As you're considering the other new Twitter alternatives, ask yourself if you really want to go to another corporate entity that could end up being just as bad as Twitter and Facebook. Algorithmic sites, by design, reward hate and outrage. You're jumping into another fire.
We have a rare and fleeting chance to build something different right now.
I'm choosing to spend my time trying to make this place succeed — helping new users and saving my best content for here.
@grammargirl I agree in principle and I've been trying to mostly post here and not on twitter (haven't tried Post yet) but ultimately people will go where there is better user experience and where there is more content. There are big issues that Mastodon can't easily solve because of how it's set up but competing commercial platforms can. to name just one: verification. News orgs, government entities etc will absolutely want it and will be very reluctant to join Mastodon without it. then there is money (of course), moderation, compliance with various legal thing etc.
@grammargirl I don't think that approach can solve the verification issue. first, many who need verification will not have resources or desire to set up their own servers: small news orgs and local governments for example. Also, may individuals who really need verification. More to the point, the chief issue with verification is impersonation and various entities running their own servers won't solve that as it will still be hard for the users to say who is who.
@herid I totally see what you're saying. I guess I'm hopeful that someone more tech savvy than I am will think of a solution. It seems like a solvable problem. (Although when I understood the concept of multiple instances, one of my first thoughts was about impersonation and how hard it would be to fight.)
@herid Also, I know lots of people who have been impersonated on Facebook and Instagram and had a tough time trying to get it fixed. (And I had my real personal account shut down on Twitter for impersonating me, and it took months to get it fixed.)
@grammargirl yes, I am also hoping some smart people can figure it out. I think it should be one of the priorities for Mastodon but I have no idea if it actually is.
@grammargirl Yes, it’s totally resolvable. Developers have just been focused on other issues, and this hasn’t been a major priority. I’m sure that if we ponder it for few mins, we can come up with some possible solutions. One might be to have an instance that is a consortium of news outlets, with fees for maintenance costs on a sliding scale, and which only includes - and in so doing, establishes - that accounts were verified. @herid
@jotaemei @grammargirl as I indicated above I don't think that kind of solution can work. there are too many kinds of people who need verification. It's not just news orgs. It's any public figures. It's governments at all levels, politicians (at all levels including local), scientists, doctors, civil rights activists, particularly in repressive countries etc. whatever the solution it needs to work across all instances or it's not a solution.
@herid Are you sure that the possible solution I spitballed was identical to the one you argued would not work on the grounds that small news orgs and municipal governments would not have the financial resources to set up their own servers? @grammargirl
@grammargirl @herid There are other solutions we can brainstorm, and hopefully when others ponder this challenge - particularly those who have done the kinds of research on these questions that we’ve not done - they will come up with yet even more possible solutions. These will be discussed and evaluated, for all their trade-offs. My intuition though is that the challenge is not one of scale or that authentication would not be recognized across instances.
@herid @grammargirl I’m guessing though that - unless Mastodon adopts some elaborate tech solution like Blockchain authentication - it will fall down along the lines of reputations of instances that could confirm the identities of members, and that those who would like to be verified (particularly, individuals rather than organizations) would need to consider trade-offs for themselves of which is more important: their verified status or their freedom to move to different hosts.
@grammargirl @herid I think Twitter's troubles show that the demand is strong for a verification authority, and have no doubt that some entity will move to fill the vacuum Musk has created by bankrupting the blue check. Musk is being innovative in ways he neither envisioned, nor would he intend.
@herid @grammargirl Verification is such a hard issue that - in a few hours - I wrote a plugin to solve it for ~90% of news organizations and government entities. By installing it, everyone from your local birder group to the New York Times and White House can verify contributors.
Money *is* a real issue, but not as big at scale if distributed. I've seen quotes of $0.05/user/month for +200k instances. I don’t think $1/yr subscription is a hard sell.
@opendna @grammargirl forgive me but I will not take your word that your plugin solves verification for 90% of news orgs. how does it work and what does it do?
@herid I hear what you're saying. I am hopeful that news orgs and governments can solve the verification problem by hosting their own servers, but it will be hard for small news orgs.
And by dedicating ourselves to being here, we can help solve the "more content" problem. :)