The Washington Post recently published an op-ed by Megan McArdle titled "Twitter might be replaced, but not by Mastodon or other imitators." The article argues that Mastodon is falling into a common trap for open source projects: building a look-alike alternative which improves things a typical...

A comment by the EFF: “People coming from Twitter tend to think of the fediverse as a Twitter-replacement […] but that’s only a fraction of its potential. The question isn’t if the fediverse can replace Twitter … With enough momentum the fediverse can be the fabric of the social web, incorporating existing systems like Tumblr and Medium and outright replacing stragglers.”

  • 0x1C3B00DA
    2·
    2 years ago

    While I agree with the EFF that the fediverse could become “the fabric of the social web”, I think this article is slightly off. Their argument is about the fediverse and how it’s based on ActivityPub and so could be used for many different types of interactions. But they were arguing against the idea that mastodon is a failed twitter clone. I think the article they’re replying to is right; mastodon is a twitter clone that misses what hardcore twitter users like about it. Everything the EFF wrote about the fediverse is right, but that has nothing to do with whether mastodon is a decent twitter alternative or not becuase mastodon is not the fediverse.