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Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

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Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#381

Post by jamesrcole »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #379
jamesrcole wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the U.S. I'm from Australia and it's the same here. I would imagine it's also like that in other countries. In any case, even just considering the US market, it's clearly a very large and important one for any software system. And, what a word means there has nothing to do with Americans imposing things on others.

Why is nicknaming Richard as Dick ok, but toot isn't? Seems way more offensive to me. I hate cockroaches and yet have deployed CockroachDB in production. The insistence on being puritan seems shallow to me, considering the real problems this world is facing, but to each their own.

In the context when you're clearly referring to a person, it's clear the meaning is "Richard". It's common for words to have multiple meanings and it's easy to navigate those from the context. With "toots" as a verb describing what someone does "Joe tooted about his plans", for many people, the meaning of that word in such a context would normally mean that bodily function. So the difference is in the kind of context-sensitive meaning that comes to mind.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#382

Post by jamesrcole »

smsm42 wrote: post #376
yborg wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People thought precisely the same thing about "tweet" when Twitter first came out.

I never heard "tweet" being a word for a bodily function largely considered indecent and/or hilarious. Is it?

It's not in Australia. I have only heard it used as a word for a noise birds make.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#383

Post by AsyncAwait »

jamesrcole wrote: post #381
AsyncAwait wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is nicknaming Richard as Dick ok, but toot isn't? Seems way more offensive to me. I hate cockroaches and yet have deployed CockroachDB in production. The insistence on being puritan seems shallow to me, considering the real problems this world is facing, but to each their own.

In the context when you're clearly referring to a person, it's clear the meaning is "Richard". It's common for words to have multiple meanings and it's easy to navigate those from the context. With "toots" as a verb describing what someone does "Joe tooted about his plans", for many people, the meaning of that word in such a context would normally mean that bodily function. So the difference is in the kind of context…

> In the context when you're clearly referring to a person, it's clear the meaning is "Richard".

It's not anymore clear than toot - if I say, "Hey Dick", it might be the insult depending on the context. Now it's unlikely to be if the name is Richard, but since you can't really fart about stuff, it's unlikely that you're farting about your plans.

Ever wonder why "git" isn't very objectionable? Because it is an obscure British insult, not an American one.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#384

Post by jamesrcole »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #383
jamesrcole wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the context when you're clearly referring to a person, it's clear the meaning is "Richard". It's common for words to have multiple meanings and it's easy to navigate those from the context. With "toots" as a verb describing what someone does "Joe tooted about his plans", for many people, the meaning of that word in such a context would normally mean that bodily function. So the difference is in the kind of context…

> In the context when you're clearly referring to a person, it's clear the meaning is "Richard". It's not anymore clear than toot - if I say, "Hey Dick", it might be the insult depending on the context. Now it's unlikely to be if the name is Richard, but since you can't really fart about stuff, it's unlikely that you're farting about your plans. Ever wonder why "git" isn't very objectionable? Because it is an obscure…

In every one of those cases the context makes the meaning clear.

Nobody uses the phrasing "Hey Dick" for the insult. That would be either "Hey, you dick", or "Hey" followed by a long pause and then "Dick".

"Git" -- as a name for the software -- is unobjectionable because it's obviously not calling anyone a git. The term "git" by itself isn't offensive.

All very different from saying that someone tooted, or referring to their toots.

Even if it's "Richard tooted about politics" the thing is that the only prexisting use of the verb "tooted" that applies to a person is the bodily function, so that association is always going to come up -- and remember also that for Mastodon to grow it has to bring in new people who are not familiar with it or its terminology, and first impressions are important.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#385

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #377
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel the need to endear myself to users. It's not my job, either, nor is it anyone else's but yours. If you want something, you need to make it happen. What arrogance of yours to think that someone else should volunteer their time to accomodate for your whims! If Mastodon doesn't suit your needs, then fix it or don't use it. Either way that doesn't make it "embarassing" or otherwise bad. It works great for mi…

Yeah, no. If you're not going to put in the effort, then why should anyone else?

I'm not the one who's dissatisfied with Mastodon.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#386

Post by thevardanian »

ratamacue wrote: post #369
thevardanian wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People often forget that at the beginning none of the current giants were "mainstream", in fact what made them attractive was the fact that they had a unique audience that formed a strong community amongst each other. The idea of "mainstream" is dying, and will continue to do so. What we're seeing is a deep cultural fracture where communities, ideas, and people do not form the kind of stardom or centralized propagati…

I'm a daily user of Mastadon. But... People were saying this on newsgroups and gopher, then on message boards, then about Friendster and all of the social platforms that followed. If the platform becomes popular enough to reach some sort of critical mass, then that mass will drag along all of the Facebook/Twitter/Instagram stardom with it. Some people actually like their celebrities and they expect to see those celeb…

Yah. Some people like their celebrities, however those celebrities are also now facing competition by other stars which have far greater community outreach, and influence.

Who do the kids of today look up to? Those are your next celebrities.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#387

Post by ChristianBundy »

18pfsmt wrote: post #296
radus wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving scuttlebutt a try - thanks! Here are my experiences: 1. App seems quite unpolished for Windows, it looks best not maximized. I was asked to provide a name and was a little disconcerted by the message that this is going to be public and cannot be deleted. 2. I've now joined a public server. This required going to a github page, following a link and copying and pasting an "invite" into the Patchwork application.…

I'm not a user, but I have been watching it (and its related projects on github). I believe Patchwork[0] is the social network you joined, and it is based on scuttlebutt[1]. It seems like very early times for most people even considering the downsides of centralized 'social media,' and it will take time and hand-holding to demonstrate the alternative possibilities. A great client app that could unify the user experie…

Yep, Patchwork is a Scuttlebutt client that implements some of the most common funxtionality: pubs, following, blocking, posts, likes, replies, and some profile data.

Other clients like Patchbay do that plus more experimental features, but it's all running on top of Scuttlebutt and you can change clients at any time.

If you're familiar with cryptocurrencies, these clients ate like wallets -- there are a ton of different ones with all sorts of pros and cons, but you're still on the same network with the same append-only feeds.

With that said, these are rough around the edges, especially when it comes to entering the network for the first time. We've got a lot of work to do. I appreciate the feedback!

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#388

Post by cabalamat »

komali2 wrote: post #374
cabalamat wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main reason for that claim is simply that I live in Britain -- anyone who has done so for a significant amount of time would know that sentiment against Muslims is is a lot more widespread than 0.1% of the population, so I don't think the claim needs defending, any more than the claim "people like sex and money" does. But I had a look at specific opinion poll results and this one https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/To…

Thanks for finding numbers, but I worry about this one confirming bias against Muslims. For example, one could assume that a 60% approval rate among Republicans of Trump means that 60% of Republicans don't like Muslims, but oftentimes in conversations in my home town in Texas I'll hear something like "oh, he's definitely a jerk about the Muslim thing" or "even if he's racist, he's at least doing something about the e…

I suspect the number who hate Muslims is small, maybe 1-5% of the population. The number who have misgivings about the behaviour of some Muslims is clearly a lot higher.

Re: Mastodon Is Better Than Twitter: Elevator Pitch

#389

Post by cabalamat »

zimpenfish wrote: post #378
cabalamat wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main reason for that claim is simply that I live in Britain -- anyone who has done so for a significant amount of time would know that sentiment against Muslims is is a lot more widespread than 0.1% of the population, so I don't think the claim needs defending, any more than the claim "people like sex and money" does. But I had a look at specific opinion poll results and this one https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/To…

> My main reason for that claim is simply that I live in Britain Me too, currently coming up to 50 years. > https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/Tommy_Robinson That's favourability of Mr Robinson, not his beliefs though.

> That's favourability of Mr Robinson, not his beliefs though.

True, but 17.4% is a much larger number than 0.1%

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