@fluffy @colonelj
I think it was even stated by the likes of Torba at some point. They had the issue that their own app was banned from iPhone/Android app stores, and they struggled like that for a while. And when they federated, they were advertising like crazy that you could use any fedi app to log into gab.

@alyx @colonelj it's hard to tell even if he stated it explicitly if that was the motivation for the move. could have just been ordinary marketing playing up the new strengths of a move done for other reasons.

it seems honestly like a ton of effort for just an app when you could simply tell your guys to install it via F-Droid

@fluffy @colonelj
Wouldn't work for boomers. They tried making their own "app store", which was a glorified page on their side from which you could download their app, (and at some point other fedi apps). But good luck teaching boomers to sideload anything, or to trust other places than the official Google Play Store. And this is for Android. For iPhone you can't even sideload at all.

@fluffy @colonelj
The lack of an easy accessible app has been the biggest issue they had for a while. Boomers would have problems using gab from their phones, and constantly requested an official gab app. And since they got banned from the official stores, they struggled to teach boomers to sideload apps. So federating was a "solution" for them.

@alyx @colonelj yeah seems reasonable enough. idk why you are so convinced of this theory tho

@fluffy @colonelj
I remember hearing Torba in some interview or something, saying that once they federate, you'd be able to use gab from mobile apps that already exist. Too bad I can't really remember where I've seen/heard this, so at least I'd know where to start searching.

@fluffy @colonelj

At least my memory is still pretty good.

https://wedistribute.org/2019/05/gab-is-forking-mastodon-and-joining-the-fediverse/

@fluffy @colonelj
Too bad the original tweet doesn't exist anymore, but even Eugene's response to the announcement alludes to Gab planning to make use of fedi apps.

@alyx @colonelj honestly it just seems like a bunch of speculation

i mean it's reasonable enough speculation, but there's no smoking gun

@fluffy @alyx it's more believable than fse bullying being the reason

@colonelj @fluffy
Sure, because gab never used instance blocks...

@colonelj @alyx hm, both are reasonable i'd say. remember their target audience is boomers who hate porn and anime. i'd say making the place unpleasant to them could well be seen as a reason for them leaving.

as for which is more reasonable, i think alynx makes a good point about the app store, so i'm inclined to believe it, however consider this theory: they joined the fediverse to siphon new users. they left because a mistake in the code caused them to defederate and they couldn't be bothered to fix it since their users didn't like the content.

@fluffy @colonelj
>they joined the fediverse to siphon new users.
Doubt it. If I remember correctly, when they joined they had more accounts than most, if not all of fedi at that time. There is of course the problem of how many of those accounts were actually in use, but considering how often people have multiple accounts on fedi too, I think they kinda cancel each other out.

@alyx @colonelj dunno i mean new users are the lifeblood of a social media site especially one like theirs that wants to grow.

this theory explains why they rode so hard on them being big when they joined, they have strong branding and a bigger budget so ordinarily you'd expect to grow.

honestly social media site trying new things to get new users is pretty reasonable, and it's likely that having an app for free sealed the deal. IMHO

@fluffy @colonelj
They rode on them being big because they were desperate to be seen with respect and admiration. Torba's ego was definitely hit like a ton of bricks when fedi was so openly mocking him to his face.
He was literally trying to subvert the fediverse and claim people should follow his way, because "look at how many people we have, so you should be in awe of us, and follow our lead". It was playing politics to grab power and control over fedi.
Their growth base has always and will always be Twitter/Facebook refugees. Don't know if they were really hoping to gather that much more from fedi. Again, considering the numbers, targeting fedi wouldn't have lead to a much bigger growth. Their main focus should always be Twitter & Facebook.

@alyx @colonelj dunno man, you have a whole lot of conviction behind stuff that is obviously speculation.

if there was some sort of fireside chat or press interview where he said this stuff, that would be different, but you are making guesses from tweets. i don't think it is respectful to other people to speak with conviction about things that are speculative.

@fluffy @alyx many fse people were gablins first so I'd say the opposite occurred when it comes to poaching users from one platform to another

@colonelj @alyx yeah they probably had the blood drain from their face when they realized what a massive mistake they made.

they could probably have poached a good amount of users from fedi if they hadn't absolutely botched the PR and branding strategy. I don't like them, but, the truth is that while they were here they were pretty much the only instance on fedi with full time devs on staff plus additional contractors. They remain the only instance with groups, and the put that together in a matter of days. If they hadn't botched the PR they could have poached loads of guys from FSE, shitposter, mastodon.social, etc. But it was a total hack job and they got hack job results.

@fluffy @colonelj
Unless some of those instances closed down, or became really tyrannical beyond what it's users were ok with, I don't really see any alternative universe in which Gab would have stolen users from fedi.

@alyx @colonelj that's okay. i don't mind that other people don't see everything the way i see it. let's leave this here

@fluffy @colonelj
Don't get me wrong, I find it interesting that you think gab had a shot of taking away users from fedi, but even back then I didn't think it was likely. I saw their federation as a way to compensate for their lack of user diversity and numbers by allowing their users to interact with a slightly bigger audience. It was in my view a temporary fix, while they continued trying to get Twitter normies to come over.

@alyx @colonelj I mean it's just the obvious thing if you imagine yourself in their shoes. As a fedi user you know very different things about fedi than torba did before joining

@fluffy @colonelj
But here's the thing, I was a gab user first. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have a gab account before them federating. These were my perspectives and thoughts on these matters before I actually joined a different instance and got to understand fedi.

@alyx @fluffy @colonelj
Instead they were confronted with their former users and dead bee jokes.

@fluffy @colonelj
I'd say that tweet and how they eventually left after the fedi apps on the app stores became useless to them is smoking gun enough.

@alyx @colonelj torba's tweet isn't a smoking gun, as I wrote he could have been finding benefits to a move they already made for other reasons.

secondly, about leaving, recall that their method of "leaving" is they made a change to the code which broke federation, as far as i am aware accidentally due to lack of technical skill, and then never fixed it... so i think it is a mistake to frame it as if it was some deliberate decision on their part.

I don't find this to be a smoking gun at all. Sure it is reasonable enough, but i am unconvinced.

@fluffy @colonelj
They hadn't made their move yet. It was still on planning stages from what I can remember when the tweet was made.
>as if it was some deliberate decision
The deliberate decision is in not caring anymore that they're not compatible with everything else. If apps aren't useful anyway, why bother fixing it.