Mastodon* is in desperate need of a rebrand and a repositioning in the minds of the general public (imo).
-
Let's talk markets.
A markets is a vessel for extracting value for a small syndicate of beneficiaries (ie venture capitalists). How a company brands their tech stack is less relevant. If an extractive force exists, it's a market.
You can simply call it "ad-tech" and you'd be correct. But that term lacks all the fun analogies of spaces where people dwell.
Unrelated: it's a tragedy that William H. Macy wasn't the father in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (2000)
-
Unrelated: it's a tragedy that William H. Macy wasn't the father in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (2000)
Since markets need value to extract, they need a governing system to ensure that the right kinds of content is discovered.
This is the algorithm's role. Algorithms are the invisible hands of the market.
Algorithms influence the way people create content and frames social media as a way to make money. Every post is a sales pitch. Attention is currency. These platforms are quite literally open air markets, not communities.
-
Since markets need value to extract, they need a governing system to ensure that the right kinds of content is discovered.
This is the algorithm's role. Algorithms are the invisible hands of the market.
Algorithms influence the way people create content and frames social media as a way to make money. Every post is a sales pitch. Attention is currency. These platforms are quite literally open air markets, not communities.
The problem with the world wide web is there are far too many markets, and far too few communities. Markets have monopolized our time and have turned our attention into wealthy empires. It's not because platforms were built on the wrong protocol.
We don't beat the techno-oligarchs with a decentralized system. The World Wide Web *is a decentralized system*.
We beat them by building more communities (and rebranding the ones we have that work).
More tomorrow(?)
-
The problem with the world wide web is there are far too many markets, and far too few communities. Markets have monopolized our time and have turned our attention into wealthy empires. It's not because platforms were built on the wrong protocol.
We don't beat the techno-oligarchs with a decentralized system. The World Wide Web *is a decentralized system*.
We beat them by building more communities (and rebranding the ones we have that work).
More tomorrow(?)
I'm going to keep this thread going if you don't mind. I'll use #CnM for Communities, Not Markets, so you can follow or mute.
The reason I've sat on CnM for so long (2+ years) is because it feels so enormous in scope. I can write for an entire Saturday and still not feel like I've "finished." You know the feeling lol.
But writing this thread is helping. Maybe in the end I'll have something coherent to publish to my blog www.fromjason.xyz
-
I'm going to keep this thread going if you don't mind. I'll use #CnM for Communities, Not Markets, so you can follow or mute.
The reason I've sat on CnM for so long (2+ years) is because it feels so enormous in scope. I can write for an entire Saturday and still not feel like I've "finished." You know the feeling lol.
But writing this thread is helping. Maybe in the end I'll have something coherent to publish to my blog www.fromjason.xyz
Mastodon is a community, and it's not due to its decentralized architecture.
Place Mastodon among its peers. What's the difference? It's member behavior.
Mastodon is free from the influence of governing algorithms.
On Mastodon, incentives for posting are intrinsic. There's no system to game, no master to please. Which means, no grindset gurus, no crypto bros. Just real people.
Surely, there are other considerations for building a community. But it starts with a rejection of the market. #CnM
-
J jeppe@uddannelse.social shared this topic
