Yes, you’ve explained your view to me many times. And I’ve repeatedly explained to you that others see it differently.
And indeed, some of us have been involved in the Fediverse for more than a decade. Here’s my 2011 article A crucial time for Diaspora* and my 2017 Lessons (so far) from Mastodon for independent social networks.
But unlike you I’m not as disparaging of the perspectives of newcomers. In fact I think we desprately need new perspectives here. The Fediverse has made remarkably little progress over the last decade. – the potential described in EFF’s An Introduction to the Federated Social Network (2011) and Klint Finley’s The Federated Web Should Be Easier Than It Sounds (2012) is still there, and so are the challenges. There’s no evidence that the Lessons (so far) from Mastodon for independent social networks have been learned.
As to why I focus on the definition so much, two reasons. One is that I don’t think “the Fediverse” should tie itself to badly flawed ActivityPub protocol, which hasn’t improved significantly over the last six years, and is a prime target for an embrace-and-extend strategy from Meta. Sure, the protocol might improve, and Meta might decide it’s not worth exlpoiting the Fediverse … but it would be a mistake to rely on it.
The other is because I think the the dominance of the white, techo-libertarian guys is a big part of what’s holding the Fediverse back, many of them are protocol supremacists, and they’ve used the ActivityPub protocol and networks of power around it it to reinforce their dominance. So it’s useful to challenge that while highlighting the racism (etc) of their position.
Speaking of which, as Ernie Smith has pointed out “Eternal September was a form of gatekeeping” and so is “Eternal November”. And dismissing the opinions of Black people who checked out the Fediverse in November 2022 and either left because of its racism – or stayed despite the racism and are working to improve it – is not only gatekeeping but racist. So please don’t do that.