cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/24088740

Do you think Lemmy and other parts of the fediverse will eventually enshittify? I think this would be an interesting discussion to have. There currently is not financial incentive like the ones that have led centralized platforms to enshittify. But there might be in the future. Does decentralization protect against that tendency in some way?

Lemmy and Mastodon do give me the hope, that when one platform turns to shit, there will be people creating a platform that - for the time being - is not.

  • 5dh@lemmy.zipOP
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    3 months ago

    Even if, for instance, Threads was widely allowed to federate with Mastodon servers?

    • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      How would federation with Threads have any effect on the usability of a Mastodon instance?

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Maybe, but threads userbase would swallow mastodons whole, that you wouldn’t notice. Facebook has something like 58 million people. Mastodon I think has 12 million people, including the recent brazil exodus.

        So if that happened, even if every mastodon user were on that one instance, you’d still have a potential growth of 46 million new users.

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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          3 months ago

          If the number of user is someone’s top priority, wouldn’t they be using Threads directly in the first place?

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I’ve never had facebook because I don’t trust them with privacy. I’ve never had an account, but they still have my name, my phone number, my address, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they can identify my face with AI.

            I’m NOT signing up for them, and I feel like I’m not alone on that.

            But as far as content goes, I’m a niche person. Most of my interests don’t have communities on Lemmy. But they might…if you infused 58 million new users to the mix.

            • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org
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              2 months ago

              But they might…if you infused 58 million new users to the mix.

              It’s far, far more likely they’ll be interested in eugenicism, UN conspiranoia and the divine right of Israel, given the platform they’re “branching” from.

            • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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              3 months ago

              I’m not sure that millions of Facebook users are interested in Super Famicom Wars and G-scale trains

              To be fair, if you really want to post about those in dedicated communities, Reddit is probably your best choice.

              • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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                3 months ago

                Do any of the bots that repost subreddits in Lemmy reverse and post Lemmy communities to reddit?

                I’m sure Reddit would ban it if it noticed, but might be a way to attract users here for niche communities.

      • 5dh@lemmy.zipOP
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        3 months ago

        What really helps is that fediverse users are quite aware of the ideology behind federated social networks. I think, indeed, they won’t all stay on a server that is federated with Threads if it threatens the fedi network.