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@Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting
The second largest Mastodon server was bought recently
https://www.theblock.co/post/196940/mask-network-acquires-mastodon-server-pawoo-net
@jaz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting recently being back in december or something liuke that?
@kimschulz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting yep. same company that bought mstdn.jp and mastodon.cloud - they own a decent portion of mastodon
@jaz @kimschulz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting Consolidation is inevitable. But in an open source industry, there are always alternatives.
@DanaBlankenhorn @jaz @kimschulz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting
Until the massive instances decide to just talk amongst themselves and block the unaffiliated non-financially-beneficial small and specialist instances.
Federation works while access is everyone to everywhere, but new users might not even realise they are being cut off if 'the bigs' go their own way.
@AlisonW @jaz @kimschulz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting When massive instances defederate the small ones that's a problem. Is it happening? Has it happened? Is it even being discussed?
Open source can defend itself.
@DanaBlankenhorn @jaz @kimschulz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting
I'm reminded of the mid-90s when far too many people thought "AOL = Internet". If the large million-users-plus decide they want to make money that's a choice they could make and most of _their_ users would probably be none the wiser.
The rest of us would notice but not be able to affect their choice directly.
Already media coverage pushes 'Mastodon' and the big instances rather than the federated nature of everything.
@jaz@toot.wales@AlisonW @DanaBlankenhorn @kimschulz @Ronkjeffries @maegul @ngaylinn @fediversenews @hosting and yet here we are, many of us graduated from AOL or similar. For all its shortcomings, AOL was a gateway drug for the Web and it's gone and we remain. I'm all in favour of an AOL-like gateway to Fediverse if that's what happens.