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Exploring Mastodon

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Re: Exploring Mastodon

#41

Post by tr3ntg »

I too decided to try Mastodon recently.

But I didn't try it out because of Twitter's recent news, I tried it out because I haven't enjoyed Twitter for a long while.

Mastodon is providing for many people what they haven't seen in Twitter for quite some time. A social site that seems to have a soul. Also, many of the people I've found on Mastodon still use Twitter.

The two serve different purposes. Just like you don't talk about "Instagram OR Twitter," it's not about "Twitter OR Mastodon."

We have choices now. And Mastodon is more on the radar now than ever. Happy that new people are hearing about it and finding value there.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#42

Post by pohl »

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.

You should just have to see a user and click follow.

Which you can, regardless of what instance they're on.

Moving in bulk is also easy, using something like Debirdify

https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#43

Post by happymellon »

SoftTalker wrote: post #22
cyborgx7 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For 90% of non-tech folks, email is gmail or whatever their ISP gave them, or came along with their phone, or their employer gave them. It's not something they put any thought into or understand as a "federated" system.

I would disagree, most people know that they can write to both bob@hotmail.com and to fred@gmail.com, and that they are people using different services.

Phone numbers with area codes are still a thing?

@ted@funkychips.com shouldn't be too hard to wrap their head around.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#44

Post by cmh89 »

bioemerl wrote: post #34
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…

I've always found modern Linux systems to have a great UX. I'm mildly tech orientated but not super into customization or anything, and never had any problems after Ubuntu got the application center done.

Of course trying to install drivers for a 56k modem while not having internet access was a different experience 25 years ago.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#45

Post by RunSet »

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.

> The moment you're manually typing a username it's game over.

Is copy/paste also too much to ask of technology's current generation?

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#46

Post by stewbrew »

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.

No, it's more like picking your community. Compare an account on mastodon.social vs an instance localated in your hometown to see the difference.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#47

Post by valeness »

bioemerl wrote: post #34
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…

This is solved on windows by simply not allowing you to install python because an automated first party windows update already bricked your system...

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#48

Post by Vaslo »

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?

This is like when computer geeks don’t get why people won’t switch from windows to Linux. If you don’t understand why they don’t want to, or why there will never be a massive shift to Mastodon you’ll never fix the issue. Your suggestion is not “simple”. My non tech wife doesn’t care about instances and this and that. She goes to Twitter, she types in her favorite people, finds and follows. Done.

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#49

Post by ethanbond »

cyborgx7 wrote: post #25
SoftTalker wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 90% of non-tech folks, email is gmail or whatever their ISP gave them, or came along with their phone, or their employer gave them. It's not something they put any thought into or understand as a "federated" system.

They understand you can send e-mails without needing to have an account with the same provider. They may not know it under the name federation, but they do understand the relevant part, for them.

Right because the UX is so good, thus the conversation

Re: Exploring Mastodon

#50

Post by dkarl »

SoftTalker wrote: post #22
cyborgx7 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For 90% of non-tech folks, email is gmail or whatever their ISP gave them, or came along with their phone, or their employer gave them. It's not something they put any thought into or understand as a "federated" system.

I think the parallel is that people don't click on a link to send an email to someone for the first time. They copy and paste an email address into the "To" field of their email client. Same thing with getting someone's number to send them a text. And they know that people use different-looking email programs to read their email. Many people use the iPhone mail app on their phone and web mail on their computer. They don't know the word "federated," but the differences aren't alien to them.
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