Florian Maury on Nostr: So, Science4all has published a video in which he basically shits all over Mastodon ...
So, Science4all has published a video in which he basically shits all over Mastodon (actually the fediverse), encouraging people to leave the fediverse and join him on BlueSky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvUSut9Whg
Here is my review:
"A militant, even quasi-promotional video, with a very weak and sometimes dishonest line of argument.
First off, the video is very disorganized: presenting the failure of decentralization, then promoting a decentralized protocol (AT) seems a rather curious line of argument.
The author doesn't make a true comparison: ActivityPub is presented just after the failure of decentralization for a negative effect, while AT is immediately followed by the new functionalities enabled by these protocols for a positive effect.
Despite the fact that ActivityPub is just as capable of these innovations as AT and Bluesky, and is even sometimes the forerunner and pioneer, the way the video is articulated is clearly aimed at promoting AT.
At the end of the day, the video's author's main argument is that it's easier to integrate the AI algorithms he's working on with AT (nothing prevents ActivityPub clients from doing algorithmic sorting or even algorithmic censorship, but it requires some energy the video's author is not really to spend), and that's really his only motivation.
The argument against decentralization, related to the fediverse fragmentation caused by instance blocking, is totally specious, since the criticisms should apply to both protocols. As he himself says, AT relays may decide not to relay certain messages. However, the accusation is made only against ActivityPub. The real reason is that AT isn't actually decentralized at all, and is merely carrying the seed of a potential emergence of decentralization, which remains to be proven. “Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow” seems to be the adage to remember.
I'd also like to skip the completely absurd “inward-looking” argument used by communities such as the skeptics: publishing on an open, federated server that can be consulted from any instance or client of the fediverse, or even from a web browser, does not qualify as inward-looking. The author completely misses the notion of interest groups to pool resources (financial and technical), while protecting themselves from censorship by centralized, freedom-denying platforms.
It seems hard to trust the author of this video to be objective."
#mastodon #bluesky #science4all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvUSut9Whg
Here is my review:
"A militant, even quasi-promotional video, with a very weak and sometimes dishonest line of argument.
First off, the video is very disorganized: presenting the failure of decentralization, then promoting a decentralized protocol (AT) seems a rather curious line of argument.
The author doesn't make a true comparison: ActivityPub is presented just after the failure of decentralization for a negative effect, while AT is immediately followed by the new functionalities enabled by these protocols for a positive effect.
Despite the fact that ActivityPub is just as capable of these innovations as AT and Bluesky, and is even sometimes the forerunner and pioneer, the way the video is articulated is clearly aimed at promoting AT.
At the end of the day, the video's author's main argument is that it's easier to integrate the AI algorithms he's working on with AT (nothing prevents ActivityPub clients from doing algorithmic sorting or even algorithmic censorship, but it requires some energy the video's author is not really to spend), and that's really his only motivation.
The argument against decentralization, related to the fediverse fragmentation caused by instance blocking, is totally specious, since the criticisms should apply to both protocols. As he himself says, AT relays may decide not to relay certain messages. However, the accusation is made only against ActivityPub. The real reason is that AT isn't actually decentralized at all, and is merely carrying the seed of a potential emergence of decentralization, which remains to be proven. “Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow” seems to be the adage to remember.
I'd also like to skip the completely absurd “inward-looking” argument used by communities such as the skeptics: publishing on an open, federated server that can be consulted from any instance or client of the fediverse, or even from a web browser, does not qualify as inward-looking. The author completely misses the notion of interest groups to pool resources (financial and technical), while protecting themselves from censorship by centralized, freedom-denying platforms.
It seems hard to trust the author of this video to be objective."
#mastodon #bluesky #science4all