It's tomorrow! Tomorrow, July 8 at 16:00 EDT (20:00 UTC), we are hosting a "Mastodon Hour," where the campaigns team will be making ourselves available to discuss certain topics in real time. Read more at: https://u.fsf.org/3mb Please boost this post to help spread the word!
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Mastodon social network, is in fact, the Fediverse. Mastodon is not a social network unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning network made useful by ActivityPub, WebFinger, NodeInfo, and vital network components comprising a full SNS as defined by standards, done by the W3C and the IETF.
Many computer users run a modified version of the Fediverse social network every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the implementations of Fediverse which is widely used today is often called “Mastodon”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the Fediverse. There really is a Mastodon, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the network they use.
@lanodan @fsf Let's not scare away users with terminology. I think it's fair to use the term #Mastodon for the micro-blogging section of the #Fediverse. Like we can use #PixelFed for the image-sharing one. Even though other implementations might eventually also support those features. As long as these terms are not capitalized on by the supposed owners, it's all ok. I agree we risk a #Jabber fiasco by doing this, but naming is hard and going with the names that organically come up is easy.
bonifartius 𒂼𒄄
@stevenroose
no, this is the "saying open source is fine" argument. it's catering to people who don't care about values beside money.
@lanodan @fsf
@bonifartius I don't understand what you're meaning to say..
@lanodan @fsf
@stevenroose
proponents of the term "open source" and the permissive licenses that come with it are often pushing this narrative that people shouldn't be confused by terms, that "free" in "free software" is somehow confusing, etc.
free software isn't confusing, and it has a very different meaning from "open source". free software is primarily about keeping freedom, open source is (now, i won't blame the old bsd folks) primarily about making money and embrace, extend, extinguish.
names matter. the name "fediverse" matters. be it pleroma or friendica or honk they as important as mastodon or pixelfed or writefreely. fediverse is a network based on a protocol, not on a specific software. calling it by the name of the biggest software is a disservice to the cause.
