@mjack I think we need to get that project back on track. With ~400,000 NextCloud installs out there, it seems like a great way to make the social web available to more people.

https://cosocial.ca/@evan/115420149921083710

Should software developers use the open social standard, ActivityPub, to connect their users to the social web?

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I'm honestly surprised to see so many "No" answers to this question. From the anti-commercial replies, I think at least some of the No's come from a concentration on the word "markets" rather on the word "competitive". I think the economic definition of a "market" encompasses non-commercial services and products. But maybe I should have found some wording that doesn't make people hit the "I HATE COMPANIES" button so hard.

I think "the open web" is by definition a multi-polar environment where many service providers, software creators, and platforms interact using interoperable standards. I think the "open" in "open web" requires multiple actors; a single company cannot be "open" with itself.

If Mozilla is really purpose-driven, I think the number one goal of the organization should be getting out of the monopoly headlock it's in right now. It should find another buyer for its search engine placement service, and it should diversify its revenue to get the business on a firm footing that doesn't keep governments from enforcing competitive markets.

I personally think that participating in an anti-competitive business practice that a court has found hurts American (and assumably also global) consumers and other businesses is not compatible with that purpose. I don't think that humans flourish in systems dominated by monopolies that use their power to extend those monopolies. Neither have most economists since about 1875.

Here's the main point, though: Mozilla is supposed to be somewhat purpose-driven. Its goals and mission are somewhat laid out in the Mozilla Manifesto. In particular, it supports an open and accessible Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Manifesto

Weirdly, the fact that Mozilla would be unable to find another buyer for its product (search engine placement), and the threat of another monopoly in browsers and browser engines, did not make Judge Mehta take *extra* remedies, like making Google sell Chrome and/or Android. Instead, the judge gave some pretty mild remedies, which probably won't do anything to make Google's 88% of the search engine market less of a problem for consumers or others in the ecosystem.

Mozilla Corporation has subsisted almost entirely on this kind of deal with Google since the company was founded. When the judge in US vs. Google was considering remedies (like forbidding that kind of deal), Mozilla argued that this remedy would make it unable to compete in the *other* area that Google has a near monopoly, namely browsers:

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/internet-policy/google-remedies-browsers/

What I'm more concerned about is "US vs. Google", the Google Search anti-trust case which showed that Google was using search engine placement deals with operating systems and browser vendors to unfairly inhibit competition with other search engines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2020)

I created this poll because I've been thinking a lot about Mozilla since the announcement of their new CEO. A lot of people here criticised the hire, since he said that Mozilla would make Firefox an "AI Browser". I don't mind that, although I don't think AI browsers are that useful, and I think running into the market where Atlas, Comet, Dia and others are already floundering sounds like a dumb bet.

Wow, what an interesting set of results. I think the answer is "yes".

@malte so, you prefer what we have now? Monopolies with rent-seeking enshittification?

Does the open web require competitive markets?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_%28economics%29

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If an acquaintance tried to pass off a joke from TV or movies as if they had made it up themselves, would you point it out?

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That is some disgusting meat grinder math, and I'm sorry I did it.

I did some back of the envelope calculations. They are dark; I'm sorry. But according to the best official figures available, about 47K people had died in Gaza by Jan 2025; the number in November is about 71K. So, about 3100 people per month died since Oct 7 in Gaza under Biden; about 2500 per month under Trump.

But the question seems to keep coming up, and it probably will more as we head into the 2026 midterm election season in the US. Are Arab Americans right or wrong to pressure Democrats to more vigorously oppose the genocide in Gaza? One aspect that comes up in discourse is whether things have been worse or better since Trump took office.

Thanks, everyone, for responses and replies.

I think this is a hard question; it might even be an obscene question. Tens of thousands died before and after Trump took office. As one commenter put it, there is no "better" in a genocide.

Has Gaza done better with Donald Trump or Joseph Biden as President of the United States?

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