Chris Trottier on Nostr: So now that OpenAI and Google are indexing all our Fediverse posts, isn’t it about ...
So now that OpenAI and Google are indexing all our Fediverse posts, isn’t it about time Fediverse developers—especially those on Mastodon—finally got serious about social discovery and search?
I find it ironic that bad actors outside the Fediverse can troll and scrape our data without giving a damn about the community or its norms. They’re just slurping up all our posts, while we provide a terrible discovery experience, especially for new users.
One of the biggest complaints I hear about the Fediverse—and a key reason why people don’t stick around—is that they can’t find the content they’re interested in. People want to talk about knitting, League of Legends, 18th-century ship designs, and more. All of that could be findable and searchable through their Mastodon server, but those capabilities are absent. Why? Because a tiny minority—what I like to call the “Homeowners Association” of the Fediverse—wants to keep certain people out.
They make things intentionally difficult. They don’t want “peasants” on their Fediverse. Sure, they couch it in different terms. They argue that search would lead to abuse. They claim social discovery would enable harassment and dogpiling. Fair points—if search and discovery were mandated and not based on explicit opt-in consent.
But let’s face reality: bad actors like Google and OpenAI don’t care about opt-in consent. They’re scraping our data anyway. They might respect a robots.txt file or a DMCA takedown, but the idea of “explicit consent” means nothing to them. They’re doing it regardless.
By ignoring this, the Homeowners Association of the Fediverse is effectively getting told to “get bent.” If we don’t wake up and make these tools available to everyone, they’ll only be available to bad actors. And when only bad actors have access to search and social discovery? The Fediverse is in serious trouble.
I find it ironic that bad actors outside the Fediverse can troll and scrape our data without giving a damn about the community or its norms. They’re just slurping up all our posts, while we provide a terrible discovery experience, especially for new users.
One of the biggest complaints I hear about the Fediverse—and a key reason why people don’t stick around—is that they can’t find the content they’re interested in. People want to talk about knitting, League of Legends, 18th-century ship designs, and more. All of that could be findable and searchable through their Mastodon server, but those capabilities are absent. Why? Because a tiny minority—what I like to call the “Homeowners Association” of the Fediverse—wants to keep certain people out.
They make things intentionally difficult. They don’t want “peasants” on their Fediverse. Sure, they couch it in different terms. They argue that search would lead to abuse. They claim social discovery would enable harassment and dogpiling. Fair points—if search and discovery were mandated and not based on explicit opt-in consent.
But let’s face reality: bad actors like Google and OpenAI don’t care about opt-in consent. They’re scraping our data anyway. They might respect a robots.txt file or a DMCA takedown, but the idea of “explicit consent” means nothing to them. They’re doing it regardless.
By ignoring this, the Homeowners Association of the Fediverse is effectively getting told to “get bent.” If we don’t wake up and make these tools available to everyone, they’ll only be available to bad actors. And when only bad actors have access to search and social discovery? The Fediverse is in serious trouble.