Discussion about the aussie.zone instance itself
I'm undecided.
On the one hand, Facebook/Meta are not interested in the health of the fediverse. This is clearly an "embrace, extend, extinguish" move. On the other... they're sure to have a large number of users, which in turn means a large amount of content that we'll want to view/participate in. Each of those users will in turn be an opportunity for us to encourage to migrate to the fediverse.
I feel that the large number of users is a problem, not an asset. What makes a platform good is the engagement level of the users, not the volume. A user who does not want to engage enough to create an account is not likely to be engaged enough to add significant value.
I moved away from Reddit because I don't want to be part of one monolithic site, I want to be engaged with a smaller group that has more creative energy. There is no exclusivity clause that prevents people from using both sites and accessing all the content, but having them federated will lead to homogonisation and ultimately destroy what makes this site different. To extend the milk metaphor, we are the cream, mixing us in with the milk will make it richer, but destroy us.
I agree with your comments re: engagement and community. But Meta federating doesn't impact that. Their users/communities will not suddenly become part of your local feed.
It is not my local feed that concerns me, it is the fact that we will become part of theirs. It will be like when a post is popular enough to make it onto the front page of Reddit - suddenly a post that was crafted for a local community, with users that have a shared culture and background, becomes exposed to a random audience including trolls and bullies who take 2 seconds to judge it and have no barrier to putting on their own comment and starting a pile on.
This is clearly an “embrace, extend, extinguish” move.
Is it? I certainly don't think Meta is doing anything because it's genuinely the "right thing", but that doesn't automatically translate to them already having a deliberate plan to kill off the fediverse by starting to use it before they add on their own proprietary features only available to their users.
My personal opinion would be that there's no need to pre-emptively defederate them. Keep yourself ready to defederate the instant they do something that's directly harmful to the community at large, but until then, hold off and let their users experience what the fediverse has to offer—and let our communities benefit from their increased activity.
which in turn means a large amount of content that we'll want to view/participate in.
Given the current content on Facebook I'm not sure more content is necessarily good.
I look forward to them ruining everyone's feed with ads as soon as they find a way as well.
I look forward to them ruining everyone’s feed with ads as soon as they find a way as well.
If that ever happens I'll defederate them in a heartbeat.
I can understand the appeal of growing numbers but I don't think the risks outweigh the rewards. Unlimited growth is unsustainable anyway. We can exist without Meta. Meta is a poison pill that will eventually monopolize the fediverse if it has its way. This will not be the first time they killed off a decentralized platform.
I'm not interested in growing user numbers. But I am interested in having access to the content those users generate.
I am leaning towards defederating Meta... but for now am taking a more "wait and see" approach.
My opinion would be to defederate and take a "wait and see" approach to federate if they behave themselves. :p
Based upon previous behaviour, you can guarantee that Meta will not act in good faith in the long run. IMO they don't give 2 shits about any of the ideals of the fediverse or the open web before that. This is like the Taliban promising that they would be good guys this time around. See point 6.
I know we all dream of having all our friends and family on the Fediverse so we can avoid proprietary networks completely.
Uh... who does? The reason why I'm on semi-anonymous social networks like reddit and now lemmy is because I don't want my real life friends or family to know what shit I post.