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Exploring Mastodon

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Re: Exploring Mastodon

#31

Post by bioemerl »

culi wrote: post #20
chris_st wrote: post #12

I'm on a discord server with a lot of non-nerds, and various ones are interested in Mastodon, due to Twitter issues. It's amazing to see how much trouble they're having... "Do I have to create a log in on every Mastodon?" ("No, and it's pretty much impossible"), "Can I follow someone on another server?" ("Yes, but it's incredibly hard -- try to follow them on whatever server you're on, maybe someone else is following…

> Yes, but it's incredibly hard -- try to follow them on whatever server you're on Confused about this. In my experience it's always just been a matter of adding @personiwannafollow@otherinstance.com Is this not always so simple?

The moment you're manually typing a username it's game over. It should be rare to never that you need a specific user id, let alone a specific server. You should just have to see a user and click follow.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#33

Post by tapoxi »

nr2x wrote: post #10

The fact that one has to pick from many different places to set up an account is a massive barrier to entry. Let alone the complexity of moving an account from one host to another is also woefully complex, so if you choose wrong, you’re in for more pain. I don’t see this platform being able to benefit from the Twitter exodus. I’m putting my hopes on blue sky/AT which appears to solve the above pain points: https://bl…

Mastodon just doubled its active user count to around one million; it's already benefited. It doesn't need to replace Twitter to succeed, just provide value to its userbase.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#34

Post by bioemerl »

bombcar wrote: post #23

I saw a good quote - something along the lines that Mastodon replacing Twitter has serious "year of linux on the desktop vibes". I think there's value in Mastodon, but it's not a drop-in twitter replacement. Perhaps a valuable thing would be helping set it up as a POSSE tool: https://indieweb.org/POSSE - post to your Mastodon and it automatically posts to Twitter for you.

I bricked my Linux system while trying to uninstall python, on one of the most "user friendly" systems, and they had no way to restore like Windows does with system restore.

I'm still using it because Windows requires accounts now and screw that, but man, Linux has tried hard to get me to go do something else.

I do not understand how these projects are just so consistently bad at UX. It takes effort, but UX should be priority number one, even over new functionality.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#35

Post by _ph_ »

KindAndFriendly wrote: post #28
nr2x wrote: post #10

The fact that one has to pick from many different places to set up an account is a massive barrier to entry. Let alone the complexity of moving an account from one host to another is also woefully complex, so if you choose wrong, you’re in for more pain. I don’t see this platform being able to benefit from the Twitter exodus. I’m putting my hopes on blue sky/AT which appears to solve the above pain points: https://bl…

I politely disagree: you just pick an "entry node", similar to picking an ISP or an email provider. You can interact with everyone in the Fediverse just fine. Having a newsfeed for your chosen "entry node" is an additional nice-to-have imho but not the defining criteria.

Picking an ISP should be transparent - my usage of internet services, like with whom I communicate - isn't influenced by it. I can change my ISP any time and no one will even notice, no one will have to be informed about a changed address.

Picking an email provider is quite critical - if you change your email address, you can be only reached if everyone knows your new address, lets not even get started about where the email is used to identify you with other serviced.

I think your choice of a a mastodon server falls in the middle ground between those examples, at minimum, there needs to be a bit more education of users to overcome (perceived?) hurdles there. I can confirm that while I noticed mastodon before, earlier attempts to use it stopped at the question on how to select the proper node and what consequences that has. That might be a perceived problem, but one that needs to be overcome if mastodon should be a popular Twitter alternative.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#36

Post by teeray »

nr2x wrote: post #10

The fact that one has to pick from many different places to set up an account is a massive barrier to entry. Let alone the complexity of moving an account from one host to another is also woefully complex, so if you choose wrong, you’re in for more pain. I don’t see this platform being able to benefit from the Twitter exodus. I’m putting my hopes on blue sky/AT which appears to solve the above pain points: https://bl…

You’re correct here. Even historically federated services, like email, are referred to by grandmas as “my AOL”. They don’t even think about the fact that others don’t have AOL, they just grab a name out of an address book they’ve been building for the last 20 years.

Just because email exists as a federated thing doesn’t mean existing users could use it if they had to sign up for it again.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#37

Post by ljosifov »

chris_st wrote: post #12

I'm on a discord server with a lot of non-nerds, and various ones are interested in Mastodon, due to Twitter issues. It's amazing to see how much trouble they're having... "Do I have to create a log in on every Mastodon?" ("No, and it's pretty much impossible"), "Can I follow someone on another server?" ("Yes, but it's incredibly hard -- try to follow them on whatever server you're on, maybe someone else is following…

Hm - following someone on another server is incredibly easy for me? I look at the Fediverse feed now, see a message that looks interesting to me, click on the author's username, and then click "Follow". What am I missing?

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#38

Post by mxuribe »

nr2x wrote: post #10

The fact that one has to pick from many different places to set up an account is a massive barrier to entry. Let alone the complexity of moving an account from one host to another is also woefully complex, so if you choose wrong, you’re in for more pain. I don’t see this platform being able to benefit from the Twitter exodus. I’m putting my hopes on blue sky/AT which appears to solve the above pain points: https://bl…

> The fact that one has to pick from many different places to set up an account is a massive barrier to entry...

I wonder if a statement exactly like the above one was said about alternative email providers being coinsidered by many AOL.com account holder so many years ago?

> ...I don’t see this platform being able to benefit from the Twitter exodus...

I suppoose it depends on how "benefit" is defined. But, also, Mastodon might be considered a platform, but (thankfully!) it only represents a single slice of the greater fediverse.

Ultimately, if people chose NOT to migrate over to the fediverse, or choose NOT to use the mastodon stack, or do NOT join an instance, etc..., that's still ok, and not considered a "fail". The fediverse is not an industry, nor a competitive landscape in the same fashion that twitter, facebook and other commercial platforms might operate. In fact, the fediverse is not even a platform at all; its a federated network.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#39

Post by MivLives »

cyborgx7 wrote: post #18
chris_st wrote: post #12

I'm on a discord server with a lot of non-nerds, and various ones are interested in Mastodon, due to Twitter issues. It's amazing to see how much trouble they're having... "Do I have to create a log in on every Mastodon?" ("No, and it's pretty much impossible"), "Can I follow someone on another server?" ("Yes, but it's incredibly hard -- try to follow them on whatever server you're on, maybe someone else is following…

People just have lost the ability to comprehend the concept of federation because everything in the current internet is walled gardens. There is nothing Mastodon can do to "fix this" without giving up on federation. But people understand how federation works. They see it happen everyday with e-mail. You just need to tell them it works like that and they'll get it.

I think it helps mastadon writes it's users as @@instance.example which looks very similar to email with a twitter handle slapped on front.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#40

Post by happymellon »

bioemerl wrote: post #31
culi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, but it's incredibly hard -- try to follow them on whatever server you're on Confused about this. In my experience it's always just been a matter of adding @personiwannafollow@otherinstance.com Is this not always so simple?

The moment you're manually typing a username it's game over. It should be rare to never that you need a specific user id, let alone a specific server. You should just have to see a user and click follow.

Can you not do that?
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