This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Abstract

This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Some challenges mentioned in the paper:

  • Discoverability as there is no central or unified index
  • Complicated moderation efforts due to its decentralized nature
  • Interoperability between instances of different types (e.g., Lemmy and Funkwhale)
  • Concentration on a small number of large instances
  • The risk of commercial capture by Big Tech

What are your thoughts on this? And how could we make the Fediverse a better place for all to stay?

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Be great to get actual instance operators and admins to chime in on this. I already feel like a single aspect of that (Lemmy) is fantastic and I’d be satisfied if it was at its zenith already in terms of what it brought to the table

    • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      It’s a reasonable MVP, but still needs major progress around discoverability.

      I’ve tried dragging some friends in, and they’re not opposed to leaving reddit, but the refrain is always ‘topic x isn’t there’ or ‘nobody is posting anything’.

      You can easily pick the “wrong” community on a topic, and see zero content when there’s another one full of posts but… how do you know which community on what server is the “right” one without finding a 3rd party tool that can provide metrics and you’ve lost most of the people who were interested at that point.

      And, since Lemmy is quite a lot slower, it’s also hard to tell if you’re in the right place but nobody is posting or if you’re in the wrong one and nobody is ever going to post anything, which kinda makes this require a lot more time than just picking the single subreddit that looks like what you’re after.

      • rezz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Discovery should not be a function of the Fediverse itself. It should be a tool, app, or otherwise layer on top of a baseline. Discovery is an opinionated service offering—if it’s baked in, it’s not a good thing IMO.

        • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I think that depends on your goals and concerns more than anything.

          I was merely relating my anecdotal experience with about 10 people who would be Lemmy users, but bounced off so hard they’re not even interested in considering it ever again because finding anything interesting was more effort than it was worth, so they’ve literally written off the whole Fediverse as a dumb idea for nerds.

          I can’t say I blame them because finding anything worth interacting with on Lemmy or the microblog platforms or whatever is worse than the commercial platforms, usually by design and, mostly, I don’t disagree that killing the algorithmic feed is a good thing.

          But, for something like Lemmy? It should be trivial to find out where people are talking about a topic you’re interested in, and not require knowing someone who knows what tools are updated and current and accurate and how to use the tool and THEN how to take what the tool tells you and subscribe to a community since even that is obtuse and complex.

          I think piefed’s community grouping thing is a step in the right direction, but probably could go further with being able to find and share groups between instances.