Crypto Opinions & News The Hidden Dangers of the Decentralized Web

[MuzzMelbourne]

Content source

https://www.wired.com/story/the-hidden-dangers-of-the-decentralized-web/

Kudos to BryanB for sending me this article. Cheers mate!

WHEN ELON MUSK took over Twitter last year, many users migrated to the free and open-source platform Mastodon. Mastodon, like other decentralized social media, isn’t owned by one of the major players in tech and doesn’t rely on one company’s centralized system. Instead, it operates on independently run servers. Other decentralized social media platforms, like Steemit, use blockchain technology to ensure that data can be stored on servers anywhere in the world.

The exodus from Twitter to Mastodon was spurred by wariness of Musk and concern that the platform would disintegrate in his hands. Indeed, distrust of established social media in general is high, thanks to data breaches, inconsistent leadership, and dubious geopolitical ties. In response, proponents of decentralized social networks claim that these alternatives increase transparency and give users more control over their online experiences. But decentralization also comes with downsides, many of which reflect larger cultural ills.

The Hidden Dangers of the Decentralized Web

From social networks to crypto, independently run servers are being touted as a solution to the internet’s problems. But they’re far from a magic bullet.

www.wired.com

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

So, I've come up with a few alternative uses for AI bots.

If, as some people suggest, it is possible to influence the 'thinking' process of AI in order to facilitate a specific outcome, e.g. a new William Shakespeare play, or Mozart piece, or, God forbid, Hitler, then we should be able, as a society, prevent the feared apocalypse from happening by redirecting our focus in to new areas. Industries such as Veterinary Science, the fashion industry, the weight loss industry and the political science industry could be expanded into all areas of society for the benefit of the masses, not just the elite's.

Yes, we could have, CatGPT, HatGPT, FatGPT and, finally, TwatGPT.

I am sure there are other industries deserved of their own specialist AI reference point...

 

[enaph]

Ehhhh Mastodon... People were hoping for a good Twitter alternative, where real open and meaningful discussions will be possible but what they'v got was a leftist propaganda tube.
There were no room for any constructive discussion unless you're 100% with them. Never ending discussions regarding defederating "far right" and "nazi" instances, discussions about new admin tools allowing them to ban or shadowing specific " politically incorrect" people etc.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

Ehhhh Mastodon...

Yeah, very early Mastodon adopter here, and more recently Nostri (Damus app.).

I think you're being a little harsh aren't you?

Sure, you can find 'instances' of Mastodon that cater to that crap if you like, but the beauty of it being decentralised is you just block that instance and find one that is more in tune with you.

There are, currently, as of today, 12,104 instances of Mastodon with 6,685,449 users. 9101 instances are in English, plus other languages, there are over 1,000 in German alone. Each of these instances has there own interest's, agenda, specialisation, opinion's etc. etc., take your pick.

Unlike Twitter or Truth Social(is that still a thing?) et., YOU get to play content editor by simply moving from instance to instance until you find your people, without having to signup to a different provider each time. Your Mastodon ID is universal, your interest group is variable!

What makes Mastodon(and Nostri et al.) special is each instance is hosted by an underlying universal platform! Every one operates exactly the same, and once you have a totally anonymous id(less than a minute signup), it can be used universally. You can follow, ignore, DM or whatever, anyone of the 6.6 million users on any of those 12,000 instances.

It is simply awesome, potentially, and only possible because of the structure(non-structure) of Blockchain technology and Web3.

At the moment, can TikTok users DM or follow Twitter, Linkdin, Facebook etc users from within TikTok using their TikTok ID?

As I said, what I have outlined above applies to Mastodon only. There are already several dozen live alternatives to Mastodon running on Web3 as we speak. Consider the multiplying factors involved in that, attach a special interest group to each and throw in a couple of thousand members to each of them...

If you can't find an alternative to extremism, regardless of leaning, then, well, I'd have to say... keep looking. We are out there...

And finally, got an old computer? Load-up Linux, add a Mastodon Server object(?) and voila, in half an hour you are your own little Elon Musk with ALL of Web3 at your fingertips.

As I said, simply awesome.

...well, i think so anyway.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

Mastodon is a free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services.[a] It has microblogging features similar to Twitter, which are offered by a large number of independently run nodes, known as instances, each with its own code of conduct, terms of service, privacy policy, privacy options, and content moderation policies.[6][7][8]

Each user is a member of a specific Mastodon instance (also called a server), which can interoperate as a federated social network, allowing users on different instances to interact with each other. This is intended to give users the flexibility to select a node whose policies they prefer, but keep access to a larger social network. Mastodon is also part of the Fediverse ensemble of computer servers, which use shared protocols allowing users to interact with other users on computers running compatible software packages[9][unreliable source?] such as PeerTube and Friendica. Mastodon is crowdfunded and does not contain ads.

Mastodon (social network) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[monkeylove]

It was later reported that the mass exodus petered out:

Elon Musk drove more than a million people to Mastodon – but many aren’t sticking around

More than 130,000 people were joining the new independent social media network a day in November. So why hasn’t it taken off?

www.theguardian.com

It turns out that platforms need to be regulated given Mastodon but can't be regulated absurdly given Old Twitter.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

It was later reported that the mass exodus petered out:

I was on Mastodon during that time and it was bedlam for a while...

But, only on those particular instances where 'mastodon' was part of the server name. It seems that the Twitter escapee's were basically hedging their bets and grabbing-on to anything Mastodon and, effectively, staking a claim to the Mastodon equivalent of their particular Twitter ID in case Twitter went totally pear-shaped.

When that didn't happen, they all went back to business as usual.

So, the vast majority of the Fediverse didn't notice a thing and things are much quieter these days...

(actually, its bloody boring for the most part...)

 

[Ink]

Ehhhh Mastodon... People were hoping for a good Twitter alternative, where real open and meaningful discussions will be possible but what they'v got was a leftist propaganda tube.
There were no room for any constructive discussion unless you're 100% with them. Never ending discussions regarding defederating "far right" and "nazi" instances, discussions about new admin tools allowing them to ban or shadowing specific " politically incorrect" people etc.

There’s a simple solution for that, avoid online spaces.

Talk to people in-person for real discussions and debates, that have more realistic outcomes than the fiction you read online.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

...Ehhhh Mastodon... People were hoping for a good Twitter alternative, where real open and meaningful discussions will be possible but what they'v got was a leftist propaganda tube...

You can always setup your own and control content if you want...

How to Set Up Your Own Mastodon Instance

Mastodon is a decentralized, federated social media platform based on the ActivityPub [https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/] protocol. It allows you to follow and interact with friends across multiple instances. In this article, you will learn how freeCodeCamp set up our own Mastodon instance -...

www.freecodecamp.org