I wake up and found in Fediverse talking about 'Social Web Foundation' Out of curiosity, so I check them out. And after found out what they are… 'I'm not happy' would be an understatement. This post is very much a personal opinion based. Make of it what you will
Confusion
I don't 'hate' the person who is working in the project, but I do hate the project itself. I find it funny for anyone to attempt to be a central authority dictating what is acceptable and not acceptable. When decentralized social network is about curating your own space. Make your own. Moderate your own.
I think, or at least I think, that the appeal of Fediverse and decentralization social media as a whole is autonomy. Your own space, Your own group. Pretty sure that a lot of people who regularly use Fediverse are tired of corpo shenanigans. Tired of like moderator bullshit of mega social media corpo. I'm not sure why do you think it's a good idea to trust the very same thing that you want to move on from in the first place.
I think (or I feel like) people in fediverse care deeply about their privacy and how other handle their data and…. SWF is partner with meta the same company that known for privacy intrusive and data hungry selling mega corpo. Are it also defeats the purposed of this whole Decentralization in the first place?
Doubt
Mallory Knodel (@mallory@techpolicy.social) says, “To fight inequality, participate in democracy, build an equitable society and economy, we can’t rely on a few corporate-owned, profit-driven spaces. The Social Web Foundation is our best chance to establish the conditions in which the new social media operates with zero harm.”//cr:https://socialwebfoundation.org/2024/09/24/launch///
Huh, oh well. Sure, I agree we can't rely on a few corporate-owned and profit drive space… and then somehow SWF also partner with META? How does that even work? 😕
I'm beyond confusing to say the least. I already think the whole 'Im here to make a better internet, so trust us when I said it's bad' can't goes any further than IFTAS. But I'm proven wrong. Yes. Unfortunately! For the record, IFTAS aim to provide a block-list that featured a source that is basically 'I don't like you I'm going to label you as poorly moderate. What is it you like NSFW shit? Inappropriate!' Which basically fucking ban a lot of innocent instance just because admin of the source didn't like them or have a beef with them lol. You can also read more about what I'm talking about here.
Stuff stated in their mission, I think I saw so many red flags in them. At least for me. Main point of them is
We want the Fediverse to be healthy[...] Or one that recommends content that corresponds with your faith or personal interests? You should have that choice. And there’s some types of content – spam, violence and illegal sexual content – that no one needs to see.
Are we are here in Fediverse because of their 'no algorithm' selling point and you're in control of what you want to see? No?
We want the Fediverse to be financially viable[...] Whether that’s advertising supported, or funded by charities and non-profits, or based on paid-for services, or affiliate revenue, **we are working to find ways that companies can do well in the Fediverse.**
That is… well yeah ads. Basically that. So we tries to escape corpo only for 'I'm making Fediverse better place' to bring back mega cropo here. If anything, I feel like sooner or later the whole 'making this advertising friendly is going to be here soon. heh.
???
I'm not sure how to I feel about them beside openly distrust. And honestly i'm lean more on hostile side. I don't feel like I should give them benefit of doubt. Don't get me wrong I'm always up for seeing what I like improve. Which is Fediverse. I don't think they intended to do that. Most is just corpo speech for me. It also contradict it own statement. So yeah!
In any case of enshittification of Fediverse… well I can probably still be seen in my own website and idk maybe some other fedi software that is not mastodon. Ironically I just move back to my mastodon instance lol. I'm looking at GtS aka gotosocial right now. When they have a little bit better tools that I need. I might move to it.
Well I hope the best for the Fediverse whatever that mean. I should also make my site at dreamwidth too. I feel safe there as well.