2 words.
web browser
Discussion
Of course.
But do you controll the code in the web browser apps on your phone?
No.
App Store can require browsers in use on their devices to block access to a rolling updated list of sites and addresses which serve this protocol. Or not be permitted on their App Store and on people’s devices.
Yes, there most certainly is work arounds. It’s the web.
One of the KEY features which makes sites like YouTube and x/twitter whatever so popular is their ease of use on people’s devices and their pockets.
I can 100% pop open a terminal client on my laptop, load up irssi and connect through a proxy into an irc server. Fully encrypted, and from behind restrictive firewalls. (I’ve done it to bypass draconian university sensors). Yet, it’s pretty pointless when there’s nobody on the other end to talk to.
One needs to educate every single friend how to utilize the service and what steps they need to access it.
People just simply don’t have the brain space to jump through hoops to get connected to you. So they gravitate towards ease of use and familiarity. Twitter Facebook messenger instagram, services they’ve been using for years.
It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s comfortable. They don’t have the same interests in finding new censorship resistant mechanisms to utilize for social media, because frankly they’re comfortable in their bubble already, and don’t want to go where their friends are not. To communicate with, no-one.
Yes this tech exists and it’s frankly awesome, but it’s also essentially irrelevant until it reaches a critical mass of people to become understood by the vast majority and therefore widely useful.
I like the protocol, but right now, while it’s still hugely still being developed, is the time to point out flaws as we see them, so we can fix em before they become problematic.
thanks for taking the time to answer in such great detail, I agree with your take. I'm hopeful on there being many more workarounds than blockers and that incentives will grow larger as the masses realize what's happening.
appreciate your call-out and totally support it.
cheers!
Your welcome. It’s simply a point of view. Not a dig on the protocol, or project. Just trying to identify potential avenues of problems so they can be fixed or worked around before they become debilitating.
One additional concern is, advertising money goes where the people is. So since this protocol is new yet, and lacking users. We have yet to see advertising flood into the space.
The form that that takes, could potentially be so overwhelming that it floods and blocks legitimate users from actually finding each others posts amidst a sea of advertisements.
One of Instagrams biggest problems is, I can scroll for pages and see nothing but OF advertisements, and one or two friends posts mixed in. All these accounts simply direct people off the platform, and none of them actually interact with their followers on the platform of instagram. So it’s essentially one big advertisement wall.
How’s that problem going to be handled in this protocol? If those accounts don’t come here, that means highly influential people won’t use it, and bring their thousands of followers either.