hamishcampbell<br>People, community, the long struggle between the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/openweb" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>openweb</a> and <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/dotcons" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>dotcons</a><br><br>This is a mess that has been clear to see for 20 years, but people keep falling into the same traps instead of stepping off the cycle of control. We had something, we lost it, and we are still refusing to face why.<br><br>Let’s use <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/Failbook" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>Failbook</a> as a practical example of a monster that devours our dreams, fifteen years ago, the writing was already on the wall, <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/failbook" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>failbook</a> and the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/dotcons" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>dotcons</a> would eat everything. It wasn’t some grand conspiracy, just basic power and control dynamics. People knew this. They saw the cage being built around them, yet walked in willingly. Why? Because in the small picture, it was “easier” to stay inside than to step outside. They thought they were users, but they were being used. Every attempt to “fix” <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/failbook" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>failbook</a>, the endless ethical tech debates, the “kinder, fairer” alternatives, the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/NGO" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>NGO</a>-funded projects promising “a better social network”, misses the core issue: You don’t fix a monster. You stop feeding it and walk away.<br><br>This is where the religious metaphor fits, people don’t want atheism (the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/openweb" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>openweb</a>), they just want a nicer god (ethical <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/dotcons" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>dotcons</a>). They still kneel before centralized power, just hoping for a softer whip. We need to stop worshipping the digital feudal lords and start building something else entirely. One path is to reboot the original <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/openweb" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>openweb</a><br><br>To do this we need some social history: The <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/openweb" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>openweb</a> was murdered, and no one faced the consequences, we need a truth and reconciliation process for what happened to the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/openweb" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>openweb</a>. Why? Because people refuse to learn from history, and that means they keep making the same mistakes. Look at the waves of migration from open to closed over the last two decades:<br><br> The rise of blogs and open publishing (2000s) → The pull into social media walled gardens (2010s)<br> The rise of the federated web (2000s, early 2010s) → The collapse into corporate-owned silos (late 2010s, 2020s)<br> The rebirth of the Fediverse (Mastodon, PeerTube, Lemmy, etc.) → Now being co-opted by NGOs and <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/mainstreaming" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>mainstreaming</a> interests<br><br>Each time, the excuse is different, but the result is the same, we hand over power, they take control, we lose everything. Until we face the fact that we let this happen, that we were complicit, this cycle won’t stop. Every time we fail to call it what it is, the blood-letting/stains keep coming back.<br><br>The problem with <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/NGO" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>NGO</a> and Co-op models, people love to push the same “solutions” that failed before. Pushing a voluntary project into a hard “not-for-profit” structure kills it, this happened again and again. Look at <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/indymedia" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>indymedia</a>. It worked because it was messy, decentralized, built from the ground up. Run by volunteers, not controlled by a central authority. Rooted in the activist base, not an <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/NGO" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>NGO</a>-funded agenda. Then came the push to “formalize” it, and what happened?<br><br> Funding fights, bureaucracy, infighting.<br> Projects being hijacked or forced into rigid structures.<br> Most of the co-op/NGO media projects collapsed.<br><br>There is nothing wrong with people building not-for-profit media, but stop forcing voluntary activism into structures that will kill it. The old mistakes aren’t new solutions. They are just mistakes waiting to happen again.<br><br>The <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/OMN" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>OMN</a> and the need for diversity of strategies, the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/OMN" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>OMN</a> is built on a simple idea, diversity of strategies is strength. We need:<br><br> Commercial models where they work.<br> Not-for-profit structures where they make sense.<br> Voluntary activism as the foundation.<br><br>Then the basic <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/4opens" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>4opens</a> of them linking to each other. What we don’t need is people using their own narrow worldview as a <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/BLOCK" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>BLOCK</a> on other approaches in the guise of “helping”. This happens all the time, with the <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/NGO" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>NGO</a> crowd that wants everything formalized, structured, and professionalized, they see grassroots messiness as a problem. The geeks want everything to be purely about the tech, ignoring the social and political realities. The politicos want everything to align with their ideology, even when that means excluding actual working solutions. These proxy fights kill the meany projects before they even start.<br><br>The solution is not ideological purity, it’s pragmatic diversity. If we want to break the cycle, we need to stop repeating the same mistakes, stop blocking each other, link and start building with what we have <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mostr.pub/tags/KISS" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>#</span>KISS</a><br><br>One path to this, that needs support <a href="https://opencollective.com/open-media-network" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://opencollective.com/open-media-network</a>