Q: Obviously most people here are opposed to the presence of "brands" (companies) on Mastodon. I've seen people suggest that they could "have their own instance".
What about non-profits? (EFF, Greenpeace, etc) Any opinions?
@paulsheprow @Gargron @CobaltVelvet @tcql @nolan Not sure if EFF will setup here. They semi-officially support Diaspora last I remembered. But an unofficial bot, I think there is one already from a GNUsocial instance. Will try to find it and reply back if I found it.
@paulsheprow @Gargron @CobaltVelvet @tcql @nolan I don't object to brands--whether commercial or nonprofit--as long as they behave politely:
- Ads should only go to people who explicitly followed you, not to public timelines.
- No astroturfing.
- Actual general interest news can go to public TLs, but consider that abusing this will get you blocked pretty fast.
- Use CW appropriately
IOW, judge the behavior, not the source.
@HedgeMage @paulsheprow @gargron @tcql @nolan I think I mostly agree to that, I'd rather allow them all but always keep individuals prioritized and disallow any ads on public timelines or unwanted mentions or abusing follows. They'd most likely get their own instance to not depend on our choices anyway. @starbreaker
@paulsheprow Brand are allowed on Mastodon. Only difference with classic social network is that they won't be able to pay for there audiance.
This is going to be very strange for them. They will have to work and understand how internet works.
@paulsheprow Nah, can't find that EFF bot. Probably was from way back the Laconica/StatusNet days (probably official too then, they supported StatusNet, IIRC).
@yahananxie Thanks!
@paulsheprow @nolan @CobaltVelvet @gargron agree with most of the sentiment others already expressed here.
I think org instances are a truly fascinating idea, and for real would love to see this tested out.
I will say, I don't see a whole lot of point in specifically "blocking" brands from creating accounts on other instances, but they should be silenced / banned if they're advertising (in which case why would they bother creating an account)
@tcql Yeah, I was wondering less about blocking and more about how people would feel about it. Elsewhere I value keeping up with what people working on behalf of issues that are important to me have to say. I use twitter to read much more than to write and follow ten times as many ppl as follow me. I don't get that as much here (yet).
Regarding tagging you in, I've just noticed that you have helpful input when I see you come across the timeline :-)
I'm kind of curious what brand-specific instances really look like though. Is it mostly folks who work for X company talking about non-company-private things related to X?
For software service companies this is pretty interesting - my company could easily have folks posting tips / tricks / tutorials pretty regularly. For something more traditional like McDonalds ... ??? do they just post coupons or something?
@tcql From an outwards-facing point of view I guess I visualized them more as private instances where this or that company controls their own data, and that they'd then just federate with other instances/users, and that not much would happen on the instance itself?
@tcql @paulsheprow one positive use I see on birbsite is UK Power Networks (electric distribution network for a quarter of England) - often the mobile LTE network stays up when the electricity is off supply and they are very good at accepting power cut reports via tweets as well as warning folk of wide area incidents and explaining when the supply might return.
@paulsheprow lol but also wait why did you include me in this list? happy to have input, also sort of flattered that you value my input at the same level as that of @gargron and some kickass admins like @nolan @CobaltVelvet
I personally don't mind organisational presences on Mastodon, could be useful as sources of information