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Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

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Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#91

Post by augustuspolius »

jeroenhd wrote: post #88
augustuspolius wrote: post #81

This maybe a noob question - does Mastodon allow replies? The few profiles referenced in this thread that I visited look like announcement boards, with no way to comment or start a discussion. I am interested in electronic music and followed several links from fedi.directory. E.g. https://mastodon.art/@merle , https://mastodon.cc/@Sevish , https://sonomu.club/@luka . Is that normal that there are no discussions? Also…

It certainly does. From your example accounts: https://mastodon.art/@merle/105821287332308089 I think there are just fewer people active on these platforms, which isn't great for interaction. As for v.basspistol.org, that's not a Mastodon instance but a Peertube (derived) instance. Both are part of the so-called Fediverse, but Mastodon (and similar) intent to replace/extend Twitter/Facebook whereas Peertube intends t…

Interesting. Wonder if it could be clearer if they were still showing a comment field or a reply button to non-logged in users. Just to surface the feature.

Thanks for the info on Peertube, I heard the name before but didn't realize it's a federated app.

Reply to the edit: thanks for the pointer! Reading about ActivityPub made me feel pretty excited both about the technology and about Mastodon.

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#92

Post by futuretaint »

discardedrefuse wrote: post #54
Timja wrote: post #12

Twitter is the only platform I know where you can search for people who share your interests and then connect with them. The whole #buildinpublic community is just insanely great. Everybody is building something. Everybody is having similar issues to talk about. You can make so many great connections and help each other out. But I feel that with Twitter becoming a private company owned by a single controversial perso…

I don't twitter or mastodon. But isn't "people who share your interests and then connect with them" exactly what the different mastodon instances are for? You're kinda supposed to find a server that aligns with your interest.

twitter has a social dynamic where opposing interests feed off of each other so you need in-group + out-group. there are psychosocial elements which mastodon does not have as it's more reddit like IMHO. edit: for clarity

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#93

Post by colesantiago »

etchalon wrote: post #58
colesantiago wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we all know this hypothetical isn't the case. Centralisation is more convenient in almost ALL cases, even in email (nobody except people on HN host their own email)

Email remains decentralized.

Doesn't matter when we are talking about Mastodon.

People don't use email as social network or instant form of social communication.

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#94

Post by p1necone »

kortilla wrote: post #89
colesantiago wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

many people don't care that it is decentralised, hence gmail, an open protocol is irrelevant. In mastodon's case decentralisation is a hindrance since they want centralisation back. email isn't a social network and lots people outside of HN don't self host them as such.

I think you’re quite confused about email users. Very few of the companies I worked for outside of startups used google for email hosting. Business email is very dependent on the fact that it’s an open protocol.

Likewise, gmail would be totally useless if it was actually centralized and you couldn't email non gmail users.

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#95

Post by augustuspolius »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #44

I was skeptical on Mastodon. But I'm actually realling enjoying it. It's having a surge in popularity the last few days. When I checked it out a couple years ago it didn't click with me. But now I'm liking it, and I think there's potential there. It won't "replace" Twitter. But a good crowd of people has collected around there, and there's quite a bit of enjoyable content coming through.

Is there a non-niche general Mastodon instance that's really popular? That would be the easiest way for me personally to embrace it. I checked a few instances and it's all very niche and very empty.

(To clarify, I don't mind niche instances, just at this stage there isn't enough discussion or interesting profiles to follow.)

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#96

Post by wrycoder »

p1necone wrote: post #94
kortilla wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re quite confused about email users. Very few of the companies I worked for outside of startups used google for email hosting. Business email is very dependent on the fact that it’s an open protocol.

Likewise, gmail would be totally useless if it was actually centralized and you couldn't email non gmail users.

But they can’t necessarily email you, given Google’s procedures regarding “spam”, i.e. anything from a small email server.

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#97

Post by jeroenhd »

GeckoEidechse wrote: post #71

On the topic of Twiter, Mastodon, and the Fediverse, why do federated FOSS alternatives to popular platforms not offer a read-only version of said platform as one of its instances to augment its lack of content? In the example of Twitter, Nitter already exists as an alternative front-end. Now what if there's a Mastodon instance that uses Nitter to wrap official Twitter content and serve it as if it where the twitter.…

There is a lot of Twitter content out there. Too much for a single instance to proxy. I believe there are projects to mirror specific Twitter accounts to a (personal) Mastodon server so you can switch apps without needing two apps. I'm not sure what the implication would be for privacy/data usage regulations if you open those messages to the public, though; blindly reposting everything may actually violate data privacy laws (yes, even if that information is publicly available).

Engagement with the audience also is a significant factor for making social media enjoyable. A read-only mirror of Twitter would be very boring, because you can respond/tag/whatever you want for all eternity, but the Twitter authors would never notice.

Such a system would work for people primarily using Mastodon that cross-post to Twitter; you could add Twitter replies to the Mastodon replies and get a mixed content stream (that Twitter users might miss half of when discussions respond to as-of-yet unproxied messages).

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#98

Post by detaro »

contravariant wrote: post #62
detaro wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, no. Imagine the reversed situation: Everyone is on Mastodon, and now this cool new thing called "Twitter" comes along and some people are switching to it. "find everyones Twitter account and follow it" would still be a useful thing to have, over manually checking for every single person you follow if they have an account, if they maybe have an account with a different username, ... and following those you…

In that scenario is Mastodon not centralized?

No, that scenario is assuming a federated Mastodon (and other Fediverse software) as today.

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#99

Post by jeroenhd »

klyrs wrote: post #37
yosito wrote: post #36

Someone should build an app like this that is integrated with all the social networks. Give it a sexy UI, and a catchy feature or two to keep people checking in. Eventually, it could serve as a federated contacts hub that links people between networks. A vital piece of infrastructure to support mandated interoperability.

We had Trillian back in the day, but then the messaging services locked down their protocols. I don't expect such an app would survive the cat&mouse with major players for long.

I'm not sure about your standard social media, but for direct messaging, several Matrix-based companies have popped up that allow for service interoperability.

The European Union is also working on breaking open the messenger space, forcing tech companies to either leave the EU or work on an interoperable standard. I believe an IEEE working group is already developing a protocol to serve this purpose, even with encryption available if I recall correctly.

Re: Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon

#100

Post by wrycoder »

fazfq wrote: post #32
michaelwww wrote: post #9

I find this whole situation to be incredibly depressing, especially with Musk tweeting out a fact free insinuation about Paul Pelosi (since deleted without apology.) The proverbial shit is going to hit the fan on Twitter on election night Nov 8 in America and I don't think Musk is prepared to handle it. I'd love to live in a country where we could have nice things, but apparently America is not it.

>The proverbial shit is going to hit the fan on Twitter on election night Nov 8 in America and I don't think Musk is prepared to handle it. What exactly is he supposed to do? I don't see how Nov 8 is megacorp's business.

How about closing Twitter for three days, starting two days before the election. Twiliday for the staff!
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