The Fediverse as it stands now is super ambitious, prospering, and honestly really exciting to see and be a part of.
I worry about the sustainability, though. The current model of donations, volunteer mods, and so on is working as intended, and the experience is flourishing. I see this model standing up for at least a couple of years as-is, barring any major changes of any kind.
My question becomes: How do we plan for the future entry of corporate influence into all of this? Because it will happen. I’ve watched most social media platforms and systems come into being in my lifetime, and also watched most of their demises. Money, marketing, and ads always come for them in some form.
What’s being done now to help prevent toxic corporate influence in the future? Can anything be done? The best part about defederated instances is a corporate influence could get ahold of one instance, but not all of them. Great in concept, but how do we plan for a future when corporate interest reaches these platforms and they throw enough money around to shake things up for the worse, as it always seems to?
There is no ethical consumption. State-run institutions are historically far worse for their users and good luck having any type of consistent strategic vision without some type of organizational structure. Non-profits like Wikimedia Foundation are by and large the way to go for future and sustained platform support. Yes, that is still capitalism. It is capitalism without the profit motive.
Can you actually have capitalism without the profit motive? I am skeptical.
Unless you believe that people are solely motivated by money, absolutely. I do believe that the entire basis behind most left-leaning ideologies supports the idea that they are not.