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It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

simonwillison.net

11–20 of 472 posts

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#12
I think it'd be great for more decentralized platforms to supplant centralized ones, but they usually seem to struggle to acquire more mainstream users. Even if Twitter collapses under Musk's leadership, my hunch is that a (new?) centralized competitor is more likely to take most of their market share, rather than Mastodon.

I know, I know, there's some obvious exceptions like email, or just the web in general, but it seems like usually decentralized platforms are at a disadvantage in terms of marketing to new users, explaining how they work, and the whole onboarding experience. The very fact that they can work in different ways to different people seems like a minus in terms of getting into the public consciousness.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#13
I respect their line of though, only because it is their own opinion. I know projects such as Orca and give real praise to all of them.

But to me, leaving Twitter because Musk fired the accessibility team does not seem like the best argument for leaving. If anything, it just sped up what was already happening (internally) even before Musk bought Twitter.

Accessibility becomes ‘real’ (though not perfect) thanks to a wide range of technologies that work together and respect certain patterns, not just due to the UI interface. This, assuming Twitter represents a big chunk of the real world, which I doubt, though it reaches a great proportion of it.

However, what is it to say that Twitrer’s accessibility will get worse, or that Musk will not hire even more capable people later? This is why I think the person left Twitter not only because Musk fired the accessibility team, but also because Twitter itself does not represent anymore the philosophy they believe in.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#14
post #4

The same kind of posts happened when zuck changed the private policy of whatsaap a few months ago, everyone was migrating to Signal. Who uses signal now?

This was the event that pushed me to go XMPP only for messaging. Pulled in my family and some friends. Internet standards without vendor lock-in is now a requirement for me.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#15
post #4

The same kind of posts happened when zuck changed the private policy of whatsaap a few months ago, everyone was migrating to Signal. Who uses signal now?

My only active chat in WhatsApp is the one with my father. Are HN-type folks seriously still using chat clients by meta? What?

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#16
post #4

The same kind of posts happened when zuck changed the private policy of whatsaap a few months ago, everyone was migrating to Signal. Who uses signal now?

This seems a bit different, given that Musk's leadership has a high potential to very radically change Twitter; he did just lay off half the company, for example.

People keep talking about laying off half the company like it's a bad thing.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of negative factors to laying off staff and I'm not denying those.

But anyone who has worked in a large org, especially a public one, knows that there is excessive bloat. Many people at large orgs do nothing. They go to great lengths to ensure it looks like they're doing something, which I guess is something itself.

PS - I'm neither for nor against the layoffs at Twitter.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#17
post #7

Quoted post unavailable.

Someone got out the wrong side of bed?

I’m also in the process of moving from Twitter to Mastodon, albeit I have very few followers on either. As such, I found it both interesting and useful. I imagine he does want engagement and wants to get it from Mastodon instead of Twitter.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#18
post #4

The same kind of posts happened when zuck changed the private policy of whatsaap a few months ago, everyone was migrating to Signal. Who uses signal now?

My only active chat in WhatsApp is the one with my father. Are HN-type folks seriously still using chat clients by meta? What?

Same problem. I have multiple groups on WhatsApp that I don’t want to leave, but don’t believe they’ll migrate. Three family groups, close friends, school parents, son’s football club.

A lot of these people were the last to migrate to WhatsApp from email and SMS, and will now be the last to migrate away from it. And they’re a huge majority compared to the early adopter crowd we see on HN.

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