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Opt-in search of the Fediverse was just rolled out. Here it is:

tootfinder.ch/

Search has traditionally been very controversial on the Fediverse, but let's see how opt-in works.

Right now, this is a proof-of-concept and very bare bones -- but we'll see if it's embraced by everyone.

See screenshot.

@fediversenews

@atomicpoet @fediversenews I'm ok with my toots being searchable¹, but dividing the Fediverse into searchable and non-searchable parts seems like a bad idea.
And how long until someone decides we need an algorithm to sort results for popular searches?

¹ Mostly because I assume bad actors are indexing everything anyway.

Chris Trottier

@rigrig The problem is that a few very vocal folk don't want search. Opt-in is a compromise.

@fediversenews

The problem isn't searchability.

The problem is mandatorily and firmly connecting all of Mastodon (or the whole Fediverse, i.e. including all of Pleroma and Akkoma and MissKey and CalcKey and Glitch-soc and Friendica and Hubzilla and you get the idea) to something centralised.

Being 100% decentral is a killer feature of the Fediverse and has always been one. And it's being defended tooth and nail. Whenever someone introduces some centralised service that tries to automatically latch onto the whole Fediverse, instances defederate and block it left and right.

See, if there's anything central in the Fediverse that absolutely has to be used, this means two things. One, the Fediverse has a single point of failure. Two, there's some central point from which theoretically the entire Fediverse could be manipulated, controlled, censored. Something that's impossible with a fully decentralised architecture.

Truth be told, this has a lot of conflict potential. Those who have been in the Fediverse for many years are here because it's free-as-in-freedom, open-source and decentralised to the point that anyone can run a private instance of their preferred project. And they want it to stay that way.

Those who came here with the #TwitterMigration aren't in the Fediverse because it's decentralised, but although it's decentralised. Some simply see the complicated architecture of Mastodon alone as a lesser evil in comparison to Elon Musk. Even more staunchly demand the whole Fediverse be converted into a fully centralised, monolithic, corporate "Twitter without Musk" silo so that they don't have to wrap their minds around the concept of "instances" or think about what works behind their mobile app at all.

It's the latter who keep on demanding mandatory centralised features for the whole Fediverse. And it's the former who demand they be defederated from all instances of all projects once someone develops and launches them.
hub.netzgemeinde.euNetzgemeinde/Hubzilla

@jupiter_rowland I liked your post because it's the longest one I've ever read

@jupiter_rowland ...on Mastodon so it's like I witnessed the long form feature in it's full glory for 1st time

@Adam Lui :verified: This isn't the long form feature. My post didn't come from Mastodon at all but from a project named Hubzilla.

@jupiter_rowland Don't worry, the search function isn't centralised, this is the second such service I've seen this week - I'm sure others will be along in due course.

@atomicpoet @rigrig @fediversenews so perhaps do a reverse: global search with an opt-out option for accounts or instances that don't want their toots be searchable?

@arnie_dxer @rigrig @fediversenews That's been tried, and inevitably, those search engines get fediblocked.

In fact, every 3 months, someone announces a new search engine just like that.

@atomicpoet @rigrig @fediversenews then I hope not all Masto admins are like that... 😕

Eventually I can imagine the whole Fediverse splitting into two over the search issue. Like Christians split to Catholics & Orthodox, and later also to Protestants LOL

@arnie_dxer @rigrig As I said, this is opt-in search like is the closest we've come to a community consensus.

Certain folks don't like that it exists, but even those folks can't be bothered to Fediblock it.

What's the argument against ? That I might accidentally add the magic word to my bio and then someone evil will submit my full username? Quite unlikely.

As it stands, you can find quite a bit via

@atomicpoet @arnie_dxer @rigrig

What is wrong with the normal full-text search currently implemented in #Mastodon? All of my #toots are opted-in for search engines?

@Stark9837 @arnie_dxer @rigrig Only if you’ve sent those toots or previously interacted with them.

Which is not how I’d prefer search to happen.

@atomicpoet @arnie_dxer @rigrig

I understand, I got it wrong. In that case, I agree!

Probably not only over the search issue, but generally over what the #Fediverse shall be.

One faction is the "old guard" that values Free Software, open-source, privacy, actual security, decentrality, federation, online services developed and run by the community etc. Many of them have been around before there was Mastodon, and Mastodon was launched in 2016. These people typically use the Fediverse through a desktop browser running on GNU/Linux.

They strongly oppose any central/centralistic structures in the Fediverse. They've got very good reasons to do so. The same goes for commercial, for-profit entities bringing proprietary, non-free products into the Fediverse.

The other faction makes up the vast majority of the #TwitterMigration newcomers. They don't care for any of the above. All they want is the Fediverse as a whole to be as easy to understand and to use as Twitter. Many only use the Fediverse through the official Mastodon app on an iPhone or a smartphone with manufacturer-issued Android.

They staunchly demand there be central structures if they make things easier for them. In fact, I guess many would love to see the whole Fediverse being reduced to only Mastodon and then Mastodon being turned into a centralised, monolithic silo so that nobody will ever have to know what instances are and choose one ever again.

Oh, and they usually absolutely despise tech-talk with a raging, burning passion. Even more so if it's about something they neither know nor understand (Free Software, open-source, Linux, Nextcloud, Raspberry Pi, anything in the Fediverse that isn't Mastodon, what happens behind their Mastodon app etc.).

Platform-wise, I can see a split happen between Mastodon and everything else. Mastodon doesn't care if it's compatible to anything else. It's increasingly becoming a walled garden within the Fediverse. I can actually see it either deliberately break existing ActivityPub standards or even fork ActivityPub or invent its own protocol if that's more convenient than sticking to vanilla ActivityPub.

The more difficult it becomes for other projects to federate with Mastodon, the more projects might decide it's no longer worth trying if it meant they'd have to overthrow basic principles of their own. They might even gradually introduce something more sophisticated than ActivityPub, e.g. Nomad, and then abandon ActivityPub, also to get out of reach of ActivityPub-introducing corporate silos such as Tumblr.
hub.netzgemeinde.euNetzgemeinde/Hubzilla