Strategies for the free fediverses
https://privacy.thenexus.today/strategies-for-the-free-fediverses/
The fediverse is evolving into different regions
- "Meta's fediverses", federating with Meta to allow communications, potentially using services from Meta such as automated moderation or ad targeting, and potentially harvesting data on Meta's behalf.
- "free fediverses" that reject Meta – and surveillance capitalism more generally
The free fediverses have a lot of advantages over Meta and Meta's fediverses, some of which will be very hard to counter, and clearly have enough critical mass that they'll be just fine.
Here's a set of strategies for the free fediverses to provide a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism. They build on the strengths of today's fediverse at its best – including natural advantages the free fediverses have that Threads and Meta's fediverses will having a very hard time countering – but also are hopefully candid about weaknesses that need to be addressed. It's a long list, so I'll be spreading out over multiple posts; this post currently goes into detail on the first two.
- Opposition to Meta and surveillance capitalism is an appealing position. Highlight it!
- Focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety
- Emphasize "networked communities"
- Support concentric federations of instances and communities
- Consider "transitively defederating" Meta's fediverses (as well as defederating Threads)
- Consider working with people and instances in Meta's fediverses (and Bluesky, Dreamwidth, and other social networks) whose goals and values align with the free fediverses'
- Build a sustainable ecosystem
- Prepare for Meta's (and their allies') attempts to paint the free fediverses in a bad light
- Reduce the dependency on Mastodon
- Prioritize accessibility, which is a huge opportunity
- Commit to anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and pro-LGBTQIA2S+ principles, policies, practices, and norms for the free fediverses
- Organize!
#fediverse #freefediverse #threads @fediverse @fediversenews
The free fediverses should emphasize networked communities
https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-free-fediverses-should-emphasize-networked-communities/
Here's how @lrhodes describes the Networked Communities view:
"instances are valuable for the relations and interactions they facilitate locally AND for their ability to connect you to other parts of the network."
By contrast, @evanprodromou notes that "Big Fedi" advocates typically see instances as typically see the instance as "mostly a dumb pipe." But The Networked Communities view aligns much better with the free fediverses' values – as does the "Social Archipelago" view @noracodes sketches in The Fediverse is Already Dead. Not only that, it's good strategy!
@fediversenews #fediverse #threads #fedipact
The free fediverses should support concentric federations of instances
Part 4 of Strategies for the Free Fediverses
https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-free-fediverses-should-support-concentric-federations-of-instances/
Here's how @zkat describes caracoles: "you essentially ask to join concentric federations of instances ... with smaller caracoles able to vote to federate with entire other caracoles."
And @ophiocephalic's "fedifams" are a similar idea: "Communities could align into fedifams based on whatever conditions of identity, philosophy or interest are relevant to them. Instances allied into fedifams could share resources and mutually support each other in many way"
The idea's a natural match for community-focused, anti-surveillance capitalism free fediverses, fits in well with the Networked Communities model discussed in part 3, and helps address scalability of consent-based federation discussed in Part 2.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-free-fediverses-should-support-concentric-federations-of-instances/
#fediverse #fedipact #threads @fediversenews @fediverse
The free fediverses should make it easier to move between (and create) instances
Part 5 of Strategies for the Free Fediverse
https://privacy.thenexus.today/make-it-easier-to-move-to-instances-in-the-free-fediverses/
There's likely to be a lot of moving between instances as people and instances sort themselves out into the free fediverses and Meta's fediverses -- and today, moving accounts on the fediverse today. There are lots of straightforward ways to improve it, many of which don't even require improvements to the software. And there are also opportunities to make creating, customizing, and connecting instances easier.
#fediverse #fedipact #threads @fediversenews
The free fediverses should work together with people and instances in Meta's fediverses and on Bluesky whose goals and values align with the free fediverse
https://privacy.thenexus.today/work-together-with-metas-fediverses-and-bluesky/
Part 6 of Strategies for the free fediverses
Many of the Meta advocates I've talked to share the free fediverses' long-term goal of building a sustainable alternative to surveillance capitalism -- and the same is true for people on Bluesky. So there are likely to be situations where some of the people and instances in Meta's fediverses and Bluesky wind up as situational allies to the free fediverses.
A few areas where collaboration could be very useful:
- A key principle of organizing is meeting people where they are.
- Moderation on decentralized networks is a shared challenge.
- Bringing concepts similar to Bluesky's custom feeds to the fediverses, and more generally focusing on human-focused and liberatory (as opposed to oppressive) uses of algorithms in decentralized social networks designed from the margins.
- Meta's fediverses, Bluesky, and the free fediverses are all vulnerable to disinformation.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/work-together-with-metas-fediverses-and-bluesky/
#fediverse #threads #bluesky #organizing @fediversenews
Instances in the free fediverses should consider "transitive defederation" from instances that federate with Meta
https://privacy.thenexus.today/consider-transitively-defederatiion/
Part 7 of Strategies for the free fediverses
Transitive defederation -- defederating from instances that federate with Threads as well as defederating from Threads -- isn't likely to be an all-or-nothing thing in the free fediverses. Tradeoffs are different for different people and instances. This is one of the strengths of the fediverse, so however much transitive defederation there winds up being, I see it as overall as a positive thing -- although also messy and complicated.
So the recommendation here is for instances to *consider* #TransitiveDefederation: discuss, and decide what to do. I've also got some thoughts on how to have the discussion -- and the strategic aspects.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/consider-transitively-defederatiion/
@fediversenews @fediverse #fediverse #fedipact #threads