This is an interesting perspective, thanks. I of course would rather we have organic growth in the long-run, I just think in the short-term this could be good to add legitimacy to the space. It's very possible I'm wrong, but I guess that's up to every instance to decide for themselves.
I totally get that people are irritated because they worry about Facebook using their influence to extinguish communities, but why would they extinguish? There is no profit incentive here on the side of small instances, and honestly, this doesn’t change that.
What I do think is a positive here, and what this does change, is that your average person actually can potentially interact with those of us on the fediverse. These are people that may take a decade to make the switch, but now they are actually able to meaningfully interact and be interacted with. I view that as a really big positive, because ultimately the problem with a lot of this, and the reason we aren’t all using Matrix right now to chat, is because sometimes the reality is that we need a critical mass to make a community worthwhile. I’m personally optimistic that this could be cool.
Just a quick disclaimer that I am not a Meta/FB fan. I also see a hugely destructive problem with the views platformed and amplified on Facebook, but I personally don’t see the algorithm as nearly as damaging as the Twitter amplification of voices, and I think I tend to be more optimistic about Threads not being as much of a harmful echo chamber.
Also, this is the same guy claiming Elon Musk was the right one to run Twitter. Ooook. This is why I’m all in on the fediverse- if we continue to just invest in monolith social networks we’ll continue to give undue power to rich fucks, no matter how good the intentions are at the start. If they can monetize it, they will.
I find this really interesting considering the Minecraft Subreddit was actually what got me into using Reddit. It really speaks to the shifting opinion on Reddit. I think the trust at this point is breached beyond repair even if they retracted all of their decisions.
I for one am supportive of all billionaires fighting to the death