What many people misunderstand about hosting your own content (like this social media instance) is thinking we somehow NEED a big audience or Big Tech involvement.
I'm perfectly fine if the world faded away and it was just the thousand of us here. It's like the early days of the web when we had small forums, nobody missed Reddit back then. Federation is a big plus, not a requirement.
It's the same with websites or IRC for me. I know people use Discord, but I still stick to IRC even if there are only about a hundred of us left. I know people use AI now and website visitors are dropping, but who cares? I still keep doing it for those who like to read.
I don't need the whole world involved for this to feel worthwhile. It's mine, I own it, and I host it for as long as I breathe. After that, it won't matter to me anymore, but I hope other admins keep things running the way I did.
#SelfHosted #SelfHosting #OpenSource #Fediverse #Mastodon #OpenWeb #SocialWeb
mkouhia
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to mkouhia • • •#pulina - Parasta mitä IRC voi tarjota.
PulinaRiku Voipio
in reply to mkouhia • • •Skrollin lukijakanavat IRCissä - Skrolli - Tasavallan tietokonelehti
Skrolli - Tasavallan tietokonelehtiRolle Laukkarinen
in reply to Riku Voipio • • •Sebastiaan Ammerlaan 🇳🇱
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to Sebastiaan Ammerlaan 🇳🇱 • • •william ⁂ maggos
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •let me strongly disagree re the big audience. imo that's the entire point of decentralized social media. the entire world as our audience is the goal. for everyone to participate in deciding what info, ideas and art deserves attention. to steal that power back from the wealthy, the owners of mass media and social media platforms and advertisers.
being public with boosts is what's special here. forums etc imo should be called social networking. vital but they serve a different purpose.
Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to william ⁂ maggos • • •@wjmaggos Of course, but I'm talking about the end goal here. In my opinion, the idea that "we must have critical mass to succeed" is wrong.
I know I reach thousands of people, more than on most social media platforms. But that's not the point. If the Fediverse starts dying out, it doesn't bother me. That's what I'm trying to say here.
william ⁂ maggos
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •so we have different goals. thus different definitions of success.
I'm much less interested in my own reach or perhaps finding personal connections. I'll probably never be happy based on my own stats, but would be very happy with very few followers if when people thought and talked about social media, they meant fedi. imo that would be good for society.
Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to william ⁂ maggos • • •@wjmaggos But why? Why is it so important to "win" as a social media platform? I used to think the same way when I moved here from Twitter, but after a few years, I've come to realize it was never about that. The web will always be scattered.
They even interviewed me back in 2022 in Finnish in my CTO role, calling Mastodon "the new rival for Twitter." Now that feels funny. I see this and other publishing platforms just like my old website back in 1998.
Social media has always been all over the place. I just hope people would understand the ethics around big tech platforms. But I know they won't. The world will burn before that happens.
The Doctor
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •WTL
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •Doerk
in reply to WTL • • •\>ᏒⴹᎢꓰＣ𐋏
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •RE: mementomori.social/@rolle/1167…
@rolle A gallery owner once told me about my art and my worry about shows the wisest thing I have ever heard. She owned a gallery that had 3 floors, not fancy or pretentious at all. Just a lot of affordable are squeezed into that space.
"You know I have a lot of work in here, have you ever seen, on a weekday, more than a small handful of people in here? Or seen the place empty? Yet my rent is paid, I own a home, and my artists are selling. I do not need 10k people in here because 10k people will not be buying that one piece. I need exactly one person to connect with that one piece. That's all I'm looking for. Art for the masses is trash. Marketing niche work to the masses is folly. One piece, one person, that connection is all that matters for any of us."
I walked out changed. I've never sought any attention since. Th
... Show more...RE: mementomori.social/@rolle/1167…
@rolle A gallery owner once told me about my art and my worry about shows the wisest thing I have ever heard. She owned a gallery that had 3 floors, not fancy or pretentious at all. Just a lot of affordable are squeezed into that space.
"You know I have a lot of work in here, have you ever seen, on a weekday, more than a small handful of people in here? Or seen the place empty? Yet my rent is paid, I own a home, and my artists are selling. I do not need 10k people in here because 10k people will not be buying that one piece. I need exactly one person to connect with that one piece. That's all I'm looking for. Art for the masses is trash. Marketing niche work to the masses is folly. One piece, one person, that connection is all that matters for any of us."
I walked out changed. I've never sought any attention since. Those individuals are the ones that matter. МЕTA's metrics never have.
Rolle Laukkarinen
2026-06-21 14:52:33
grepe
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to grepe • • •grepe
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to grepe • • •Kris
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •Rolle Laukkarinen
in reply to Kris • • •@kris thelounge.chat (needs some work to install but it's beautiful)
halloy.chat
I use irssiproxy with Beeper: beeper.com
Modern Self-Hosted Web IRC Client — The Lounge
The LoungeEggs now in different baskets.
in reply to Rolle Laukkarinen • • •I posted about the same idea not so long ago.
mastodon.social/@the_wub/11635…
Eggs now in different baskets. (@the_wub@mastodon.social)
Eggs now in different baskets. (Mastodon)