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Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

mastodon.social

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Re: Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

#61

Post by yogthos »

aqsalose wrote: post #59
glenstein wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are describing a completely different platform from the one I visit and post to every day. For one, it's not barren; it's quite active. One of the distinguishing features of mastodon compared to other decentralized platforms is that people use it. In fact one of the complaints about the federated feed is that it updates so fast it's hard to keep up with. As for the people there, the people I talk to are intereste…

Because of the federated nature of mastodon, experience on one instance might be quite different than another. If the instances that are not "barren wasteland" are difficult to find, it's a problem.

Finding instances is very easy because there's a registry and a helpful wizard linked off the main site https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started You can specify what the minimum number of users you want on an instance, what topics you care about, and so on.

I actually think this is superior to Twitter model, because you can find an instance that fits your interests closely and not have to deal with the noise you don't care about.

Re: Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

#62

Post by yogthos »

nosuchthing wrote: post #16

Mastodon impliments a very very confusing username system, due to the design of domain-name based federation. alice@mastadon.social alice@mastadon.network Twitter suffers from impersonator accounts on its own network, imagine the confusion of an unfamiliar user having to find a real account on mastadon.

Perhaps it's just a different target audience. People who want to follow celebrities and and brands are certainly better off on Twitter. However, if my main interest is in interacting with individuals this isn't a problem at all.

I met a bunch of people on Mastodon whom I find interesting, and I have conversations with. There's no need for me to verify their identity because I'm enjoying the interactions I have with them.

This is really how internet was originally envisioned to work. You don't need to know anything about the person on the other end, the interaction itself is what's valuable.

Re: Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

#63

Post by glenstein »

yogthos wrote: post #61
aqsalose wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because of the federated nature of mastodon, experience on one instance might be quite different than another. If the instances that are not "barren wasteland" are difficult to find, it's a problem.

Finding instances is very easy because there's a registry and a helpful wizard linked off the main site https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started You can specify what the minimum number of users you want on an instance, what topics you care about, and so on. I actually think this is superior to Twitter model, because you can find an instance that fits your interests closely and not have to deal with the noise you don…

Right. Fortunately, the offshoot instances are easy to find.

But even if they weren't, the extremely active main instances are enough to show the platform isn't a barren wasteland. And the difficulty of finding offshoot instances with lower amounts of participation is a different category of problem, however real, from the platform itself not having people.

Re: Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

#64

Post by aqsalose »

yogthos wrote: post #61
aqsalose wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because of the federated nature of mastodon, experience on one instance might be quite different than another. If the instances that are not "barren wasteland" are difficult to find, it's a problem.

Finding instances is very easy because there's a registry and a helpful wizard linked off the main site https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started You can specify what the minimum number of users you want on an instance, what topics you care about, and so on. I actually think this is superior to Twitter model, because you can find an instance that fits your interests closely and not have to deal with the noise you don…

Semi-related: is there any easy way to follow local timelines of multiple instances with a single client? My current main instance has only handful of active people, so I've been wondering if I should look at somewhere else. However, I'd rather not leave my current instance altogether; on the other hand, registering n accounts on n instances and then opening n web browser clients to "see it all" seems like an unnecessary hassle.

Re: Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

#65

Post by yogthos »

aqsalose wrote: post #64
yogthos wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding instances is very easy because there's a registry and a helpful wizard linked off the main site https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started You can specify what the minimum number of users you want on an instance, what topics you care about, and so on. I actually think this is superior to Twitter model, because you can find an instance that fits your interests closely and not have to deal with the noise you don…

Semi-related: is there any easy way to follow local timelines of multiple instances with a single client? My current main instance has only handful of active people, so I've been wondering if I should look at somewhere else. However, I'd rather not leave my current instance altogether; on the other hand, registering n accounts on n instances and then opening n web browser clients to "see it all" seems like an unneces…

I think the easiest way to get views into other instances is to follow people from there. You'll start getting whatever they boost in your feed that way. Being able to follow timelines from other instances would be handy though.

Re: Mastodon – an open source alternative to Twitter

#66

Post by vidarh »

tkmh wrote: post #38
vidarh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big difference is that with e-mail we've long ago stopped expecting discoverability. You don't expect to be able to search and find their e-mail address. You do expect to be able to search for them on Twitter.

I think not being able to search for is a good marker of how mastodon is trying to be something other than just a decentralized twitter clone. I personally find the twitter microblogging model, wherein most tweets seem to be retweets of high-profile users or comments on their posts, quite unhealthy for discussion among equals. Twitter is essentially a media site, whereas (I think) Mastodon hopes to be something else,…

In which case it is highly misleading when it is presented as an open source alternative to Twitter.
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