steal anything. ActivityPub is an open standard. And Mastodon’s extensions to it are also free for anyone to implement.And what you do is you defederate.Instead of rolling out the red carpet, which is what actually happened.
(DIR) Post #AhJiCZqmq7hfU3OXbM by phryk@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T14:57:25Z
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@aral oof 💯I really don't want to start hosting yet another service, but looks like I won't have much of a choice before long…Guess I'll add evaluation of AP implementations to my ever-growing agenda so I can make sure I can get away from an implementation that will try to monetize its users in the foreseeable future. :/
(DIR) Post #AhJiQCzsbY3qex9Eae by RosePuckey@mastodon.scot
2024-04-27T14:59:50Z
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@aral Mastodon has a board of directors? How?
(DIR) Post #AhJiiczgggSoV3qCq8 by meneer@mastodon.myfed.space
2024-04-27T15:00:48Z
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@aral another Mozilla, perhaps, but we are moving from platform to protocol, ditching lock-ins.
(DIR) Post #AhJiyC9IGSX9sIl0Hw by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-27T15:06:01Z
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@RosePuckey They created a new US not-for-profit. Let’s see if it becomes a Mozilla-like not-for-profit that owns a for-profit next.
(DIR) Post #AhJjMc5PTv1HGgaHQm by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-27T15:10:13Z
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@srijit Well, yeah, I guess Jack Dorsey was sadly unavailable and Elon’s busy too these days, so Biz it is. 🤷♂️
(DIR) Post #AhJjwVdMwrEvgKaJlo by compi@mstdn.org
2024-04-27T15:16:11Z
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@aral @srijit Yes Elon is busy running Tesla into the ground.
(DIR) Post #AhJlC01aL53yEarUTg by jenzi@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T15:30:56Z
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@aral You're still blaming software and standards and not servers
(DIR) Post #AhJlYlChblLavfunCa by vetehinen@lethallava.land
2024-04-27T15:27:00.337Z
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@FinchHaven@sfba.social @aral@mastodon.ar.al what on earth makes you say they are raking in shit tons of money? That doesn't sound too likely for a team with the grand total of two full-time deveopers (to be increased to three now) so do you have something to back that with?
(DIR) Post #AhJlYmSKx7RooSEnD6 by FinchHaven@sfba.social
2024-04-27T15:30:42Z
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@vetehinen "what on earth makes you say they are raking in shit tons of money?"Apparently you haven't been paying any attention"Thank you Sujitech""Today we would like to thank Sujitech for kindly donating $100k USD to Mastodon, by far the largest single donation to our non-profit so far."$100,000.00 USDFor what?To pay "two full-time developers" $50,000 USD annually?Dream on...And this is one "donation" onlyWhat is #Gargron raking in on his line of plushies and other bling?https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/11/thank-you-sujitech/ Merch: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/07/new-merchandise/cc @aral
(DIR) Post #AhJlYnasipsQLFF8AS by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-27T15:34:54Z
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@FinchHaven @vetehinen They’ve also received $100K each from Jeff Atwood and Mozilla according to their latest blog post. Not-for-profits are allowed to accept donations. It’s kind of a core thing.(My issue is with who they’re listening to and being guided by, who they’re accepting donations from, who they are aligning themselves with, and the success criteria they’re adopting.)
(DIR) Post #AhJmNQ4TwE6C9lE4y8 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-27T15:42:12Z
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@jenzi I have no idea what you’re on about. But I also have no more time to waste with this.
(DIR) Post #AhJmWvTKYmwu9ONjyS by gert@social.coop
2024-04-27T15:45:19Z
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@aral And before you know it, the "grow or die" imperative kicks in..
(DIR) Post #AhJmaPhecOkYmMkEHw by jimkennedy@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T15:46:28Z
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@aral Jeez, 'Board of Directors' doesn't sound very 'decentralized to me.
(DIR) Post #AhJmxkjoZrGCg5st3A by poujolrost@mstdn.jp
2024-04-27T15:50:45Z
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@aral Oh dear 😵
(DIR) Post #AhJnR55I0cf6B9uhvM by f4grx@chaos.social
2024-04-27T15:55:57Z
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@aral What the actual fuck
(DIR) Post #AhJnZSUOsE835KeacS by f4grx@chaos.social
2024-04-27T15:57:32Z
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@aral "But now we have received a notice from the same tax office that our non-profit status has been withdrawn. This came with no advance warning or explanation. " karma return related to threads federation?
(DIR) Post #AhJnfr5eJzDl7X7veq by jhwgh1968@chaos.social
2024-04-27T15:58:31Z
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@aral while I share the concern, I don't see this in what was postedLooking at the list, I only see that one member you called out as notable. (Perhaps aside from the long-time Mastodon CFO)Are you implying that the rest of the board will defer to him? Or that the others will be replaced? Or that the rest have secret agendas not listed in their bios?Because one big tech "entrepreneur" stake holder isn't great, but does not "Mozilla" or "the next Twitter" make
(DIR) Post #AhJzteioIo1SGTn74a by MisterMoo@mastodon.online
2024-04-27T18:15:31Z
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@aral @RosePuckey Your earlier declarative statement that "another Mozilla emerges" makes it hard to believe you've done anything but make up your mind already.
(DIR) Post #AhK3fANohfntvxJmOu by jimvernon@techhub.social
2024-04-27T18:57:53Z
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@aral I don't understand your point. "Mastodon", the entity that releases the Mastodon software, has no say in whether or not your instance federates with Threads or any other instance.
(DIR) Post #AhK3rnrfjnvjrIJB8y by blogdiva@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T19:00:08Z
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🗣️ 📢 LET THE ENSHITTIFICATION COMMENCE 😒 @aral
(DIR) Post #AhK3yeQlDBvmctzBhY by LALegault@newsie.social
2024-04-27T19:01:23Z
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@aral @blogdiva Another one bites the dust.
(DIR) Post #AhK4LXfiVU2WKCtfWK by Thebratdragon@mastodon.scot
2024-04-27T19:05:27Z
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@aral sigh, the white wing doesn't want anyone to have nice toys unless they profit from it somehow.
(DIR) Post #AhK4QqE6wqRZJrVlfU by sashin@veganism.social
2024-04-27T19:06:26Z
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@aral btw, what is the deal with mozilla anyway? Are they a not-profit that eventually got captured?
(DIR) Post #AhKFp51KhAgveDILPU by itsmeholland@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T19:34:24Z
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@MisterMoo @aral @RosePuckey christ have people never heard of things like "pattern recognition," "history repeating itself," or just the completely reasonable act of "making predictions based on real-world events"???The overall trend with the FOSS world lately has fucking sucked. Org after org is gradually falling into the same predatory, money-grubbing, privacy-invading, user-exploiting bullshit the big companies do. Supposedly "for survival." People are rational to be sick of it.
(DIR) Post #AhKFp5srU9VeKEL5qS by itsmeholland@mastodon.social
2024-04-27T19:38:59Z
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@MisterMoo @aral @RosePuckey there are ZERO REASONS to give any tech company the benefit of the doubt in the current climate. Every sus move a FOSS org makes that looks like the same enshittification we've seen over the last 20 years has a crowd of breathless goobers saying "what makes you so SURE?? Nothing's happened YET!! It could be different, YOU'RE ruining everything with your CYNICISM!!"How fucking gullible can you be? How many times do they have to do this before people get it?
(DIR) Post #AhLLjPGfIUM7aa6WkC by vega@veganism.social
2024-04-28T09:54:58Z
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@aralVey worrying. ....@mascottus
(DIR) Post #AhLLmtYt7bHAPeI88W by vega@veganism.social
2024-04-28T09:55:23Z
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@aralVery worrying. ....@mascottus
(DIR) Post #AhLx5sq4XvQmbTFXJg by snow@snowfan.masto.host
2024-04-28T16:53:37Z
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@aral Simply ... years ago I abandoned certain 'crap' and found paradise. Now ... paradise is about to change, but not for everyone. I made a choice and I intend to stick to it.🙏
(DIR) Post #AhM1VixuHJjDKJUWfI by Nitrousoxide@mastodon.world
2024-04-28T17:43:13Z
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@aral what? This seems fine to me? The code is still open. Anyone can contribute. You can still spin up a new instance of you want. What is bad about this?
(DIR) Post #AhM3EqbCqI87zJxBQG by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-28T18:00:53Z
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@Nitrousoxide *sigh*
(DIR) Post #AhN2zpzb0fmavAAFu4 by ninavizz@mastodon.social
2024-04-29T05:34:31Z
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@aral How else do you believe the folks behind Mastodon could get paid livable wages? As it stands today, they each make very little; and can't even afford non-profit rates for open positions. Biz can at least attract SV donors, which is where so much capital is otherwise being burned by enshittified shit.
(DIR) Post #AhNE16q6xQY6xMXM4u by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T07:38:02Z
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@ninavizz Yep, Biz can attract Silicon Valley money. And Silicon Valley money comes with Silicon Valley expectations and goes to entities compatible with Silicon Valley goals.How else? Many ways. Sadly – and all too predictably – the EU dropped the ball by not funding it properly and stipulating its own demands to forestall corporate capture.But are there other ways? Yes. Are there other ways if you’re chasing growth über alles? Probably not.
(DIR) Post #AhNGONYRB4tNMjUfjM by lucretia@final.town
2024-04-29T07:50:14.084688Z
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@ninavizz @aral I don't know what the tax situation is like in germany, but gargron's claims to not be taking money from venture capitalist also came with the declaration that his full time job pays about twice as much as mine does, so it's not like they're getting paid nothing.
(DIR) Post #AhNGOOLMFC1XoSNjyy by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T08:04:29Z
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@lucretia @ninavizz To be fair, it’s at least half of what he’d be getting if he had a job at a well-funded tech company in the mainstream. And, more so at a Google or a Facebook.This isn’t about Eugen’s compensation. Eugen should be compensated and be able to live a comfortable life given what he does. Heck, asshats who work at Google and Facebook do. Why should people have to sacrifice to do good? (1/5)
(DIR) Post #AhNGOStBLNSNuWEoG8 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T08:04:29Z
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No, this is about Silicon Valley influence, the wrong success criteria, and loss of control.And, if the EU didn’t have its head stuck up its own arse, it would have already made sure that Mastodon could be kept in the EU and those working on it well compensated while also ensuring that the correct success criteria (hint: NOT growth at all costs but decentralisation) were set. But not with this EU Commission and its fixation with the Single Market above all else. (2/5)
(DIR) Post #AhNGOURxXYrykfW66a by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T08:04:29Z
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They probably see Mastodon becoming a US entity and having Silicon Valley folks on the board as a sign of success when it is an abject failure of the EU, and all its costly PR initiatives (Next Generation Internet, etc.) It’s the Web story with Tim Berners-Lee and CERN all over again. And we know where that neoliberal and corporate capture left us. (3/5)
(DIR) Post #AhNGOWAJA9wG4VH1s0 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T08:04:29Z
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All that said, the one thing this isn’t about is how much Eugen makes. If we’re saying any old asshat engineer at Google has a right to a comfortable life but folks working on free and open source don’t, let’s not expect too many people to do the former as a full-time occupation. (4/5)
(DIR) Post #AhNGOXnh5D2P8whzto by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T08:04:29Z
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If, on the other hand, maybe we’d like more folks to contribute to the commons and maybe not even be captured by Silicon Valley how about this radical idea: Fund them so they can live (at least as well) as any mediocre yes-person at a mainstream tech company. (5/5)
(DIR) Post #AhNGeTDhsfItZRTCyW by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T08:07:31Z
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@lucretia @ninavizz (And, of course, you should be making more too. In a sane world, we shouldn’t even have to worry about it but here we are, struggling to get by because we refuse to fuck people over with our skills and knowledge.)
(DIR) Post #AhNknLb679P8domCAa by ninavizz@mastodon.social
2024-04-29T13:45:15Z
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@aral We briefly chatted about this, though. There really isn't, today—and considering Eugen supports himself, another adult, and two pets, it's not right to expect him and his family to personally take the hit for today's scant funding for public interest tech. Mastodon would at least need a full-time development director, and even then there's barely enough. Barely. TorProject and many others subsist on USAID & the US Dept of Defense. Our community needs better.
(DIR) Post #AhNl7M5S0ITDx2VwdU by ninavizz@mastodon.social
2024-04-29T13:48:50Z
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@aral The EU is also in a precarious state I suspect, following Brexit and with other matters of the world (Ukraine, Putin, Drumpf) happening. I am very with you, but just as I left public-interest tech for for-profit for my own sanity living in the US & supporting both my parents and a disabled partner, Eugen and Mastodon deserve stability. I'm cautiously optimistic, that that is all this is about. How to sustain, in a world not yet ready to properly fund a commons.
(DIR) Post #AhNxcUlyxTiLJk1V3I by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T16:08:50Z
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@ninavizz Indeed. We’re living this ourselves and have been for the past however many years. I had to sell two family homes to stay independent. Laura contracts with the mainstream so we have a roof over our heads as I work on the free/open stuff. This is why I spoke at the parliament about how we must fund tech from the commons (https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/). And this is why I’m building Domain so that it can be sustainable in this current (shit) system. But you must also limit growth.
(DIR) Post #AhO3ZCNFVYwT6uGXGS by ninavizz@mastodon.social
2024-04-29T17:15:31Z
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@aral Do we really want the growth limited of the primary federated platform functioning as the world's Shitter replacement? I honestly don't see Mastodon going for "unicorn" (blick) growth, but instead to meet community demand. The world does want usable, accessible, and easy to access social platforms; and this is truly the only one with a reasonable entry curve. Discord is ok, too; but Matrix, too hard. Most others, also too obscure or hard.
(DIR) Post #AhOBOeJ07PFUBbl8IC by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T18:43:16Z
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@ninavizz Of one instance and one org, yes. Of the protocol and platform, no.
(DIR) Post #AhOHCkGoiPDiw4RdVw by ninavizz@mastodon.social
2024-04-29T19:48:24Z
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@aral I guess that's where I disagree. Non-nrrds and folks leaving proprietary/for-profit media need the "gateway-friendly" mastodon.social instance and experience, imho, to learn about the fediverse and to feel emboldened enough to take the next step(s). To really force the failure of for-profit tech, a much more massive migration has to happen; and (almost) anything possible, I want to support.
(DIR) Post #AhOI4JwSoqoWuwTI00 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2024-04-29T19:58:10Z
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@ninavizz Well, now that Threads is federating, they don’t even need that, they can just use Threads. I guess time will tell where things go but I wish we could learn from the mistakes of the past. Regardless, I should start caring far less about what Mastodon is doing and focus on the alternative I’m working on.
(DIR) Post #AhQOuauRy2pOdml5qi by ninavizz@mastodon.social
2024-04-30T20:24:05Z
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@aral Threads is part of facebag, which we all know uses people's data for ad targeting, LLM training, etc. So, we still need both the org and the one instance, as well as the platform and the protocol—which don't matter, if they can't be usably accessed by our parents and other non-techies.