volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@Ash_Crow

Again, it's not overvalued if that's the value he placed on it.

Which he did.

Because that's what he decided he would pay for it.

It doesn't matter WHY Musk valued Twitter that highly. But that he bought it for that much means that he DID value it that high.

@pre

I just don't see any evidence that this was about compromising in the committee to reach consensus.

Everything I see is consistent with, and more simply explained by, a committee that didn't have a technical depth of knowledge and experience to see the problems that would arise from repurposing off-the-shelf components from web tech.

@z428 @mike @silverpill @smallcircles

@rticks@mastodon.social

I mean, there was a bit more to it than that...

@jhavok@mastodon.social

Again, his offer was no mistake. If it was a mistake he wouldn't have to try to get out of it; he would have been able to just not do it.

You say he had to try. Well, that itself proves that it was no mistake.

@__josh @Sheril

@exception exactly.

We might get a TON of engagement within our echo chambers. The amount of head-nodding might give a perception that we're doing a lot of good.

But just engaging with people whose minds are already on the same page does nothing to progress anything.

@aral

@Pineywoozle I don't think that's quite right.

My perception of Musk is that he's a bored troll, and he bought Twitter first because they were willing to sell and second because it would be hilarious to him to see everyone react. It's standard trolling behavior.

I don't think Musk actually thought he'd sell anyone anything. That would only be a side benefit should it work out.

And the thing is, Musk was absolutely right that it would get him that attention and reaction.

After all, we're talking about him.

@dgoldsmith @skykiss

@NewsDesk

For context, the judges went beyond what the Supreme Court said, and it's likely Alabama hopes to win on appeal, saying that the judges overstepped their legal authority here.

The judges can be "troubled" all they want that they weren't able to order the state around. That doesn't mean that they do or do not actually have that authority.

@jhavok@mastodon.social

Musk made the offer. It wasn't a mistake.

It's not like Musk wrote an extra zero as he was typing up an offer letter. The legal process behind all of this has steps in place specifically to make sure offers are real and not mistakes.

@__josh @Sheril

@z428

Regarding scalability, YES! when I read the spec for the first time I had the similar thought, that this system doesn't look like it had any thought about scalability.

I even commented to some developer friends about this, joking that it doesn't seem like anyone did a big-O analysis of this system, and one replied with a sigh that some schools don't even teach big-O anymore.

It just really reinforces my sense that ActivityPub was designed by people with a very superficial background, without much understanding of lessons learned long ago.

I don't mind being openly critical of it :)

@pre @mike @silverpill @smallcircles

@rberger

Oh gosh, I'd go the other way and BEG people to stop interfering in my selling of my labor.

My employment agreements are really none of anyone else's business, and theirs is none of mine.

I see so many people really struggling as they lose agency because of stuff like this. It makes our lives harder.

Please stop "helping" is really my message, given the experiences of so many of us.

@hszakher

Yeah, just today I was having an exchange with someone that got into what "Fediverse" actually means.

To me and many others it means entities interacting over the ActivityPub protocol, but to the other person AP wasn't a requirement.

It's tricky not to have an official definition.

@paol @lydiaconwell @design_law

@__josh

Things are worth what people pay for them.

If Musk paid $44B then by definition it was worth at least $44B because that's the amount that was paid.

If you pay $10 for a hamburger then that hamburger is worth at least $10.

Would you pay $200 for a hamburger that's only worth $10 to you? No.

So yes, Twitter was worth at least $44B to Musk seeing as that's what he paid for it.

None of this means he's not an idiot.

I think he's a troll, and I suspect he figured the $44B bought him quite a lot of trolling and attention, and we're talking about him, so that suggests he was right.

@Sheril

@z428

You mention half decade ago, and I'd reply by pointing out that concepts like PKI, Web of Trust, and other technologies that would enable nomadic identity have been around since the 80s at least.

These ideas were around for decades.

I really get the sense that ActivityPub developers were so focused on today's web technologies that they didn't go back and learn from past bodies of work that could have made a huge difference.

@pre @mike @silverpill @smallcircles

@z428 I'm very critical of ActivityPub for not having such features, and I have two thoughts about it.

Firstly, as far as I can tell there was a conscious decision to focus on instances. Many people very strongly embrace the patterns that arise out of the instance focus, the moderation, community, and inter-instance blocking stuff.

This human organization side of things is so obvious that I can't believe it wouldn't have been considered during standardization.

Secondly, when you look at the parts of the ActivityPub standard, things like use of http and certificates, it shows developers with a certain background grabbing certain pieces off the shelf that may not have been the most innovative parts to bring together.

Nomadic identity would have required a bit more thought than what ended up in ActivityPub. It raised some harder questions.

AP itself is inefficient and lacks anything groundbreaking. It's composed of off-the-shelf pieces that were cobbled together.

Frankly, AP seems to have been put together lazily, and the lack of portable identity reflects that.

@thisismissem

But many of us would rather agency over instance moderation.

I'm always focused on giving users as much control as possible over their own experiences, so shifting the balance to them and away from instance moderation is inline with my preferences.

Different people have different preferences in that question, but for a lot of us, such a shift is what we'd rather.

@Sheril

Twitter WAS worth $44B, to Musk, since that's what he paid.

His payment reflected how much it was worth to him.

The value of Twitter goes beyond advertising.

Twitter was always a cesspool, though, and it continues to stumble along, relevant as ever today.

Twitter was never great. It's not great today. But Musk is enjoying all the attention he got from his purchase, so I guess, good for him.

@mike

Ha, I suppose for some definition of small.

Dozens of people? Spanning various platforms?

I mean, we keep in touch, but we don't get tied down to any particular platform, and I'd suggest to others that they take the same approach.

Use platforms as tools, but don't rely on anything being provided by others, always keep in mind the alternatives because at any moment any platform may be shut down.