Eugen can be the #BDFL of Mastodon if he wants to.

But the article really doesn't explain that the #Fediverse is bigger than Mastodon, that Mastodon is only one client among dozens. If there is to be any BDFL over the #Fediverse it would be @evan and I don't think he wants the job.

The #Fediverse started in 2008 with Evan's Laconi.ca and #OStatus. Mastodon has been around for less than half the lifespan of the #Fediverse.

#BDFL= #BenevolentDictatorForLife

@tarkowski @Gargron @nilaypatel

Model #OpenSource #BDFL judgment last year from #LinusTorvalds: "Users matter."

> There is exactly one thing you should hold sacred: don’t break people’s setups. All the rest is just #engineering, and a HUGE part of “engineering” is to realize that everything is a trade-off.
>
> #Linux #kernel #development is a pragmatic thing where existing users and existing code matters, and you don’t get to just throw it all away because you have some odd personal hangup.

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wie+VC-R5=Hm=Vrg5PLrJxb1XiV67Efx-9Cr1fBKCWHTQ@mail.gmail.com/

Happy birthday to Guido van Rossum, born January 31, 1956 🥳

He is a Dutch programmer best known as the creator of the Python programming language, for which he was the "benevolent dictator for life" (BDFL) until he stepped down from the position on 2018 🐍

Guido website 👇
https://gvanrossum.github.io/

Photo credit: Michael Cavotta
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

#Python #BDFL #GuidoVanRossum #gvanrossum

@batalanto My guess is that discussion of a migration off GH *did* start *somewhere* and probably still *is* happening - it's just that the bunch of people aware of the conversation haven't made the discussion location or logs easy to find. (#Transparency flaw)

@Gargron himself is almost certainly overwhelmed in trying to handle the most urgent software issues and the most urgent instance maintenance issues during this surge in attention. So active developers will need to help the #BDFL.

@AtlantaAntifa @admin @moderation

One, some person or group develops a searchable index of such toots whose authors want to be searchable.

Two, those authors use some widely-agreed on hashtag (say #tooot) that marks the toot as indexable.

Three, add a feature to Fediverse clients, or if a #BDFL won't go along with that, a browser extension,
that will send the tooot's URL in a post request to whatever server is used for searchable tooot intake,
so no spiders to unleash upon the Fediverse.

@downey

Mastodon IS NOT the #Fediverse!

The #BDFL of that project saying it's is "vital" illustrates the branding philosophy and corporate, ego driven mindset behind so many PRs and requests that have repeatedly been rejected by an overwhelming amount of Fediverse users and developers - just look at how many 👎 "thumbs down" 👎 reactions his post received (that is rarely seen on GitHub).

His language and marketing have been largely successful, confusing newcomers during this Twitter egress (including media coverage) and conflating just what the Fediverse and mastodon are...

People are saying, "I just joined mastodon!" - NO, you did not. You just joined the "Fediverse", by creating an account on a mastodon server. Even newcomers creating accounts on #Friendica and #Pleroma servers are often seen saying this, and it needs to "STOP".

The Fediverse is the network they are joining, and mastodon is just one of a dozen or so viable platforms that people can use to do so.

Truth be told, mastodon is one of the least feature complete Fediverse server platforms, lacking in many of the most basic social networking tools and features that most other popular server platforms introduced ages ago.

It doesn't even render Markdown, have have quotable boosting, only introduced editing of posts a couple of weeks back, and has a hard coded limit of a paltry 500 characters for each post, forcing users to create those confusingly chronologically backward hellthreads that are interspersed and broken up in everyone's feeds, and there's many more deficiencies to list here.

This is why there are so many different forks.

When you create a #PeerTube account, you haven't joined the PeerTube network - you've joined the Fediverse!

When you create a #Pixelfed account, you haven't joined the Pixelfed network - you've joined the Fediverse!

If you create a mastodon account, you haven't joined "mastodon" - you've joined three Fediverse!

There is no such thing as a mastodon network!

It's just one type of Fediverse server platform, among many, like:

#Akkama, Pleroma, Friendica, #Lemmy, #Soapbox, #Misskey, PeerTube, #Mitra, Pixelfed, #MicroPub, #Epicyon, #Quanta, #GoToSicial, #Socialhome, #FunkWhale, and many many other platforms that open up the entire Fediverse to people, allowing them to share and seamlessly communicate with one another.

There are analogs for #Faceplant, #Twitter, #InstaSPAM, #Reddit, and pretty much any type of social networking experience you can find in the deprecated, centralized, legacy silo systems that cannot, and do not wish to interact with each other - which the Fediverse breaks the paradigm of, and empowers everyone engage with each other globally.

Mastodon's marketing has very deliberately been designed to subvert that narrative and replace this reality with its own, self serving commercial interests to the detriment of Fediverse itself.

A wake up call us coming very soon when the #non_FOSS based platforms like #Tumblr and #Imgur join their (millions) substantial user bases to the Fediverse at which time, mastodon itself may find itself drowned out and largely irrelevant due to its very lacking feature set, and ask if the other existing Fediverse platforms providing so much more if what is possible for us all.

This is typically what happens when your development is driven by egocentric, ulterior motives (whether he actually realizes this about himself or not) to benefit yourself personally - just look at how his donations have jumped, even though newcomers are creating accounts on other Fediverse and mastodon servers begging for donations that for the most part are going directly to him.

#tallship #FOSS #ActivityPub #introductions #newcomers

⛵

.

New server, new #introduction!

#sciencefiction #writer & #podcaster.

Sometimes work as #narrator #audiobook producer #teacher / #trainer.

#Parent with #adhd & #tourettes raising 3 kids in #Canada.

#atheist but believe in #helping

#bdfl of a new masto dedicated to storytelling in all its forms & expanding horizons, diversity for its members:

https://vyrse.social/auth/sign_up

@gargron

When i read your messages i think more and more of a benevolent dictator for life. I hope you enjoy it and that your know your responsibility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_for_life

thank you for developing mastodon! 👍💐 #torvalds #bdfl

@thatguyoverthere @alcinnz @TMakarios

Regarding #FOSS: It's already centralized. Not all of it and not in all parts but certainly when looking at a single language or framework and when looking at hosting, packaging, content delivery. And only a very small part of these centralized entities are republican or democratic.

For example:
- Hosting is #Github
- Python is changed through #PEP
- JavaScript and web technology is governed by the #W3C
- #Mastodon is operated as a #BDFL

@bob @sprkwd #BDFL was not how projects were run in the functional era of #indymedia BUT it was why the projects died in the end and is at the root of the #geekproblem

If we are to reboot useful #openweb then we need to mediate this issue for #indymediaback It's why we shut down the last reboot, it had completely come off the tracks... and covid did not help with the on the ground outreach.

The #OGB is useful here.

Maybe I should add "BDFL of cxxomfort" to my resume. It certainly sounds better than "sole developer", and better showcases the skills involved.

#softwaredevelopment #bdfl

TFW you realize Hans Reiser was convicted over a decade ago and the #BDFL model is stiiilllll the dominant form of #OpenSource governance.

@emsenn
Yeah, that's a good point.

I just checked, and I'd been misremembering our rules: Right now, the fosstodon rules are that only the people who contribute at least $1/month get a vote on contributing our excess funds. And, as far as I know, we don't have any voting on other issues—we're trusting ourselves to the benevolent dictatorship of @mike/@kev. And that's worked out for us so far; plenty of projects do really well with a #BDFL
@mike @poetgrant @lawremipsum @kev