this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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It serves here as an example of what an Internet without ads might look like. Mozilla has the kind of resources that could've really helped its development if they'd been capable and determined enough to succeed in turning whatever crazy project they had in mind when they launched mozilla.social into something practical. If they'd built something good it could have earned them much goodwill and prestige, maybe brought in a little money somehow or other, and gone some way to ridding the Internet of the infestation of adtech that currently afflicts it.
"somehow or other" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
Not really. It's just an aside for the bean-counters.
... but you know, it's not difficult to think of possibilities. They could have a shiny new line of business providing hosting, spam detection, admin, support, moderation, and other services for whatever new and improved flavour of fedi instances they can create in accordance with all the principles they used to talk about. They could use their marketing team, their money and connections, to become the provider of choice for corporations, governments, and NGOs who don't yet realize that they need their own instance.
Would've been worth a try. Instead, after so much fanfare, they ran a small mastodon instance for a little while and then cancelled the project. I suppose it's likely that the same kind of fate will befall the new ad tracking stuff before too long.