As Meta’s new App - now officially confirmed as “Threads” - has a near-term launch date of July 6th, wanted to restate that Indieweb.social will be taking the same position as almost all mid-sized and large-sized servers and will be “Watching Like a Hawk, with our Fingers Over the Block Button.” We will NOT be pre-emptively taking a “Fediblock as a Frist Strike” position.

For reasons I listed here: www.timothychambers.net/2023/06/2…

➡️ And as I listed in that article, I firmly believe that this position is a smarter and better way to keep our people safe AND be in a stronger position to defend the open social web. Far better than a first- strike that would not accomplish its goals, and actually put us in a worse position defensively.

I have also been helping coordinate efforts at building out Fediverse test suites to ensure that all new actors (like Threads) that claim ActivityPub compliance have to prove their claims or be shown where they are lacking. That is the one real defense against “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” plays by any large actor. To join in and help with this, follow this Mastodon-compatible Frendica group here: venera.social/profile/a…

This ActivityPub Test Suite needs to happen ASAP, so any dev support is welcome! DM me if you want to know more.

➡️ Next, as we approach the Threads launch date, it does now appear - as previously reported, that Threads will be launching WITHOUT Federation turned on at first, and that this will be turned on at some point after launch. Some reporters said it could be 2 or 3 months after. That, if true, is a responsible act from them that both gives them time to judge the size of the new userbase before Federating AND it gives those of us in the Fediverse time to see in reality what we are dealing with prior to Federation beginning.

I think we are ready for what is about to come this week.

With this weekend’s “Twitter Migration 3” likely sending 300,000 new users in 48 hours, not to mention the hundreds of thousands that joined the Fedi via the #RedditMigration, we have shown as a Fediverse that we can handle large-scale loads of new users, and if IndieWeb.social is any guide, and what I have seen from other admins, our tools and our moderation of this new influx of Twitter users went well. And the overall servers were ready to handle the load well. Far better than in the first wave of the Twitter Migration. We’ve built some resilience into every aspect of the Fediverse since then.

It all gives me great hope for what is about to come as admins do final preparations getting ready for what will come.

➡️ Next: I expect that with the imminent Threads launch that the “Block First” versus “Watch Like a Hawk” camps will likely get more intense. I hope we don’t return to admins getting threats of violence against them.

➡️ I point folks to this article I wrote calling out the need for people on both camps to try to embrace “humility, empathy, and community” as a key ethos in how we treat each other and suss things out. Which we will. I will do my best to be a voice of de-escalation within the Fedi family and to amplify other such voices. www.timothychambers.net/2023/06/3…

➡️ And on this note: no matter your admin’s choice, be kind and support your admin. This next few weeks will likely be testing a lot of them. Donate to them if you haven’t. Put in a kind word along with it.

But that said, this is what we all signed up for. To ride these waves and try to help create a new kind of open social that can disrupt and change the status quo. Many of us are doing this for exactly weekends like this Twitter wave, and for whatever opportunities and threats will come from Threads.

➡️ A path for those who wish it: I respect the subset of Fedi admins in the other camp that choose to Fediblock First, although I disagree with their choice. I think sites like NotMeta.social (https://notmeta.social/) serve a purpose for those who specifically want that. If any members of this server do not want to remain due to our policy of not preemptively blocking, I recommend Chris’s site and can assist with migration.

➡️ Avoid the nuclear option of defederation inside the family: I would ask that those admins that choose a first-strike nuclear option on Threads, do not choose to do “two degrees of separation” and defederate all the servers that do not defederate Threads. If they feel they need to do more, I hope they instead choose to “limit/silence” them instead. I hope they do not take the nuclear option against other fellow Fedi neighbors and their users.

➡️ My last note: we will update our users here on things as they go. We will be fully transparent as to our choices as new data comes in. And as we work to watch like a hawk, but also migrate new Threads users over to the Fediverse, we invite you to use tools like my team built here: www.spreadmastodon.org

We have gone through huge twists and turns in the Fedi before. This very weekend was one big one. We will handle Threads well, and as a Fediverse, we will suss it out. Onward.