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How Does Mastodon Work?

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Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#71

Post by Vinnl »

nafey wrote: post #67
codesections wrote: post #36

I wrote a companion piece that explains what makes Mastodon better than Twitter. It starts like this: > Mastodon is a newcomer social media platform that is a lot like Twitter—short messages, followers, hashtags, all that. But Mastodon is much better than Twitter, and not just because being totally ad-free and keeping chronological timelines make it far more enjoyable to use (though that certainly helps!). All that i…

I wonder if in the long run Mastodon will still not be an "outrage machine". Twitter also didn't start out as a vent for political outrage, but as a platform grows it gets more bad apples. In the case of Mastodon it's decentralized nature actually provides them more security. It will be interesting to see it play out.

I have a feeling it already is one. In my timeline there are a lot of LGBQT activists (which I think is the case for much of Mastodon at the moment?), and since I generally agree with how they'd like to see the world and am otherwise not really involved with that movement, I don't really interact with those posts. However, I see a lot of "I simply blocked this hateful person lalalalalala" which makes me, as an outsider, feel uncomfortable, and I feel hesitant even to try to respond with even a slightly different view.

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#72

Post by elboru »

codesections wrote: post #36

I wrote a companion piece that explains what makes Mastodon better than Twitter. It starts like this: > Mastodon is a newcomer social media platform that is a lot like Twitter—short messages, followers, hashtags, all that. But Mastodon is much better than Twitter, and not just because being totally ad-free and keeping chronological timelines make it far more enjoyable to use (though that certainly helps!). All that i…

Wouldn’t a decentralized social network be more prone to delvelop more extremist groups? I mean if anyone can create an instance, then extremists from all the political spectrum will be able to moderate their own instances, in other words they will censor those who think differently and encourage their own views creating a loop that could potentially create more myopic-extremist views, or is there something I’m missing?

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#73

Post by someonenice »

saurik wrote: post #33
newscracker wrote: post #32

I wish the author had expanded on migration from one instance to another and what it entails (similar to the questions and responses here). Another point I would've liked to see is on encryption and privacy — who, other than the people I choose as an audience, can see my Toots (the admins of the instances, someone sniffing the network, etc.). If these platforms are being sold as "awesome", there need to be more reaso…

> I wish the author had expanded on migration from one instance to another and what it entails (similar to the questions and responses here). Account migration is not a thing yet, and conceptually requires a new namespace for referencing accounts (such as public keys). There is a multi-year-long actively-discussed open issue thread about this problem. https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/177

This should work like Domain web Hosting type. So you can register your id at one place (similar to domain with any tld registrar) and change to another instance (web hosting). So you do not lose the need to change the id when changing instance.

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#74

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

elboru wrote: post #72
codesections wrote: post #36

I wrote a companion piece that explains what makes Mastodon better than Twitter. It starts like this: > Mastodon is a newcomer social media platform that is a lot like Twitter—short messages, followers, hashtags, all that. But Mastodon is much better than Twitter, and not just because being totally ad-free and keeping chronological timelines make it far more enjoyable to use (though that certainly helps!). All that i…

Wouldn’t a decentralized social network be more prone to delvelop more extremist groups? I mean if anyone can create an instance, then extremists from all the political spectrum will be able to moderate their own instances, in other words they will censor those who think differently and encourage their own views creating a loop that could potentially create more myopic-extremist views, or is there something I’m missi…

And won’t the proponents say this is a feature as it keeps them off other instances?

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#75

Post by shakna »

ReverseCold wrote: post #59
shakna wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. And if I set up my own, does it need to be a community? No. Mastadon and other compatible servers like GNUSocial do have single-user environments. [0] 2. Am I shutting myself out of an experience by creating, say, a Mastodon instance for my family? No. The entire thing is federated, users from all servers can speak to each other. [0] https://github.com/ummjackson/mastodon-guide/blob/master/sin...

> 1. No. Mastadon and other compatible servers like... Well that's the easy answer. I run my own instance and it's near impossible to find interesting people to follow. I started making alternate accounts on various other servers and it was immediately much better. Also, (from my experience) people actually do pay attention to the local feed. People are more likely to find about (and talk to) you when they see you on…

I don't think any of the 20 odd people I find interesting enough to follow belong to my instance. Nor was I aware of a 'local feed'. I see all instances that interact with mine, and their feeds.

It may be harder to find you on your own, unless you're reaching out to others... And frankly that just sounds like network effects.

People are more likely to 'discover' you if you interact with celebrities on other social sites.

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#76

Post by pawal »

jancsika wrote: post #60

> Well, finding the right one is very difficult That sounds like a rather critical UX bug. Just give me the instance I should sign up on in the "sign up" area of mastodon.social. Use what you think is the most suitable algorithm to cycle through a list of "appropriate" instances, where you-- the people with domain experience-- define "appropriate" for the potential user. Otherwise you end up with this passive-aggress…

Would you say the same thing about e-mail and SMTP?

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#77

Post by PakG1 »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #74
elboru wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t a decentralized social network be more prone to delvelop more extremist groups? I mean if anyone can create an instance, then extremists from all the political spectrum will be able to moderate their own instances, in other words they will censor those who think differently and encourage their own views creating a loop that could potentially create more myopic-extremist views, or is there something I’m missi…

And won’t the proponents say this is a feature as it keeps them off other instances?

And won't detractors say that this is how the mainstream media got the 2016 US presidential election predictions so wrong? https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-...

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#78

Post by phoe-krk »

pawal wrote: post #76
jancsika wrote: post #60

> Well, finding the right one is very difficult That sounds like a rather critical UX bug. Just give me the instance I should sign up on in the "sign up" area of mastodon.social. Use what you think is the most suitable algorithm to cycle through a list of "appropriate" instances, where you-- the people with domain experience-- define "appropriate" for the potential user. Otherwise you end up with this passive-aggress…

Would you say the same thing about e-mail and SMTP?

That's a good example. In a way, e-mail was the first federated social network, and nowadays there's no critical UX issue with "there's too many e-mail providers to choose from, there should be only one GMail for people to sign up to".

The only difference is that e-mail is "obvious" and Mastodon is new.

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#79

Post by phs318u »

PakG1 wrote: post #77
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And won’t the proponents say this is a feature as it keeps them off other instances?

And won't detractors say that this is how the mainstream media got the 2016 US presidential election predictions so wrong? https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-...

Then perhaps people/corporations will learn that farming social networks to predict IRL intentions may not be the best use of their time and energy.

As far as I'm aware, "being an accurate source of voting intention" is not a prime requirement for social networks, nor is "making life easier for lazy journalists/pollsters". At least, not for any where the users are the customers. For those, where the users are the product, requirements might be different. Personally, I view this is a positive for Mastodon.

Re: How Does Mastodon Work?

#80

Post by phs318u »

merinowool wrote: post #69
nafey wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if in the long run Mastodon will still not be an "outrage machine". Twitter also didn't start out as a vent for political outrage, but as a platform grows it gets more bad apples. In the case of Mastodon it's decentralized nature actually provides them more security. It will be interesting to see it play out.

It will be easier for governments to shut down small instances and smear the owners. I don't think decentralisation has much security value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-Mole
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