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Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

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Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#71

Post by rolandog »

metamet wrote: post #57
JetAlone wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Unfortunately it looks like Mastodon still hasn’t renamed their “toots” Maybe we wouldn't have so many reasons to leave twitter if people had taken tweets less seriously in the first place. If everyone knows that artificially short posts with insanely widespread potential reach are all 屁s, that could help fix a lot of what's wrong in our world.

I suspect there's a limited number of people who want to be told so explicitly that they're just farting their thoughts out online.

Well, if we overanalyze everything, the same could be said about the neediness of tweeting birds to get the attention of a possible partner [1].

[1] https://i.imgur.com/Ks17qEJ.png

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#72

Post by reitanqild »

jterrys wrote: post #31
fdschoeneman wrote: post #5

I'm curious to know why there aren't more conservative or libertarian mastodon sites. Seems like a good fit.

There are. Mastodon's problem (and/or best feature depending on how you look at it) is that it's pretty prevalent about their blocklists. So the most commonly federated and advertised places tend to be more liberal leaning. I don't keep close track of the community, but this is one blocklist that I just googled https://toot.cafe/about/more#blocked-instances Aside from the obvious terrible shit the list itself looks k…

It seems to me that for some it is enough that you don't block what they block or even ask someone why someone is blocked and voila, you are blocked too.

I absolutely see the value of blocking and there are things I am happy to block, but I have never seen the need to block anyone based on who they don't block.

It is kind of the outrage over Elon Musk buying Twitter: people are outraged not because they are blocked or prohibited from blocking others but because someone else might not be blocked by default.

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#73

Post by M2Ys4U »

_ink_ wrote: post #59
unicornporn wrote: post #33

My recommendation to anyone having difficulties getting started or finding interesting people: try to find a small instance that suits your interests. Mastodon got so much better for me when I left the generalist instances. I now see my instance as a micro community with the ability to connect to a greater community.

Huh? Does it matter which instance you join? I don't use it, but thought that it does not matter since every post bubbles to every instance.

Yes and no...

Each instance has a local (instance) timeline and a federated timeline in addition to one's own personal timeline. The local timeline only shows posts from accounts on that instance. The federated timeline shows posts from all accounts followed by at least one user on the instance.

So these two timelines can be dramatically different and they're a big factor in account discoverability and the "feel" of an instance.

Of course you can go out and follow ~anyone from ~anywhere, and that's the Fediverse's killer feature, but the more local content matters too.

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#74

Post by cheesecake_luvr »

eriner_ wrote: post #58

I run one of the larger Mastodon servers in the fediverse, and as far as I know the largest non-cloud hosted Mastodon instance. Here's a ten-post thread I wrote about my experiences scaling this self-hosted instance: https://noagendasocial.com/@eriner/108115547628441425 AMA I guess

Is there a way to monetize other than by subscription? $1/y is both too little (for the operator) and too much (for the user) at the same time.

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#75

Post by gurchik »

_ink_ wrote: post #59
unicornporn wrote: post #33

My recommendation to anyone having difficulties getting started or finding interesting people: try to find a small instance that suits your interests. Mastodon got so much better for me when I left the generalist instances. I now see my instance as a micro community with the ability to connect to a greater community.

Huh? Does it matter which instance you join? I don't use it, but thought that it does not matter since every post bubbles to every instance.

Because there is no algorithm news feed, finding new people to follow across the whole fediverse can be a challenge. If you instead find an instance that aligns with your interests, you can easily find other people on the same instance by looking at the Local feed.

Also it is not 100% true that every post bubbles to every instance because instance admins can blacklist other instances.

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#76

Post by Arnavion »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #49
Arnavion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Unfortunately it looks like Mastodon still hasn’t renamed their “toots” to “posts,” Hasn't it? The PR to rename them was merged just over a year ago, and there have been many releases since then with the new strings. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/v3.5.1/app/javascr... https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/v3.5.1/config/loca... etc. I do notice that the documentation still uses "toots": https://docs.j…

That’s what I was expecting, but as of today it still shows up in the onboarding tutorial and with the big “TOOT!” button on the main page, but these may be specific to desktop. It’s a little disappointing because it was a big announcement when they decided to change, and it really is the little things that make the biggest differences.

Right, so the software has been updated, but the documentation hasn't for some reason.

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#77

Post by genewitch »

INTPenis wrote: post #46
viksit wrote: post #38

how does mastodon get distribution? a series of decentralised sites lacking distribution and discovery have no incentives for users to join at scale?

This is where the magic of federation comes in. Each instance can federate with any other instance, meaning posts from the other instance will show up in your local instance's federated timeline. On top of that they can add AP relays that will further add posts to your federated timeline. I run a very small instance focused on geographically local users and the federation is so rapid that I have to scale up my backgr…

is there a place to read up on relays (in general, or specifically misskey to mastodon/plemora)?

I'm trying to populate my own server's timeline with stuff that won't scare off people, really.

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#78

Post by jfkimmes »

Barrin92 wrote: post #8
tdhz77 wrote: post #4

I wish I could be happy to use this, but I’m afraid big tech is just too big for me to jump ship. (Network effect) I’m starting to think that Government should think about breaking up social media sites or highly regulate them. The twitter Elon saga makes me think it will be impossible in the United States.

>Government should think about breaking up social media sites or highly regulate them they don't need to do anything that drastic. They literally need to do one straight forward thing. Force Twitter to open up their API and let people build a bridge to ActivityPub. Hell Elon could do it if he is serious about decentralization.

The Digital Markets Act [1] was just passed in the EU. It does exactly that. Enforce interoperability for "gatekeepers". I think Twitter is not quite big enough, yet, though.

[1]: https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/euro...

Re: Mastodon – A Federated Twitter Alternative

#79

Post by eriner_ »

cheesecake_luvr wrote: post #74
eriner_ wrote: post #58

I run one of the larger Mastodon servers in the fediverse, and as far as I know the largest non-cloud hosted Mastodon instance. Here's a ten-post thread I wrote about my experiences scaling this self-hosted instance: https://noagendasocial.com/@eriner/108115547628441425 AMA I guess

Is there a way to monetize other than by subscription? $1/y is both too little (for the operator) and too much (for the user) at the same time.

Sure, value for value.

I could form a business entity, open a PO box, create an account, and accept value from those who use the service. People could pay whatever the service is worth to them. Some are in circumstances such that they're unable to pay. Those with means may be able to contribute more - it's whatever the service is worth to them. Value for value.

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