Post re-affirms that it will be adding ActivityPub integration, making it cross compatible with Mastodon.
However, they won’t be happening this year.
And since Post is a start-up funded by Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), I’m skeptical about their intentions.
Remember, a16z are the same folks that’s funded Big Social as well as crypto firms like Coinbase. They’re exploitative to the core.
I suspect Post is just another walled garden.
That said, I don’t mind Post adding ActivityPub integration.
Just acknowledging Mastodon means that their walled garden is compromised. And actually adding compatibility with the Fediverse means they need us to survive.
Make no bones about it.
As the Fediverse grows, it will be harder and harder for social media startups to build their network effect from scratch. Why do it when ~12 million people already use an ActivityPub compatible app?
This is the audience that Post is missing out on.
Post is already implying that their monthly active users (MAUs) are at near parity with Mastodon’s.
However:
1. Due to decentralization, any report of Mastodon’s MAUs is speculative whereas due to centralization, Post’s are not
2. Whatever the stats on MAUs, there’s more conversation happening on the Fediverse than on Post
Post’s MAUs are not comparable to Mastodon’s MAUs.
@atomicpoet I don't have anything against Post, but the site is a ghost town relative to Mastodon. I joined it specifically because other journalists were. But even they aren't posting there because, let's face it: One reason the "blue check" was such a big deal on early Twitter was that journalists enjoyed being "regarded." And if no one is there to regard you... well, journalists talking to other journalists is just Slack.
@atomicpoet It was a stroke of genius on Jack's part, because Twitter was always (and remains) a minor social media company, globally. But by giving journalists a level of prestige equal to Barack Obama or Kristen Bell or LeBron James, we were more likely to congregate there, and thus more likely to cover its goings-on. It felt glamorous!
I mean, 3 billion people use Facebook—THAT is where the cultural zeitgeist can be found—but when is the last time you saw real coverage of Facebook from the inside (i.e. as a user), versus it being covered as this weird alien thing?
@dwb @atomicpoet Explains why it is so hard for these journalists to leave. They were in charge of the yearbook in high school and on Twitter, they are now the jocks and cheerleaders. And Elon, like any good bully - knows this to his core. He knows they fear being nobodies again.
@dwb Thanks for acknowledging the obvious. I’ve had other journalists tell me that a blue check was only important for account verification. But if that were true, everyone would have been able to get verified.
Nope, Twitter was very particular about who could get a blue check.