his post on mastodon is here:
https://mastodon.social/@pixelfed/113849098386232034
Dear Mark, I hope this finds you well. I noticed something interesting today - it seems Instagram is blocking links to my little open-source project. You know, the one that lets people share photos without harvesting their personal data or forcing algorithmic feeds on them. I have to admit, I’m flattered. Who would’ve thought a small team of volunteers could build something that would catch your attention? We’re just trying to give people a choice in how they share their memories online. No VCs, no surveillance capitalism, just code and community. Remember when Facebook started? It was about connecting people, not maximizing engagement metrics. Our project might be tiny compared to Instagram, but we’re staying true to that original spirit of social media - giving people control over their online presence without turning them into products. You could’ve ignored us. Instead, by blocking our links, you’ve given us the best endorsement we could ask for. You’ve confirmed what we’ve been saying all along - that big tech is more interested in protecting their walled gardens than fostering genuine innovation. Every time you block a link to our platform, you remind people why we built it in the first place. Your action tells them there are alternatives worth exploring, ones that respect their privacy and agency. So thank you, Mark. You’ve turned our little project into a symbol of resistance against digital monopolies.
Any project with a countdown timer, “days till Zuckerberg blocks us” is one I can get behind.
Where do i download it?
I’m sure he’ll read it.
Your underestimate the fragility of a lonely billionaires ego.
Why did the pixelfed creator have to fuck this up and treat his own community horribly? And such timing too. ( the pixelfed creator was acting horribly to the mastodon and other fediverse programmers and they came out and made a statement about how they don’t like being treated that way )
Now I understand why I didn’t care closing my Facebook account years ago: it was for cross posting this sort of information.
Even if my Facebook feed is a sad desert, I hope I can be censored by the guy who rejects fact checkers
Remember when Facebook started? It was about connecting people
I remember that it was about abusing the private information of all the “dumb fucks” who created an account.
The letter is good though, but zucky will still be a billionaire whether he will read it or not.
Wasn’t it about ranking female students by attractiveness or something?
I dont think it was ranking, no.
But it was for getting their PII. Like photos, location, relationship status, and phone number. Helped a lot of college kids get laid, myself included.
Does pixelfed work for this too?
Apparently, that was some other Zuckerberg project: https://www.metro.us/everything-to-know-about-facemash-the-site-zuckerberg-created-in-college-to-rank-hot-women/
Is hotornot.com still live?
Facebook was about, “connecting people” though. It was the first stage in its growth. It was also before monetization and was actively losing money.
it was always all about the data, even back in the hot-or-not clone days.
It was about growing the user base so more data could be harvested, not about the connections being made.
It was first provided to college/edu addresses. It wasn’t what it is today at all.
As evil as it’s sounds, he’s not wrong.
I deleted my account when that came out, so I’ve been Facebook free since something like 2006.
I didn’t even join until then. I thought that info came out way later?
Maybe it was 2008 instead of 06? Seemed like it came out very early, I’d only had an account for a year or so I think, shortly after it was opened up outside EDU domains.
Yeah also facebook started as an evolution of men rating women on his campus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook#Facemash It should be no surprise that zuck has recently started proclaiming that he wants a more masculine corporate identity, it’s been that way from the beginning
“The Kirkland Facebook (referring to the Kirkland House intranet) is open on my computer desktop, and some of these people have pretty horrendous Facebook pictures. I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive.” - Zuck, 2003
That’s just it. Zuck could sell off and close shop and live large for the rest of his life. And yet he chooses to fuck around with people instead.
It’s weird.
There’s creating. And then there’s harvesting content and creations of others. The former is the only one that makes you interesting.
When you think about it too you realize these people have nothing good inside them. They seek power because externally people covet power. They covet it because they want control of their own lives but Mark has control and doesn’t fucking get it. He thinks power is inherently good so he steals it all away for himself but no matter how hard he trys he can’t look inward and find anything that means something more than that. It’s truly sad and grotesque. My mind could be set on 100 different paths that would fill me with so much satisfaction that nothing else would matter and mark can’t find one for himself.
deleted by creator
This letter isn’t actually directed to Mark, it’s an ad.
Except he didn’t mention the product name anywhere in the letter. Looks like he purposefully avoided it being interpreted as an ad.
Also means people can safely quote from it on those platforms.
Given his target audience, that is the best type of ad.
He thinking about why he isn’t king just like the rest of them. Increasingly we are wondering the same thing. Why is he not like almost almost all past kings. In the past.
Oh no.
Please, for the love of god, think more tactically. This is a brilliant move on Daniel’s part, and a fantastic example for the fediverse more broadly to follow.
Further, Daniel needs to read up on Zuck’s history. He’s been a motherfucker since he was a kid.
@moineau @gi1242 Until it’s over and their costly empires collapse, would not be the first who ends up broke. Fortune is not like rock, although they try to make it like that, they try to cement their throne … whel empires rise and kings fall. The fall usually starts with decadence and arrogance. He already bought his watch…and for the paradise pd fans “higher hair” 🤭
That’s not how FaceBook started, if it were then Mark Zuckerberg would have been using it.
It started so he could creep on girls on their campus. Nerds had hard time to socialize, so they made a digital social network to help them with the cause. Dunno if it did. But his early interviews are creepy af, lol
Never heard of them until this Streisand created issue.
Smart enough to realize it, but not smart enough to not say it.
Rather than write a public letter pointing it out, he could have just let it happen.When your enemy is helping you, don’t point it out.
It might encourage them to stop.The letter will get published by the media. This was a good idea.
Will it? I doubt CNN, Faux News, WaPo, or any big news org will even know Pixelfed exists, much less that the creator wrote a snarky message to Zucc.
I said media, not corporations
What’s “media” to you?
Orgs who employ journalists who do journalistic work
After the news reported on it (404 media and others) Facebook already reversed their decision and unblocked it, I thought
And here we are talking about the letter. In this instance, no news is bad news.
Cringy, inaccurate, and reeks of arrogance. 200k users. I bet it got blocked because some bot started spamming the platform.
At the end of the day, the critical mass of users will be based on 2 things. Ease of use or engagement and content. Content creators won’t go to platforms that don’t bring in money or get yelled at for trying to make money.
I’m all for pixelfed. I have a pixelfed account. This is a fun way to talk about the project.
I was pretty surprised at how the app is essentially a complete clone of IG. like the styling and layout of every button is pixel for pixel the exact same as IG. Innovation is one thing but copying everything about a program and calling it your own I’m not so sure about.
I mean zuckerberg stole the whole idea of Facebook from the winkleboss twins in the first place. Bought Instagram because he doesn’t gave the ability to create new good products. Then he copied Snapchat’s short form video into Instagram. So I’ve zero sympathy for him. But if it were my project I’d make sure its different enough so won’t lose it if it’s sued for that
yeah that all makes sense.
i guess i just raised an eyebrow as the author of the letter was like “its just code and community” whilst absolutely copying their design down to the order of the items on the popup menu for posts
There’s a theory that copyright can help artists make a living.
But copying a design from a corpo after they’ve already made oodles of money is more like liberating the design for use of everyone.
well the the learning curve for new users is flat and adoption of the app will be more acceptable to more people.
I think it’s a smart idea - they can always make changes to the UI in time as the platform gets more people.
You believe that making the learning curve “flat” means that you have to copy the exact shape, size and style of the icons?
Yes I do.
If app A has an icon that when touched does a specific thing, and app B has the exact same icon that does the exact same thing there is nothing new to learn. The learning curve is flat.
If you are arguing about the ethical and legal aspect of one app using the exact same UI as another that is a different conversation and a good one to have.
I guess I am talking ethics. I guess I have a vague sense of hypocrisy with the ‘open letter’ taking a vague moral/ethical high ground while it’s author has ripped off the design of a different piece of software (at least the UI) pixel for pixel
Having just joined pixelfed, struggling a bit to discover it, I find this letter greatly motivating 😎
While I really wish for PixelFed to take off, like Mastodon and Lenmy did, the current situation, IMHO, is just confusing to say the least.
So, here are two pixelfed mobile apps, an older one which is just a wrapper of the web version, and a newer polished one.
I’ve the new “polished” one installed for a few months now, and it seemes as if it’s development has stalled. The app just feels unfinished at this point.
Now, I get it, it’s a volunteer project, and there are probably just a handful of people working on it. And this is totally fine, I’m not expecting them to deliver an Instagram clone anytime soon.
However, a few months ago, they announced “Loops”, with pre-signups and some marketing yada yada… All this, while there’s still an unfinished app for their core product. But, I went ahead and signed up, just to find out, it was just crickets for a few months.
Then, recently I logged in again (on the web), and saw an they have an App for Loops which seems to be in the works, and upon testing it, I came to the same conclusion, it’s just an unfinished barebones TikTok.
Again, I’m not ranting about PixelFed, but IMHO, if they want to get serious, they should focus on one thing, until time and resources allow them to explore other things.
I would love to see it succeed as an alternative.
They wrote that to the guy with People just submitted it. I don’t know why. They “trust me”. Dumb fucks.?
