The fediverse is a strange place to be sometimes. It's an open network where progress happens in fits and starts in random, often hidden, pockets. And the rest don't often hear what's really going on. In the 6 years I've built on #ActivityPub, we've all had to fight for some kind of coordination.
Especially re: the new #SocialWebFoundation (which I've backed as an outside supporter via my tiny company @write_as), you can see something new is happening.
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Matt Baer
in reply to Matt Baer • • •E.g. the days of every fedi platform needing to be open source (as you'd get dogpiled for back in 2018) are gone. Proprietary platforms and major corps like Meta are joining, and they're collaborating with other major fedi platforms behind the scenes to take this all mainstream.
But that's what's happening right now, just so everyone knows.
Matt Baer
in reply to Matt Baer • • •And there should probably be some more transparency. And it can absolutely be alienating, especially to long-time fedizens.
But it doesn't exclude similar efforts from *everyone* building this space. It doesn't crush those fighting for what has made this place great in the first place.
The fediverse is everyone's, and we should all recognize that. Don't lose hope. Keep on building the web we all want to see.
Matt Baer
in reply to Matt Baer • • •Julianoë
in reply to Matt Baer • • •Mike McCue
in reply to Matt Baer • • •very well said. This thing is bigger than all of us, including meta.
I was once a lone engineer building software in the world of the walled gardens of AOL and Microsoft and it sucked. It was a super constrained world where success meant having to convince a few people at Egghead to distribute your software or you were relegated to oblivion.
Then the web happened. AOL tried to bring the web into their walled garden and died. Microsoft fully embraced the web and thrived. But the web was an unstoppable force and even with the big players fighting for position, legions of independent developers built and shipped great things reaching hundreds of millions of people.
For too long, building anything that connects people in new and interesting ways has seemed futile because of the dominance of today’s walled gardens. That is all changing before our eyes because of the creativity, labor and persistence of lone engineers like you and Evan and Eugen and Dan.
Human connection is finally becoming an integral part of the open web during a time when those connectio
... Show more...very well said. This thing is bigger than all of us, including meta.
I was once a lone engineer building software in the world of the walled gardens of AOL and Microsoft and it sucked. It was a super constrained world where success meant having to convince a few people at Egghead to distribute your software or you were relegated to oblivion.
Then the web happened. AOL tried to bring the web into their walled garden and died. Microsoft fully embraced the web and thrived. But the web was an unstoppable force and even with the big players fighting for position, legions of independent developers built and shipped great things reaching hundreds of millions of people.
For too long, building anything that connects people in new and interesting ways has seemed futile because of the dominance of today’s walled gardens. That is all changing before our eyes because of the creativity, labor and persistence of lone engineers like you and Evan and Eugen and Dan.
Human connection is finally becoming an integral part of the open web during a time when those connections are more important than ever. This is bigger than all of us, including meta, and the future is bright for the developers building here.
Steve Bate
in reply to Matt Baer • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Matt Baer • • •