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I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

blog.joinmastodon.org

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Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#431

Post by SoftTalker »

perryizgr8 wrote: post #412
tcfhgj wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how did you get internet access?

Usually there's a couple of options for internet access based on your address, not hundreds of servers.

Yeah one choice for me, the local cable company.

But for mastodon, even if it technically "doesn't matter" nobody stops there. You see things written like "The hardest part of getting started on Mastodon is the first step,"[1]

They talk about chosing a server based on region, language, topics of interest, or which ones your friends use. I've even some mention that your server choice can signal your political leanings.

I don't worry about any of those things when I choose an email provider or ISP.

[1] https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-pick-a-mastodon-server

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#432

Post by talkingtab »

dbingham wrote: post #416
eucyclos wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a plan for dealing with the clickbait problem?

I'm exploring various systems of community moderation. Right now experimenting with a "demote" button that people are encouraged to use on: disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, spam, and slop. Communities' default feed is just chronological, but it also has "Most Active" and "Most Recent Activity". Right now, Demote knocks things down the "Most Active" feed. Eventually, a high enough percentage of demotes woul…

When driving a car, I often wish I could tag other cars with arrows that mark them as bad drivers. These are the ones who weave in and out over 4 lanes on an interstate highway. When enough tags get the car, they have to pull over and take a break or something.

One immediate problem is malicious or over zealous taggers. But it seems easy to build a system that if you are too enthusiastic, then you have to pull over and take a break.

But accumulated reputation seems a thing. And if it is universal read and write it seems beneficial. It is somewhat like reputation in real life.

This depends somewhat on identities with some degree of stickiness. If you can just change who you are then bad reputation is not a big deal. But if there is some cost to establishing and maintaining an identity ...

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#434

Post by AbstractH24 »

lapcat wrote: post #408
b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's been my personal experience with Mastodon and other "fediverse" projects; they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. I'm sure there are "nice" instances out there, but I gave up after trying 2-3 and having flashbacks to regular twitter from 7-8 years ago. No thanks

> they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. That's just human culture, or more accurately, human nature. If you gather a bunch of anonymous strangers online in one place and let them run free, they'll likely make a mess of things. Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion here, but I think that HN culture for example is horrendous.

> I think that HN culture for example is horrendous.

Why are you here there?

Seriously curious. Promise not to criticize you or even respond to what you say.

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#435

Post by gradientsrneat »

arjie wrote: post #95

> I steer clear of showing vulnerability online, but there was a particularly bad interaction with a user last summer that made me realise that I need to take a step back and find a healthier relationship with the project, ultimately serving as the impetus to begin this restructuring process. Many of these microblogging sites seem to be populated by people with extreme views. One of the pleasant things about old Inte…

My low-information answer is that I'd suggest trying both and make heavy use of the keyword muting feature.

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#436

Post by assbuttbuttass »

AbstractH24 wrote: post #434
lapcat wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. That's just human culture, or more accurately, human nature. If you gather a bunch of anonymous strangers online in one place and let them run free, they'll likely make a mess of things. Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion here, but I think that HN culture for example is horrendous.

> I think that HN culture for example is horrendous. Why are you here there? Seriously curious. Promise not to criticize you or even respond to what you say.

I share the same sentiment about the HN community, but there are still a lot of interesting articles posted here that are fun to read

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#437

Post by lapcat »

AbstractH24 wrote: post #434
lapcat wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. That's just human culture, or more accurately, human nature. If you gather a bunch of anonymous strangers online in one place and let them run free, they'll likely make a mess of things. Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion here, but I think that HN culture for example is horrendous.

> I think that HN culture for example is horrendous. Why are you here there? Seriously curious. Promise not to criticize you or even respond to what you say.

> Why are you here

I agree with, uh, assbuttbuttass: "there are still a lot of interesting articles posted here".

As for commenting, it's just a matter of too much time on my hands, temptation, and bad habit.

> Promise not to criticize you or even respond to what you say.

You can respond, anyway. ;-)

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#438

Post by tekla »

AbstractH24 wrote: post #434
lapcat wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. That's just human culture, or more accurately, human nature. If you gather a bunch of anonymous strangers online in one place and let them run free, they'll likely make a mess of things. Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion here, but I think that HN culture for example is horrendous.

> I think that HN culture for example is horrendous. Why are you here there? Seriously curious. Promise not to criticize you or even respond to what you say.

Its a decent feed for articles.

The culture is fucking terrible

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#439

Post by modo_mario »

jrm4 wrote: post #400
modo_mario wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>(And for those curious/interested/familiar, yes it was "Bad Space" aligned people) What do you mean?

You'd have to be around Mastodon to know what that means, but basically there was an effort by some Black folks there to not just create their own server but to also flag and identify racist/toxic servers etc, and anyone who fit that as they saw was put on their thing called "The Bad Space." Was it well meaning? Yes. Did it end up being childish, overblown and power-trippy? Also yes. I find that most everyone on Mast…

I don't consider those types of efforts well meaning anymore. Rather than changing minds they without fail seem to attract narcissists and people utilizing victimhood like a status item or the like and that and purity spirals like a cudgel.

>I find that most everyone on Mastodon focuses properly, but too much on "Black people aren't much into Mastodon because of the racism," and not "Black people aren't much into Mastodon because it's boring as hell."

It's sad to say but I think black people aren't big in the tech space or similar spaces in general and not just in the US. Fosdem is one of the most pasty conventions out there in a rather international city.

As an outsider looking in I think just like with the lack of women in tech it's not primarily a barrier problem. And this is a different subject but I in factthink some of the weird campaigning towards women to join has had the opposite effect (Think 'barbie and her pink laptop entering the male dominated field' type stuff just reinforcing pointlessly gendered preconceptions.)

Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon

#440

Post by Jaxan »

lapcat wrote: post #408
b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's been my personal experience with Mastodon and other "fediverse" projects; they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. I'm sure there are "nice" instances out there, but I gave up after trying 2-3 and having flashbacks to regular twitter from 7-8 years ago. No thanks

> they don't really fix the central problem with modern social media, the godawful culture. That's just human culture, or more accurately, human nature. If you gather a bunch of anonymous strangers online in one place and let them run free, they'll likely make a mess of things. Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion here, but I think that HN culture for example is horrendous.

I don’t believe it’s necessarily human nature. But it’s definitely human culture.
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