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but it isn't an island, because there is a global search index, allowing you to access information from each of them at will. certain hobby forums are still central (i personally use them for my poultry, aquatics and ttrpgs hobby) - they remain dominant because these communities depend on a way to search historical data instead of reading an algorithm based flow stream with the same 10 questions every day. unfortunately there is a large push of the younger generation who didn't grow up with forums to try and retool the concept of traditional forum activity on platforms that don't support it, most popular being discord (of all things?!), and facebook groups (just, why?). but as neither of these platforms support a search index outside of their walled gardens and encourage a spammy "flow" with peak interactions that slowly chokes any quality information, the future is pretty fucked on data if the teens don't move to classic software. so imo, mastodon's traditional design with a modern face, together with the fediverse, has the potential to replace current commercial behemoths, and if it does, the internet might be saved. but if mastodon goes commercial, and find itself with a walled garden to generate more profits, there is little hope for the future. just look at modern chat clients. there is a reason you can't talk to grandma's facebook account through your google chat anymore, and it isn't for your benefit. the world used to be hell of a lot more connected and quality information used to be hell of a lot more accessible. but commercialization, SEO, and so on, is currently keeping -the internet- on life support. so a handful of people can play billionaires. |