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Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

bbc.com

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Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#301

Post by saurik »

seydor wrote: post #177

Even if mastodon takes off, it will be like any other protocol on the internet: A centralized free service will appear , like Gmail did, which most people will be there . Twitter will probably convert its service to activityPub then. Slightly better than what we have today, but it wont be immune. Also, does anyone remember the backlashes every time facebook made a major change to their website? Yeah , all those users…

While it sucks that Gmail dominates e-mail, it is still important and useful that they don't control all of it and that essentially everyone continues to interoperate with the protocol enough that I can still run my own server even if most people don't. You don't have to have a fully distributed protocol with no large players to gain powerful benefits from decentralization.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#302

Post by sosull »

rco8786 wrote: post #97
sosull wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there even a remotely balanced alignment between the number of users on a platform and that platform’s advertising market share? I think the answer is no. Google and Meta dominate ads. No-one else really has traction, irrespective of their platform’s success.

That’s a super weird take. Google and Meta absolutely dominate on users also.

Yes, you’re correct. I was wrong. Apologies.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#303

Post by nsxwolf »

devmor wrote: post #263
fsdjkflsjfsoij wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The criticisms are getting more and more comical. Michael is a friend of Elon and trusted Elon with many of his ideas and contacts. I'm sure Musk would say as much. Do you think Michael was sharing these ideas and contacts with just anyone? Why do you think he specifically chose to work with Elon?

There's nothing comical about it. They went to two different Russian firms to partner with before it was even called SpaceX and were turned down because Elon kept running his mouth on subjects he didn't understand and they lost all confidence in the project.

That just shows confidence isn't always a predictor of success. They made a bad call, quite obviously.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#304

Post by mirekrusin »

georgeg23 wrote: post #265
mirekrusin wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why there has to be "one mastermind guy"? It seems safe to say that you need to dovetail at least dozens of people to have successful rocket launching, well, startup?

Tom Mueller (recruited by Mike Griffin) also deserves credit. SpaceX hasn't built a reliable rocket engine since Tom left. But Mike probably was #1 reason for SpaceX success.

It's hard to argue that SpaceX wouldn't happen without Elon's mom.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#305

Post by esskay »

petepete wrote: post #89
abzolv wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having too many servers (many thousands) could be a big drawback for onboarding. Choice paralysis, and difficulty / time consumption of picking a suitable server to join.

It definitely is. You just need to look at some Mastodon conversations from non-tech Twitter. People are confused about: * there are so many servers - which do I join? * how will I be able to tell people are who they say they are without the 'blue tick'? * if anyone can verify how do I know who is important/celebrity/official? * what do I do when the instance I want to join isn't open to registrations (and why on ear…

The worst part of those questions is the responses they get. "Pick a server to sign up to, request an invite and wait, but if you want to follow someone in another server you need to go to this tool to work out what server they are on, and then copy and paste that into the search box".

It's a very, very shit setup, and it absolutely will not take off.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#306

Post by Salgat »

comboy wrote: post #288
code_runner wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m always surprised when there are still people acting like Elon isn’t just BEGGING to be hated. I’m still of the opinion he is not doing the work and his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers. That’s a smart thing to do, good call on his part, but it’s almost like he doesn’t know that’s how his companies work. Maybe he is just great at running tech companies or something but acting like th…

> his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers This meme is on fire but I did not expect it here on HN where people can understand what he is talking about. There are many videos like this [1] and interviews (e.g. with Munro regarding Tesla) where the guy shows deep technical knowledge. Besides, try making a startup throwing money and smart engineers. Just money will not even get you the really…

He doesn't have deep knowledge, he a broad high level understanding of the technologies and processes used at his company. In the interview you can see how he's aware of what the major components are supposed to do, but he'd be completely useless if you told him to do the engineering design and analysis behind it. Which is perfectly fine, that's how it's supposed to be as a CEO.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#307

Post by cmrdporcupine »

drstewart wrote: post #257
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #45

Just got this in my email because I signed up in Patreon as a supporter of a Mastodon node: "So our IndieWeb server has seen a 4,333% spike in users, and every day is a new record in daily new users sign ups .... In that same time we have done one major server upgrade, and have had zero down time, and as we screen all new users before joining, so far have had zero cases of spammers or scammers from inside the instanc…

Yep. Look at how Signal displaced Whatsapp (if anyone remembers this app that no longer exist) when users flooded over to it due to Musk-related controversies! https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/7/22218989/signal-new-signup...

Tell me you didn't read my comment without telling me you didn't read my comment.

Where did I say anything about Mastodon displacing Twitter?

But keep on with your snark. Really adding something to the conversation.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#308

Post by gonehome »

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #249
gonehome wrote: post #102

Mastodon and federated systems like it will not succeed beyond a tiny niche, will not replace twitter, and don't even solve most of the problems they try to solve. They don't fix the upstream issues that lead to centralization. Incentives mean most users end up centralized on a handful of servers with a worse experience. It's the worst of both worlds. As designed the UX is bad and cannot be fixed because of these iss…

>but federated system designs like Mastodon will not get us that and we have thirty years of failure to prove it sure, if you ignore the very only communication method that everyone has - the email. a myriad others came and went, and none that exist today will be relevant in 50 years, but email will

Replied here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33496458

Email is an example of a federated system failure.

Re: Twitter users jump to Mastodon, but what is it?

#309

Post by trident5000 »

blfr wrote: post #174
code_runner wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m always surprised when there are still people acting like Elon isn’t just BEGGING to be hated. I’m still of the opinion he is not doing the work and his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers. That’s a smart thing to do, good call on his part, but it’s almost like he doesn’t know that’s how his companies work. Maybe he is just great at running tech companies or something but acting like th…

his success is mostly throwing money at eager (and smart) engineers That's even more damning for his detractors since they could have been doing the same but instead sneer from the sidelines.

A certain % of the population are clinical narcissists, which is a massive amount nominally online. And narcissists cant stand when other people are successful. I'm convinced thats who these people are.
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