The best part of Mastodon is that it can continue to exist because users want it to exist. It doesn't have to find a business model, it can just be a wonderful public service / open protocol.
@pseudomichael yes but it could still turn into some horrible monster. But here's hoping!
@pierson if it goes the way of Email, we will have plenty to complain about, but it will still be a million times better than letting corporations own us.
@pseudomichael I am in love with the model itself. I don't want the "newness" to go away, its electric. But I'm afraid that in two weeks it will just be memes and fights.
@pseudomichael I agree. It sure is presenting an interesting alternative model. One that I have already wasted the day enjoying haha. No ads, open source, what's not to like??
@pierson @pseudomichael Yeah....I agree. It will be hard to keep it fair and interesting if bots, crazies, and trolls join in full force... :joy: This is why we can't have anything nice.
@cleihgeber @pierson Oh, the newness will go away, and annoying things will surface. But they did for email too. Spam, phishing, etc. We just have to evolve to deal with it. Email is still a great thing, and I'm convinced that the IDEA behind Mastodon (if not Mastodon itself) is absolutely right and deserves to live!
@pseudomichael @cleihgeber You hit the nail right on the head. As long as the *idea* sticks in peoples minds, I'd call that a huge victory.
@pierson @pseudomichael It definitely is nice that both private parties, organizations, and public entities are equal on this platform. Will be interesting to see if corporations sponsor instances with native advertising....
@cleihgeber @pierson that's a guarantee if users flock to Mastodon, just like email marketing is big business. But spam filters and whitelists/blacklists are well established concepts. I think that'd be much preferable, even if it's a mess, to the stockholm syndrome we have on Twitter/FB to our advertiser overlords!
@pierson maybe I'm aiming way too low, but even if it became the same mess, the simple fact that it wasn't a giant ad-machine hooked up to a Facebook monster would be attractive to me, all other things being equal.