> they are still not made for the masses (which I suppose is to the liking of those that enjoy the fediverse)
I think more to the point, the fediverse is largely anti-commercial. You -can- advertise, but risk getting defederated if you do it in a way people disapprove of. And you -can- run a walled garden, but then what are you doing running a node that supports federation (this is one thing I'm still confused about with Threads, so I'm curious how that shakes out)?
But the reason the web exploded (at least in my mental model) was because it evolved to support commerce, which then got businesses using it and users following to buy things online which was a lot more convenient than buying things in brick and mortar stores. So if the fediverse remains anti-commercial (which is the only version I'm interested in) then it will probably never get the kind of money that Web 1/2/3 has, since every evolution has been funded by commerce, so it will probably always stay niche.
There are also legitimate usability challenges, too, though. I expect those will be solved eventually, but not soon since there's no money in it and money has always been an accelerator of technical development to the point people assume tech is fast because they're so used to the massive amounts of money being poured into tech. Even when they are solved, though, I still expect the fediverse to remain niche due to the lack of commercial opportunity (and I say that as a big fan of the fediverse - as you suppose, I think it's actually to its benefit that it to some extent undoes the Eternal September).
I think more to the point, the fediverse is largely anti-commercial. You -can- advertise, but risk getting defederated if you do it in a way people disapprove of. And you -can- run a walled garden, but then what are you doing running a node that supports federation (this is one thing I'm still confused about with Threads, so I'm curious how that shakes out)?
But the reason the web exploded (at least in my mental model) was because it evolved to support commerce, which then got businesses using it and users following to buy things online which was a lot more convenient than buying things in brick and mortar stores. So if the fediverse remains anti-commercial (which is the only version I'm interested in) then it will probably never get the kind of money that Web 1/2/3 has, since every evolution has been funded by commerce, so it will probably always stay niche.
There are also legitimate usability challenges, too, though. I expect those will be solved eventually, but not soon since there's no money in it and money has always been an accelerator of technical development to the point people assume tech is fast because they're so used to the massive amounts of money being poured into tech. Even when they are solved, though, I still expect the fediverse to remain niche due to the lack of commercial opportunity (and I say that as a big fan of the fediverse - as you suppose, I think it's actually to its benefit that it to some extent undoes the Eternal September).