Guess I have to use my range for something good for a change. Please read and #RT if the #Fediverse is important to you.

A few days ago, @Gargron, maintainer of #Mastodon and the big instance mastodon.social, wrote a blogpost explaining how the official app will soon feature his instance as a default.

Voices of the community weren't heard. He even doubled-down on it.

We have to prevent this change.
Please Eugen, #DontDoTheElon.

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Eugen’s misguided moves on Mastodon
https://blog.natanox.de/2794/no-guide-eugens-misguided-moves-on-mastodon/

@atomicpoet Would love to read your take on this. I've seen that you're in favor of a better balanced Mastodon (& Fediverse) instances weights.

@Natanox Thanks, I'm going to read it.

The "#DontDoTheElon" tag couldn't it sharpen the positions on this topic, instead of helping to reach a middleground or an improvement? 🙂

@ijatz_La_Hojita @Natanox The core problem with Mastodon is that it *hides* the rest of the Fediverse from its users.

And now this is carried into hiding the multitude of Mastodon users from people registering through the Mastodon app.

This is one big reason I write about the Fediverse instead of merely Mastodon.

@Natanox @revengeday i think this is a good decision because normal people don’t take enough time to read how mastodon works. They want to register and try out. Later they will understand and can move or register a second account, if they stay on the platform. I don’t see a problem in this step which can be canceled any time. Mozilla could bring an app which register an account to their server.

@ijatz_La_Hojita I think now it's too late to change it. But hey, I said "please". 🤭

@atomicpoet @Natanox I confess I thought that all changes in the #Mastodon code - the ones that affect all #instances - had to pass through a #community vote among the most committed Mastodon devs.

Is it fair to say that the Mastodon network is #decentralized as a product, but not as a process?

@atomicpoet
Yeah, and this move has honestly been consistent with the way Mastodon works.

As you say, it hides the fact that the rest of the Fediverse exists. It both actively and passively tries to build a monopoly through being the default game in town.

This is just one more step in that direction.

It certainly isn’t my preference, but it’s consistent, and I don’t even know that Eugen is, strictly speaking, wrong to do it. It’s his project, and it’s his app.

I think you hit on the correct response the other day: The front end dev, and mobile devs, need to set up or select their own default servers that aren’t Eugen’s.

And devs of other platforms need to ensure they support full user migration for Mastodon.

And admins need to really let their communities shine, and highlight the reasons for people to migrate to them.

The next step for everyone else is establishing and maintaining off ramps.
@ijatz_La_Hojita @Natanox

@ijatz_La_Hojita @Natanox The approach to Mastodon's development is Benevolent Dictator For Life, and proudly so.

@atomicpoet @Natanox I wish I had known that from the get go 😋.

To make it abundantly clear: I do not think Eugen is acting with malevolent intentions. I do however strongly criticize the lack of communication and that what he's currently doing promotes more competition instead of cooperation (even if it's by accident), which the Fediverse should not have.

The reason we're so nice to each other here is because most of us expect the other to be inherently good, or at least have good intentions even when they're angry. Competition alienates this culture.

@thomas @Natanox @revengeday

It wasn't good to fool people that AOL "was" the (entire) Internet, and it's not good to fool people that mastodon.social is the entire #Fediverse.

#MastoAdmin

@Natanox @Gargron I'm sorry. I am not convinced and I believe it is a good idea because people will learn about other servers over time. As more use the Fediverse more will understand how it works and will make the shift to another server.