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

Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

tapbots.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 427 posts

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#271

Post by shadowgovt »

vlachen wrote: post #207
shadowgovt wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the challenge. Musk's tantrum has made an already-solved problem for a lot of people something they now have to re-solve. I'm generally recommending Mastodon to people (and can recommend a handful of specific nodes), but nothing auto-replaces Twitter. Point is, unfortunately, Twitter's dying and its prognosis is poor. We can imagine it'll get better but the realistic strategy is to bail. (My previous post lac…

I would take those node recommendations. I've dipped my toes in, but don't have the wherewithal right now to really figure out how to find what's worth following.

- mastodon.social is the closest thing Mastodon has to a "main" node. With the pros and cons associated with that. Given the relative youth of the experiment, I'd be a little concerned about whether admins can keep up with the growth, but it's probably the best of the "no opinion" options.

- qoto.org: member of United Federation of Instances. Relatively inclusive (and has some interesting extensions running on the base Mastodon service), but not necessarily federated to all the instances mastodon.social is federated to because they don't have a strict "Nazis fuck off" policy.

- mastodon.lol: antifa / LGBTQ+ / hacker-friendly node. Strict "Nazis fuck off" policy.

- infosec.exchange: InfoSec-focused Mastodon node, but pretty open with a pretty regular policy.

I think the strategy I'd probably recommend for a new user is something like "Join at mastodon.social, follow some people, and lurk. If you see many people you like who live at a particular node, migrate to that node."

(And honestly, unless a defederation fight breaks out, 90% of nodes are pretty interchangeable with each other; you can follow anyone the node federates to so it doesn't matter over-much which node you're on unless you want some specific features or you want admins who have a particular attitude towards your bugbear-topics).

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#272

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tptacek wrote: post #87

If you're not paying attention to Mastodon now, a think to know about Tapbots and Ivory, their new ActivityPub client, is that their TestFlight betas, which they release in batches of a thousand or so at a time, last for just a couple minutes before they're all snapped up; there seems to be pretty huge demand for it. With a decent client (I've bounced around a couple of them so far), even in a beta state, the experie…

When is the Ivory iOS app scheduled to come out?

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#273

Post by criddell »

riley_dog wrote: post #172
barnabee wrote: post #47

I don't think they realise the damage this change has done. I have been on board with or ambivalent about most of the changes. I don't care if there's less moderation, I think Twitter probably did have too many employees, and I like the idea of a paid account with fewer (preferably no) ads. I'd even have happily paid Twitter to continue using Tweetbot. But this has destroyed the trust and the user experience of many…

> I don't think Mastodon is a good replacement for Twitter at all, but I am going to have to try it. What exactly leads you to believe it's not a good replacement, especially considering you haven't tried it?

My main entry point to Twitter is their search box (I’m basically a read-only user). Mastodon seems to be resisting multi-instance searching and that makes it more cumbersome for me to use.

If Mastodon isn’t interested in this functionality, it would be cool to see Google add a “mastodon:” search operator that works like their “site:” operator.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#274

Post by matwood »

themagician wrote: post #234
system16 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said the same thing even a few weeks ago, but the momentum for Mastodon is growing rapidly and it's really impressive to see, and Ivory is a very impressive client even in beta. Almost everyone I followed on Twitter is using it now, and I actually prefer the experience. It's like Twitter but without all the bots/spam/hate, at least for now.

What is "almost everyone"? Four people? Using it on what server? Mastadon is more like Discord than Twitter. There is no core server. There is no core experience. It's just an instanced message board.

I use the standard mastodon client and follow people on many different servers. I was surprised, but most everyone I followed on Twitter moved - even the non-techies.

It feels exactly like Twitter to me now, except less noise.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#275

Post by matwood »

Sunspark wrote: post #252
themagician wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "almost everyone"? Four people? Using it on what server? Mastadon is more like Discord than Twitter. There is no core server. There is no core experience. It's just an instanced message board.

I don't know why Mastodon is hyped up so much. I do not have an account on it as I have some concerns. My understanding at the current time is that a server can be run by a single random individual, they can read your DMs as they are not encrypted, and they can kick you off the server if you write anything the server operator does not agree with. At least with Twitter, it was a corporation with rules and procedures.

I don't really understand this argument. DMs on Twitter aren't encrypted. Now Elon can go read them. Same with kicking you off. With Twitter you're done. At least with Mastodon you can go to another server.

You can even run your own server if you want. But, if you're being a jerk your server might get de-federated.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#278

Post by scarface74 »

Sunspark wrote: post #252
themagician wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "almost everyone"? Four people? Using it on what server? Mastadon is more like Discord than Twitter. There is no core server. There is no core experience. It's just an instanced message board.

I don't know why Mastodon is hyped up so much. I do not have an account on it as I have some concerns. My understanding at the current time is that a server can be run by a single random individual, they can read your DMs as they are not encrypted, and they can kick you off the server if you write anything the server operator does not agree with. At least with Twitter, it was a corporation with rules and procedures.

You mean like rules about what is allowed for third party clients and procedures for denying them access?

How is that working out?

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#279

Post by ipozgaj »

rpgbr wrote: post #240
tptacek wrote: post #87

If you're not paying attention to Mastodon now, a think to know about Tapbots and Ivory, their new ActivityPub client, is that their TestFlight betas, which they release in batches of a thousand or so at a time, last for just a couple minutes before they're all snapped up; there seems to be pretty huge demand for it. With a decent client (I've bounced around a couple of them so far), even in a beta state, the experie…

I joined the beta test, it's truly awesome and, by far, the best Mastodon app I've tried. A humble review: https://notes.ghed.in/posts/2023/ivory-mastodon-app-review/

I took a look and don't see any strong reasons not to use and support the official app. Tweetbot was so successful because it was competing against the official client which was (and still is) truly horrible, but I don't see that in this case Ivory has many advantages over the official client.

Re: Tweetbot. April 2011 – January 2023

#280

Post by crossroadsguy »

And if it hadn’t happened, I doubt such enthusiasm would have been shown by this app to this open platform. But anyway it’s a good development eventually.

Now I am looking at all those “Oh, we are only on Apple platforms” apps. If you are a third party app anywhere, it actually helps if the platform you are on has intense competition.

Post reply on HN