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@myrmidon Donations have their own problems, for sure, but the user is paying directly, so the platform can support third-party apps in a way that ad-based social networks aren't set up for.

@manton Ads: If this was the only reason, unlazy platforms could certify apps relaying the ads. Easy.

@myrmidon @manton

I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure if it's accurate?

Ad-supported networks have to do incredibly shady possibly illegal things in order to have viable business models. Grassroots networks run by volunteers and supported by donations simply don't need to do this.

Commercial networks also have extremely low staff-to-user ratios compared to donation-supported, which is why they use moderation algorithms a lot more. Commercial networks cannot afford enough moderators.

@feditips @manton We agree, the problem is the “attention economy” not the ads per se.
Agree to disagree on moderation: you can only ask so much to volunteers.

@myrmidon @manton

Sure, I'm just saying there are far more people moderating on a volunteer system.

On centralised networks there may be one human moderator for 100,000 people, on decentralised ones it's more like 1 for 1000.

By spreading out the ownership, it attracts more people to moderate because they are more motivated to look after their own server.

@feditips @manton First, nobody knows. You’d need access to moderation metrics.
Second, a Facebook has one of the best ML team, money to power the needed servers. (networks owned by crazies will vanish.)

Thinking that ML doesn’t outpace humans here is like betting on a human driver or a human go player.

But if we go full federation, moderation might be less of an issue? (it will be easy to moderate your family, your co-workers or members of your association).

@myrmidon @manton

We know how many Fediverse servers there are and how many users, it averages out at about 1 server per 1000 users. That's an average of at least 1 moderator per 1000 Fedi users.

To match this ratio. Facebook would need 3 million moderators. I doubt they have the capacity to pay that many people, their entire staff is about 80,000. FB may run moderation sweatshops, but I doubt they have 3 million people in them, and if they do then the working conditions/pay must be immoral.

@myrmidon @manton

Playing a game of Go is nothing like moderation.

Go has clear winning conditions, moderation is a complex cultural phenomenon.

Replacing people with machines is just going to reflect the priorities of the makers of those machines. You might think that's okay, I think it's the opposite of what decentralisation and the Fediverse is supposed to do.

@feditips @manton You’re opposing centralized/machines and decentralized/humans although the concepts are orthogonal.

Whether or not decentralized wins (I wish, it’s Progress), machine will win, probably decentralized too.

@feditips @myrmidon Loosely related, I think it's important for the long-term health of the fediverse to have a mix of donation and paid services. More money flowing into small companies (not massive ad-based platforms) will help support moderation too.