They've already made an argument that's appealing to a lot of artist and a lot of folks interested in decentralizing the web. The criticisms have not landed with those cohorts.

Fully agree with this point. There is so much prior art about decentralization being ignored. But most of the fediverse/indieweb folks I see have not engaged with decentralization fans to say "we've got stuff that's better/cheaper/already works".

oh we've tried, but then the glowing eyeballs come out yelling and screaming and it just isn't a productive discussion for anyone

As a creative working for a tech company, I’d love to find out more about those alternatives, if only as a point of comparison to web3. Where can I find out more about decentralization outside of the web3 hype?

The @indiewebcamp movement at indieweb.org/ is largely a technology independent movement to empower independent creators to create their own presence online, guided by a set of core principles: indieweb.org/principles

And the efforts generally referred to as the “fediverse” that spun out of these communities are thriving and well worth investigating.

I'm pretty sure the "fediverse" refers to the federated social network that is Mastodon (where every node typically serves many people), whereas the IndieWeb instead focuses on a decentralized, not federated, social network where every actor controls their own node

Yep, though I think most people who want one to succeed want to see the other thrive as well.

Yes and no, I know that I myself at least wouldn’t be happy to have the IndieWeb referenced as a “fediverse”, but then again, I’m a bit burnt after I implemented OStatus for Flattr back in the days only to see the very downside of a federated approach when it comes to longevity…