rglullis

it just results in recreating the same shit we already have

This is you passing opinion as undisputed truth. I am not proposing "Let's take on the big corporations by building another big corporation", I am saying "we can get rid of the dominance from big corporations if we help foment an economy of small, independent businesses." and I am saying "if we keep this anti-business culture where we are hostile to even some food truck owner trying to connect to their customers, then don't complain when the food truck owner continues using Facebook/Instagram/Twitter".

And that “open-source alternative” is now open-core

Synapse is still AGPLv3. Their closed parts are for Enterprise.

and most likely suggested this (Monal) instead.

Monal does not make video calls! Not having video calls was a non-starter in 2015, let alone today.

because that is really a clear example of how unsustainable and ill advised that kind of growth is.

Is it? Because so far I managed to talk with a lot more people on Matrix than I ever did on XMPP, and that wouldn't change even if Element closed shop tomorrow. And even if it did, the odds would be highly in favor of some other company like Beeper picking up the pieces to serve its customers and it would still be in their interest to keep things open to have the ecosystem around.

So, at the end of the day, yes, I'd rather have this "unsustainable" growth than claiming any moral victory for sticking to the Betamax of chat protocols. This "unsustainable" system gave me and few hundred million people something that is far from perfect, but at least it can make video calls.

Hey, any comparison to Ayn Rand or their fans should be an immediate ban. No need to go that low.

All I've been arguing with you could be summed up as "if we want the Fediverse to be universal, we will need to grow a lot faster and we need to accept the reality that not everyone values the same things as you do" and you responding "No, I don't to make the Fediverse universal because most people are too morally weak to stand for the things I care about".

(And if you think I am exagerating: don't make me look for the conversation where you said that people should be okay using this crap because the other open source alternatives committed the grave sin of "raising money from investors".)

What "difference" is someone doing by being a mod of 50-odd subreddits, like the case of the mod in question?

I am not at all talking about the cases of someone who is passionate about some topic and then goes on to cultivate a community around it, and I am not saying "every moderator is doing it for some ulterior motive".

I am talking specifically about the types that put on themselves to become mods of dozens of subreddits. Or instance admins that go months in a row begging for money to be able to pay their own bills, instead of shutting down the instance or make it only for those that contribute back.

IOW, I am talking about the cases where people act beyond what anyone would consider "healthy".

When the stakes are small, sure.

But if you were to find yourself with a community with hundreds of thousands of people, and let's say that 0.01% percent of any group is made of people who seem like they are out to just make everyone's life miserable, so every week we will have to deal with a couple of dozen cases of obnoxnious behavior, petty disputes, etc... how long do you think you'd be able to endure it?

Speaking for myself: I was remembering the time when I found myself as the owner and main mod of the University's group on Orkut. When it was mostly discussions among actual students and faculty, it was all nice. Even when discussions were heated, they were not out of control. But when Orkut exploded in Brazil and it became a place for soapbox politics, spam, shouting matches between the student factions, people wanting to share articles about city events, etc, etc... it became too much for me and the handful of co-owners that joined me in the period.

Some people chose to do the right things because they are right

This is just another way of saying that people do things for moral validation - a.k.a, self-righteouness - and is no at all different from "power tripping".

I just want to tag @[email protected] because I know that he is also looking to build a community of racing enthusiasts.

Just to respond to point (6): From the blog post, there is a link to a post from someone moving from fosstodon to hachyderm that says:

Overall I'm satisfied with the moderation process and neutrality on Fosstodon. What to do? As a Fosstodon user, it's hard to see any future path with the instance that works in my favor. (...) Most will never know anything about the name other than "the instance which allowed a nazi mod". While I believe the characterization is 100% untrue and unfair, the die is cast for lots of people.
If I stay, the likely outcomes are:

• Limited communication with some other people, because some other instance mods will choose to block Fosstodon
• Will have to explain my choices and the highlights of this post any time someone says "eeeww, Fosstodon", occasionally and probably forever
• Some people will incorrectly assume I hold certain views based on my association with fosstodon

So, yes, at least one person is moving to another instance not because they are particularly against the admins, but for fear of being judged by association.

Interesting! I hope to see posts from your business soon, and it would be great to have more people like you contributing to the communities on https://indiehackers.space/

Ah, I thought you were talking about something here on the Fediverse.

In any case, I wish people didn't feel afraid to talk about business here. Maybe more people would realize that behind the majority of "business" there are genuine people and not just the cartoon capitalist pigs.

Well I only moderate 1 community and there is a compensation component to it.

So many questions... :)

• What community?
• From this account, or some other? You profile page doesn't show you as moderator for anything.
• What form of compensation are you talking about?

I have to ask, then: what motivates people to do it?

If mods are not financially compensated for it, the only rational explanation is that they are either getting some form of benefit (soft power, access to privileged information) or they are getting some pleasure out of it, i.e, power tripping.