Re:Scaling Mastodon Is Impossible
by dredmorbius on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @02:39PM
(#33613922)
If the cafe advertises itself for all, and as a kinder, gentler, happier, more ethical, and safer place than BigCafe, then ... at least some of the onus is on the cafe owner(s), creator(s), and operator(s).
I've been on Mastodon since 2016. I enjoy and appreciate it. I admire the goals.
But much of the "it's intrinsically better / safe / scalable" talk seems based on little more than hope and faith, rather than evidence and engineering.
And given the Fediverse's own protocols, operating out of MyCafe rather than SafeCafe or BigCafe ... only provides modest additional protections. Yes, it helps assert identity more effectively (as I've previously noted: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33512169>), but it only solves a small portion of the abuse, trust, and safety concerns. Mechanisms simply are not yet sufficiently robust for a large-scale (100m -- billions of MAU) social network.
Some of that will come in time, though I've concerns that there are weaknesses that have already been baked into the underlying architecture and assumptions.
I've been on Mastodon since 2016. I enjoy and appreciate it. I admire the goals.
But much of the "it's intrinsically better / safe / scalable" talk seems based on little more than hope and faith, rather than evidence and engineering.
And given the Fediverse's own protocols, operating out of MyCafe rather than SafeCafe or BigCafe ... only provides modest additional protections. Yes, it helps assert identity more effectively (as I've previously noted: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33512169>), but it only solves a small portion of the abuse, trust, and safety concerns. Mechanisms simply are not yet sufficiently robust for a large-scale (100m -- billions of MAU) social network.
Some of that will come in time, though I've concerns that there are weaknesses that have already been baked into the underlying architecture and assumptions.