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Emacs.ch Admin (@[email protected])
emacs.chAfter careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to discontinue the operation of Emacs.ch.
After almost two years of dedicated service to our community, I'm tired. Tired of taking the legal responsibilities of hosting potentially illegal content, proactively removing CSAM and porn, hate and racism. Tired of remembering adults that they should stick to our server rules. Tired of yet another personal attack by random people who hide behind their pseudonyms, yet eagerly dox others and threaten their families. Who demand, but never give. Who think they are better, because they are different. Yet have nothing better to do than destroy what they can't agree with.
In accordance with the Mastodon Covenant, we are providing a three-month notice period. Emacs.ch will officially cease operations on December 9, 2024. So, take your time to find a place that reflects your values - I'll keep the engines running until then.
For those who have recently made donations, I will be reaching out individually to discuss appropriate arrangements.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to all who have contributed to making Emacs.ch a unique and valuable space over the past two years. Your participation and support have been deeply appreciated.
A big "Thank you" goes to our four moderators, who have spent a lot of time approving sign-ups and handling reports swiftly and in a fair manner. And to all users of the first hour, who helped to make this such a great place.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support during this transition period.
Emacs.ch was a very special place for me. ❤️
The fediverse will never destroy big tech unfortunately. In their worst case, they will incorporate it and easily dominate.
If not completely destroy it, at least make it irrelevant for those who want to avoid it.
The FOSS movement never destroyed Microsoft, but it arguably made it possible for us to live in a world where Bill Gates owned every PC software that we run.
In my opinion, the fediverse as it exists today is very vulnerable to domination by big tech. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is it is too small for them to care that much.
If the fediverse ever becomes mainstream, big tech will dominate it. If we want to fight big tech, we need to rethink our strategy and the fediverse, because right now, the fediverse is not ready to take it on.
How would that happen? If the core idea of “the Fediverse” is to have a loosely-connected network of servers and applications speaking a common protocol, how is it that they would use to “dominate” it?
I am not saying that Big Tech couldn’t try to use it “open wash” their solutions, like Facebook and Google did with XMPP before. But what I am saying is that (like XMPP) I think it’s virtually impossible for them to “dominate” something that is open.
I’m also not saying that the software we have is ready for the masses (it isn’t) but all the issues I see are just a matter of implementation, not a fundamental design flaw.