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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • You can’t run the entire internet on a crowdfunded and volunteer-only basis, after all.

    Actually…

    Every single website or app on the internet is at least partially built on free software. The internet as we know couldn’t exist without the crowdfunded and volunteer-only work of open-source folks.

    Most content on the internet is produced for free by users. Websites like Reddit can’t exist without the free work of their moderators.

    So what is left to finance in order to free us from vampire companies? Hosting fees? That’s cheap compared to the other costs…

    The beauty of the Fediverse is that competition is easy and enshittification is difficult due to how easy it’ll be to simply take your activity somewhere else,

    Not sure about that, see how the migration from Twitter, Reddit and other shitty platforms takes time? You can’t just leave if the people you like to interact with stay on the other side. That’s how they got us. The main selling point of Thread today: “come, many people you know are already there!”

    meaning that companies like Meta won’t be able to do the type of things they’re known for.

    They wouldn’t get into it without a plan to monetize it, that’s the type of things they’re known for…

    Overall, I think people over-estimate the cost of running things on the internet. We already “paying” most of it just by producing meaningful content. We don’t need tech companies to take their share in the process, we only need time and brain work to make the Fediverse easier to use so that our friends on the other side decide to join us here.