Note: I extended this and published it as a Medium article. I'd love it if you could go read it:

https://medium.com/@randulo/federation-the-inmates-are-running-the-asylum-4b9a5ef49c13?sk=a3b4ee674beacda452ccb62d81d4dba3

Social networks
I think everyone is pulling back a little. The sobering and repeated Facebook "scandals" and the bitterness over the Google+ closure has awakened a lot of people. They now realize they were wasting more time online than is reasonable when they have lives, families and potential to do other things. Google+ was obviously a poor investment, other than temporary gratification.

The trick is to not be so insecure as to need those online distractions to make you feel liked, wanted or at least getting attention.

I believe the world of social networks is especially great for shut-ins, prisoners, people who have reduced mobility for health reasons, introverts, agoraphobics, very old folks and such. I think the majority of us would be better off spending less time online in vapid social network conversations than in real life doing facetime in the non-patented meat space version.

Pluspora was a great initiative. It brought me back after 8 years of inactivity on two original Diaspora pods. It introduced Diaspora to others at a critical moment. MeWe is just another silo with a business plan and while I'm happy if people find it fills their needs, I'm also sorry for them; it's a private company that will do what they do.

Mastodon is fantastic. People complain there's no one there, which is obviously not true. And you can engage here with its creator, an amazing young guy who posts daily.

The other platforms that connect to federated platforms, like the one I am typing on, Friendica have a huge potential. They're like the guy or girl at the dance that nobody notices. Inside, people will love it, be fiercely faithful and adamant about open source and federation.

The inmates are running the asylum

Except the sanity is inside the asylum, not outside! Outside is business as usual. Outside the asylum is nefarious trafficking of your data for financial gain and power. Manipulation, the spread of anger and fear.

What's unfortunate is that Texture is a good app and was a service worth using if you like to read or browse through a large number of magazines. The cost was around $10 per month. How many magazines can you buy for that? Two, if you're in an airport kiosk! Texture ends on May 28th.

Apple is replacing Texture with Apple News+

Same price, but there's a problem: the app is iOS and MacOS only, and on MacOS, it's only the latest OS version, which my computers can't get, because they're from 2011.

On the one hand, I like the concept of Texture (I haven't seen News yet, but I already don't like the idea of new s being any part of a magazine library). But this is a model that is pretty much the only hope for magazine publishing. Maybe that's why Apple is taking 50% of the subscription fee for their commission. The math probably does work for both sides, though.

Now it's up to Google or Amazon

Someone needs to step up in the non-Apple world to get Android tablets a magazine app similar to Texture. Texture was one of two uses for our first-generation Nexus 7" tablets. The other is MX Player for video and audio.