I have pinned a copy of this post on my reddit user profile in case this post inevitably gets taken down because somebody out there didn't like it.
TLDRS:
Mastodon is a fun and refreshing social media platform that offers an exciting and optimistic future.
Although not without flaws, it offers no ads, no corporation can censor you, and misinformation is minimal or nonexistent thus far -- by design, it will more effectively keep out spammers of misinformation.
In this regard, it is in numerous ways superior to Reddit and other social media platforms, and provides a high quality space where the GameStop and DRS conversation can continue, regardless of what happens on superstonk, Reddit as a whole, or elsewhere.
Give it a try, you might just like it.
Disclaimer
my brain is smooth but my hands are diamond.
Introduction
Good day everyone,
I would like to take some time today to discuss an opportunity that Mastodon presents.
What is Mastodon?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(social_network))
Mastodon is a federated twitter clone. It looks and feels kind of like twitter, but underneath it is designed very differently.
Whereas Twitter is a social network that belongs to and is 100% controlled by a central authority (Twitter, Inc.), and by extension it therefore belongs to the 1 person that owns Twitter,
Mastodon is federated like email is federated -- any person or organization can run their own email server if they wanted to, and essentially all email servers are interoperable with all other email servers.
Any person or any organization can run their own Mastodon server (just like with email, there are some costs involved, explained further down), and any Mastodon server is interoperable with any other Mastodon server.
By this design, anyone can look through the directory of open Mastodon servers (aka instances) and sign up on one, and participate with any other user from any other Mastodon instance.
in this post the words 'server' and 'instance' will be used interchangeably as they are synonymous in this context.
Power & Control
Mastodon has gained much attention in the last few months because of events happening over at Twitter. Many Twitter users have quit Twitter and moved over to Mastodon.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-man-behind-mastodon-eugen-rochko-built-it-for-this-moment/
"People fleeing Twitter have turned to Eugen Rochko’s alternative. He says social networks can support healthy debate—without any one person in control."
This is really the key point about Mastodon: it's all about control. it's all about power.
Why did Mr. CarCompanyCEO purchase Twitter? Was it because, as the former richest person in the world, this would somehow give him more money?
Why did Mr. former StoreCompanyCEO purchase Washington Post? Was it because, as the former richest person in the world, he was in the pursuit of more money?
When you're the richest person in the world, you already have an unfathomable amount of money. you don't need more money. what you need and what you crave is more power.
money is a subset of power. power is the ultimate currency, not money.
Power over information is a form of power.
Twitter and WaPo (and Reddit, etc.) are information sources that create and have sway over what people believe to be the truth. This is power. Control over these information machines is a form of power.
the purchase of these powerful information machines is an act of accumulating more personal power for themselves. They want to wield power similar to the way that for decades Faux news owners have wielded power.
In the modern age, the power to control the feed of information to an audience in the way that Twitter or Reddit or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube can do, is an incredible form of power that has also demonstrated to be quite profitable when you combine large audiences and advertisements.
Strong cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum are permissionless pieces of software that gives control of money to the node operators in decentralized fashion,
in a similar way, Mastodon is a permissionless piece of software that gives control of social media directly to the operators of the servers/instances in a decentralized fashion.
Imagine a social media network where you, the instance operator, have power and control over the flow of information that you see in your own feed. Mastodon is this.
There are no for-profit interest or other interests embedded in the algorithm that is feeding you content.
Even a non-instance operator has a great deal more control over their own feed on Mastodon than on other platforms.
Comparison to other platforms
| Platform | Mastodon | YouTube | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active user count | ~ 2 to 8 million | ~ 50 million | ~ 250 million | ~ 3 billion | ~ 1 billion | ~ 2 billion |
| Ads? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Corporate censorship? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rampant misinformation and propaganda? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Owned by | nobody | Reddit Inc. | Twitter Inc. | Meta Platforms | Meta Platforms | Alphabet, Inc. |
| Moderated by | Unpaid instance operators and their unpaid mods | paid admins, unpaid mods | paid admins | paid admins | paid admins | paid admins |
| Purpose of existence is to serve the interests of: | instance operators and the participants | the owners | the owners | the owners | the owners | the owners |
| Interests served: | community conversation and participation | profits | profits / single owner's ambition | profits / primary owner's ambition | profits / primary owner's ambition | profits |
| Software Usage | Free and open source | proprietary owned | proprietary owned | proprietary owned | proprietary owned | proprietary owned |
| Cost to sign up | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Cost for a 'premium' account | n/a | n/a | $8 to $12 / month | n/a | n/a | $12 / month |
| Cost to operate an instance | ~ $100 / month | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Twitter the social media platform is controlled by Twitter Inc which is ultimately controlled by 1 individual.
Twitter is a for-profit entity that exists to serve the interests of the 1 person that owns Twitter.
Reddit the social media platform is controlled by Reddit Inc which is beholden to present owners and potentially future investors (wen IPO??)
Reddit is a for-profit entity that exists to serve the interests of Reddit Inc and therefore the investors that own Reddit Inc.
Because Reddit in the future will be trying to court investors to their IPO, Reddit must necessarily operate a social media platform that has control over what information is permissible in order to appeal to big corporate investors who will demand this.
Facebook and Instagram the social media platforms are controlled by Meta Platforms, Inc., and are beholden to the shareholders, particularly the 1 controlling shareholder.
Facebook and Instagram are for-profit entities that exist to serve the interests of the shareholder(s) that own them.
Mastodon the social media platform is a free and open-source piece of software that is controlled by the many Mastodon server administrators that host the Mastodon servers.
Mastodon is not controlled by 1 individual, it is not controlled by 1 organization or 1 body of power. It is controlled by the community of thousands of operators that are running it. That could include you!
Mastodon is a piece of free and open source software that exists to serve the interests of the participants that use it.
One of these social media platforms is not like the others.
What does this have to do with GameStop investors?
Regarding r/superstonk
As I am sure everyone here understands, r/superstonk has been a special place where we have been so graciously 'permitted' by our benevolent reddit overlords to continue our free and open discussions around our favorite company including discussions about the importance of directly registering our shares of this company.
This business we're involved in of DRSing our shares of GME is starting to bring some heat here as I am sure many of you can attest to.
Obviously, by the very nature of DRSing GME, we are taking power away from any entity out there that is naked short GME, and naturally this scares those parties. I'd be scared too if I was in as bad of a position as them.
The act of DRSing millions of shares of GME is a serious and present *existential threat* to numerous parties out there, powerful parties, and therefore naturally this subreddit, which is where these conversations are being allowed to happen, is under serious attack, inside and out by incumbent power holding entities.
Inside of this subreddit, we aren't allowed to mention other subreddit names because that's considered brigading.
We typically aren't allowed to represent ourselves in any way outside of this subreddit because that is also considered brigading.
We have been effectively siloed, coincidentally or not, to the benefit of those parties that are naked short on GME.
Outside of this subreddit, we are frequently called cultists, conspiracy theorists, bagholders, etc., these kinds of words are deliberately deployed to scare otherwise unsuspecting users to look at this community through the lens of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
"Don't go to superstonk, you'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
We aren't allowed to make much of a defense of our case outside this subreddit, because it causes too much friction that Reddit doesn't like, Reddit considers such behavior to be brigading.
Thus perpetuating our isolation, perpetuating a divide between legitimate investors of GameStop, and everyone else. Again, coincidentally, or not, to the benefit of those parties that are naked short on GME.
Those entites that are naked short GME don't want the critical conversation of DRS GME to seep out beyond the contained community of "cultists" and "bagholders".
My own perspective as a long time Reddit user and member of superstonk since its inception:
I have personally been permabanned from as many as 5 other subreddits in the last year for no reason other than I made a pro-GameStop or anti-Ken Griffin comment. Some true facts (e.g. something about a bed post) are not tolerated outside of this subreddit and have resulted in my permaban.
It doesn't help that I have a purple DRS circle as my profile picture, clearly putting a target on myself outside of this subreddit. Oh well. To me it's worth it because I believe in the educational value of DRS and if even 1 otherwise unknowing but curious-minded person sees "DRS" and asks themselves what that means and subsequently goes digging, I consider this to be a victory.
Prior to putting my profile picture as a purple DRS circle, I can't recall a single time that I was permabanned from any subreddit in my 12+ years on Reddit. Things have changed over the years.
Personally, I for one am tired of depending on the good graces of the reddit overlords to continue to so benevolently permit me to talk openly about true facts regarding GameStop, DRS, criminal naked short selling by individuals such as Ken Griffin and others, etc.
meanwhile our freedom to continue having these conversations here continues to get eroded, inside the subreddit we're getting scolded for our ostensible misbehavior, we continue to get insulted outside of this subreddit, we continue to get permabanned outside of this subreddit,
I'm tired of the subreddit that I care about getting attacked by hostile external agitators, and then being blamed and being made to feel bad for behavior that I know that myself and the vast majority of legitimate investors of GameStop from this subreddit are not participating in.
I'm tired of requiring anyone's permission to discuss the truth, and this is why I believe in Mastodon.
Mastodon is a piece of software that is providing open freedom of communication to currently over 8 million accounts and growing. (source: https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount)
There is no corporate entity that lords above that can control or otherwise neuter a conversation.
This is an opportunity for GameStop investors to find freedom to discuss the very import DRS in new fertile ground uncorrupted by corporate interests.
Join a Mastodon server
Server list:
https://joinmastodon.org/servers
Running a Mastodon Server
Running your own instance:
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/
"Why would you want to run your own Mastodon server?
-Absolute control over your own voice on the web, not subject to anyone else’s rules or whims. Your server is your property, with your rules. It will exist as long as you want it to exist.
-You are not isolated on your own server. You can follow anyone on any other server, and they can follow you and you can exchange messages just like if you were on the same server.
-You can either limit sign-ups to be the only one on the server and run it like personal (micro)blog, maintain an invite-only community for family or friends or run a server anyone can sign up on, it’s up to you!"
Requirements to operate a server:
-a domain name (~ $10 to $20+ per year)
-a server to run the Mastodon server software, (e.g. ~ $25 / month with DigitalOcean)
-an email provider (e.g. $30 / month for Mailgun)
-optional (but in practice a requirement for any instance more than 100 users): storage service such as Amazon S3 bucket (anywhere from $10 to $200+ per month depending on user count).
The biggest costs involved with running an instance are the storage / bandwidth (e.g. Amazon S3 bucket)
By my rough estimates:
Total cost to run an instance that could host approximately 1 to 100 users: < $100 / month
Total cost to run an instance that could host approximately 1,000 users: $100 / month
Total cost to run an instance that could host approximately 10,000 users: $200 / month.
Total cost to run an instance that could host approximately 100,000 userse: $2000 / month.
Vulnerabilities with Mastodon
The antagonists that are hostile to legitimate DRS'd investors of GameStop here on Reddit will continue to be hostile to us wherever we go. This includes Mastodon.
They will use the same tactics that they are currently using to destroy superstonk to try and destroy any presence that legitimate GameStop investors may form on Mastodon.
Mastodon cannot stop people from spewing hatred, it cannot stop people from impersonating others online, it cannot stop people or hostile entities from spreading propaganda and misinformation.
But, by design it can do a far better job of managing these problems than current social media platforms can.
- The Playbook to Destroy the Presence of Legitimate GameStop Investors on Mastodon
So you're running an open Mastodon instance called LegitGME in order to serve conversations about DRS GME and similar?
As a hostile antagonist that is naked short on GME, I don't like this. Not one bit.
I am going to slowly but surely accumulate new accounts on your Mastodon instance to be used at some future time, building their presence to appear as if they are real human people and not sockpuppet accounts.
Then, one day, when the time is right, when I need to take a strike at your instance, I use these numerous accounts and I start agitating.
I start sending hateful filth to members of other Mastodon instances all over the place.
Naturally, this hateful filth will be reported to the moderators / administrators of those other instances.
The administrators of those instances will soon see a clear pattern: suddenly we're getting all kinds of reports of abuse from accounts from this one specific instance on Mastodon called LegitGME.
Easy solution for them: LegitGME is now blocked on those instances.
One by one, I will antagonize members of big popular Mastodon instances, so that one by one your instance of LegitGME gets blocked by them.
Your instance and all of your members within it are now shut out, disconnected, isolated, siloed from some large percentage of the overall Mastodon network.
I continue to push this sentiment with #fediblock, sort of like what happened recently with RaspberryPi (https://medium.com/@jmproffitt/the-raspberry-pi-social-media-incident-shows-some-mastodon-admins-need-more-moderation-chops-afa3b00be90b), in order to try and create a larger reaction.
Suddenly, other instances take it upon themselves to pre-emptively ban the LegitGME instance, because why would they want your instance which keeps spewing filth to be permitted to show up in their network?
LegitGME is now siloed and a known toxic instance. Everyone now knows to stay away from LegitGME because it is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Mission accomplished.
Countermeasures
One countermeasure to this behavior is to only allow joining by invitation and not open signup. This will keep out antagonists, but it also necessarily adds friction for otherwise legitimate users to gain access. A small but perhaps ultimately necessary price to pay to keep your instance in good standing.
An even better countermeasure than having an instance and simply utilizing invite-only signup, would be for other committed DRS'd investors of GameStop that care about the DRS GME conversation, to take it upon themselves to run their own instance.
enter the Hydra
The very reason I made this post was to get to this point.
I would like you to try and put yourself in the shoes of your opponent that is naked short on GME.
Your very existence as a rich and successful finance person that steals money for a living is at stake because GameStop might succeed, and so naturally you have been doing absolutely everything in your power to try and destroy the credibility of legitimate GameStop investors.
It is paramount to try and stop the conversation about DRS GME. Superstonk, where most of the action happens, has successfuly been isolated from the rest of reddit, and is now undergoing a phase of deliberate agitation for the ultimate hope of getting it nuked by the reddit admins.
Excellent, everything according to plan. I may just survive this whole GameStop thing.
But wait, Oh shit!
a small group of those GameStop investors all just banded under a Mastodon instance. This is bad. Time to deploy the previously described Playbook to Destroy the Presence of Legitimate GameStop Investors on Mastodon.
Surely this will work to isolate that instance and prevent the conversation about DRS GME from seeping out into the rest of Mastodon.
But wait, Oh shit!!!!
Now there are 10 mastodon instances, each one operated by a committed diamond-handed DRS'd shareholder of GameStop. Each instance supporting the conversations around DRS GME and related conversations.
Every time we take one down, 2 more pop up! Other real human people on Mastodon are learning about GameStop and DRS GME and this is the absolute worst thing that can happen to me, a hedgie that is naked short GME.
I, the hedgie, am now fuk.
this author, a Mastodon instance operator
I am but one legitimate, committed, diamond-handed XXXX DRS'd holder of GME, and I operate a Mastodon instance for the purpose of creating a place that can support conversations about DRS GME and anything related.
I do cordially invite anyone reading this to join my instance (info can be found in my reddit profile).
Using the rough pricing estimates above, I know for certain that I cannot afford (at least not pre-moass), to host all of the 800,000+ members of r/superstonk. I could not afford to host 200,000 users (the approximate number of directly registered holders of GME).
Realistically, I suspect that I'll probably be able to support somewhere around 10,000 users per month pre-moass.
But even if I had the means to easily support all 200,000 DRS'd shareholders of GME or more, for one thing I would not want to have that responsibility and for another thing no one person should be entrusted with such responsibility.
The mods of superstonk that are actual supporters of GameStop: bless their hearts. it's a tough thankless job. I would not want that job at all for a large community such as this, but I do accept that job in a much smaller community on my own instance of Mastodon.
Far better than 1 person hosting 200,000 people on 1 server would be for 20 people to each host 10,000 people each on 20 servers,
or even better yet, 200 people hosting 1000 members each, on 200 servers. and so on.
Mastodon is a tool that gives legitimate investors of GameStop the power to do this. Mastodon offers a path forward in the world of social media that is decentralized. The more decentralized that the information is, the more difficult it becomes to censor and control it.
I want to give legitimate investors of GameStop the freedom that Mastodon provides, but I cannot do it alone.
A Mastodon instance that you operate doesn't even have to be specifically about GameStop or DRS, it could be a server for the purpose of something tangentially related, such as video games, or something totally unrelated like sports, it's your server after all, you can do whatever you want with it.
But regardless of the primary subject matter of your server, it would still be a major benefit to the decentralized community of legitimate GameStop investors to have more instance operators out there that open-minded and favorable to conversations related to GameStop on their server.
Responsibilities
Regarding vulnerabilities and methods by which opponents of GameStop will try and do whatever they can to hurt our ability to carry out an open and truthful conversation about DRS GME,
By becoming a Mastodon instance operator and by defining your Mastodon instance as a place that is supportive of conversations regarding GameStop and DRS, you will be putting a target on your instance and yourself, as you will be in opposition to those parties out there that are naked short on GME.
As previously discussed, the safest way to keep antagonists out is to have an invite-only instance.
As a Mastodon instance operator, you are responsible for your members. If members of your instance start behaving inappropriately, as discussed previously, you risk your instance being #fediblocked, isolated from the larger decentralized network, an outcome that those parties that are naked short on GME would benefit from.
This is the brave new decentralized future, and it comes with responsibility. A small cost to pay for the reward of freedom that is provided that cannot be replicated on any of the major corporate-owned social media platforms.
Skepticism and antagonism towards this post
Skepticism is a good thing and if you aren't interested in Mastodon then that is your prerogative. I'm not asking anyone to do anything they don't want to do, I'm just here to share an idea for those that might be interested.
Having said this, as already mentioned, the very notion of legitimate GameStop investors finding new avenues to continue to carry on truthful open conversations about DRS GME represents an existential threat to those parties that are naked short on GME and therefore this idea will naturally attract that antagonism. They like it when all conversations regarding DRS GME are isolated to one or a few communities and not trying to expand beyond.
I have in the past tried to promote the idea of creating and fostering backup communities for members of superstonk (e.g. WT Social) , and every time I do it is met with at least some amount of antagonism that wants to cast fear, uncertainty, and doubt on the idea.
For example: Mastodon instance operators can see the email addresses of the members that sign up on that instance. Somebody once accused me of having the malicious intent of trying to harvest email addresses.
This, in my opinion, is not only ridiculous but its a non-issue for the simple reason that if you are concerned about giving away your email address to somebody then you can easily go and obtain a free email address from one of the many mail providers out there. My personal suggestion is Protonmail.
While most people are generally supportive of good ideas, I am expecting some amount antagonism towards this post and even for it to inevitably be removed, because I am quite certain that it's going to rustle the jimmies of the same people that are here every day trying to destroy superstonk.
Concluding Remarks
For nearly 2 years, legitimate investors of GameStop have been under constant attack, inside and outside of this subreddit. This subreddit has been a great place to allow really good conversations to happen and crucial pieces of information to be shared with others. This subreddit is the place where it became truth that DRS GME is the way. However, I know I'm not the only one that can feel that this subreddit might not still be there for us in the not-too-distant future. How can we count on the admins of Reddit Inc. to look out for our interests at the expense of their interests? We can't, and it would be foolish to do so. We can only depend on ourselves to look out for our own interests, and along came Mastodon, presenting an opportunity to try a new avenue, one with the significant defining feature that no central authority can censor you.
Running a Mastodon instance does take work to set up that might require some relevant IT skills, but if I can do it then so can you. Anyone here that does decide to run their own instance: if you need any help along the way, DM me and I'll do what I can for you.
As for me, I am motivated by something that the chairman of my favorite company said not too long ago: Ask not what your company can do for you, ask what you can do for your company.
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