Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

simonwillison.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 472 posts

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#291

Post by aizen89 »

tga wrote: post #49

> I can’t see myself putting the same work in to help the world’s richest man pay the loans he took out So Twitter was “really good” (while it was helping the many rich shareholders of a random public company) but it’s suddenly “work” a couple of days after the owner changed? Nothing wrong for not using it because of ideological reasons, but the product’s accessibility (or anything else really) hasn’t changed yet.

All those whiners that go to other platforms will be back. History shows that emotions take over, but then the person calms down and returns to the usual services, platforms, etc. How many whiners and alarmists were there when Microsoft acquired Github :) so what? everyone is back and happy.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#292

Post by Aeolun »

hristov wrote: post #200
tga wrote: post #49

> I can’t see myself putting the same work in to help the world’s richest man pay the loans he took out So Twitter was “really good” (while it was helping the many rich shareholders of a random public company) but it’s suddenly “work” a couple of days after the owner changed? Nothing wrong for not using it because of ideological reasons, but the product’s accessibility (or anything else really) hasn’t changed yet.

The main difference isn't really who but how much money. One uses a lot of goods and services in ordinary life. Generally speaking one hopes that the provider of these goods and services uses their resources efficiently to provide them for a reasonable price including reasonable profit. When a leveraged buyout happens (this is true for most leveraged buyouts) a large cost is put into the business that wasn't there be…

I’m afraid I don’t understand how Twitter can end up with debt from Musk buying it. How does that even work?

Twitter the company takes out a huge loan to pay the current shareholders a fortune (which is decided by those same shareholders, no conflict of interest there at all). But who the fuck would give them a loan like that (like you say, just to have Musk at the helm)?

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#293

Post by pera »

mrweasel wrote: post #228
panic wrote: post #100

It's exciting to see a truly open social network getting so many users.

Is it really getting all that many users. If so: What kind of users? From Musks perspective Twitter isn't about the HN crowd or personal interaction between lower and middle- class people. It's all about the real influencers, entertainers, politicians, journalists, C-suite class, investors, millionairs and billionairs. Sure if you follow these people, boosting their follower count and their ego, you're welcome on the…

Academics, scientists, and engineers. Almost every non-institutional account I used to follow in Twitter is now actively using Mastodon. The only "category" of people I haven't seen migrating yet is independent journalists, and I can understand why.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#294

Post by tchaffee »

pie_flavor wrote: post #256
tchaffee wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the simpler answer that doesn't fit your narrative is that lots of folks don't like Musk and his actions and his approach to running businesses. Lots of people find Musk repulsive. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people want to leave.

This simpler answer never seems to be the correct one, every[0] single[1] time[2]. It's much easier to say you're going to move than move. [0]: https://www.mattmaldre.com/2017/08/02/people-leave-reddit/ [1]: https://nypost.com/2021/01/09/trump-fans-leave-twitter-after... [2]: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/facebook-ou...

That doesn't tell the real story though. Actual alternatives to these services do exist now and have some popularity. So some people do actually move. MySpace is an example of an eventual mass exodus.

Anecdotal, but I personally know a handful of people who deleted their Facebook account and use other platforms instead. So it does happen. The question is whether or not it affects their advertising revenue in the long run. Zucks's solution so far seems to have been buying up the competition.

It's not out of the question that one of these massively popular social networks will collapse in the next decade.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#295

Post by inglor_cz »

newswasboring wrote: post #136
luckylion wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I was happy to do free work for that billionaire, he's part of the same ideology I've been born into. But now that it's this other billionaire, I cannot continue."

I don't see a problem with this, except being born into an ideology. Most people these days have chosen one and cultivated it according to their life. I think my ideology is good, if it wasn't I would change it to be the good version. So why would I not work with someone who shares mine? Billionaire or not.

You can choose your ideology, but there is an obvious influence of societal defaults.

If you are born in Mecca, you are very likely to become and stay Muslim. If you are born in coastal California, you are very likely to become a Democrat of leftist bend. If you are born in a small town in the English Home Counties, you are likely to become a Tory. If you are born in a Catholic part of Northern Ireland, you are likely to become a Sinn Fein voter etc.

Obviously this isn't anywhere near as sticky as your skin color or even your primary language of communication, but the defaults are still rather strong.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#296

Post by briantakita »

mcherm wrote: post #284
briantakita wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After watching some interviews with some Twitter employees, I suspect that many in the accessibility team were very political & their politics influenced their decisions.

That sounds like it might be something I hadn't heard about. Can you provide some sources I can learn from?

Project Veritas is one...sure there was a hidden camera but some of the employees were quite candid with their beliefs. I don't mean to paint a broad stroke, but from the interviews, it seems like the culture of the company leaned a certain political direction.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#297

Post by concordDance »

low_tech_love wrote: post #261

Judging by the top responses to the accessibility guy’s tweet, things look pretty grim right now. I never used Twitter so I don’t know if it’s always like that, but those people are really angry and negative. That is kinda depressing.

Top responses to his tweet are a very extreme sampling of twitter users. It'd be like going to a D&D convention in New York and judging Americans by what people say there.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#298

Post by Nasreddin_Hodja »

mabcat wrote: post #262

It looks like the Mastodon instance host Simon is using, masto.host, closed for new sign-ups 8 hours ago. Is there another recommended alternative? I don't think I have the energy to maintain a self-hosted Mastodon instance. I sure haven't missed running a mail server...

Biggest instances are https://mastodon.online and https://mastodon.social but there are a lot of it https://joinmastodon.org/en/servers

Also Mastodon isn't the only platform, there are some other activitypub compatible engines which are able to federate with Mastodon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse https://fediverse.party/

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#299

Post by inglor_cz »

dools wrote: post #227
tchaffee wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the simpler answer that doesn't fit your narrative is that lots of folks don't like Musk and his actions and his approach to running businesses. Lots of people find Musk repulsive. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people want to leave.

That’s why I deleted my account. Musk and the rest of the PayPal mafia are hardcore neofeudalist libertarians, a movement that has gradually infected more and more of the tech world.

If Twitter becomes interoperable with other services, this is literally the opposite of tech neofeudalism.

Tech neofeudalism manifests itself as walled gardens where the cost of leaving is very high for the serfs.

Post reply on HN