32 votes

Mastodon is better than Twitter: Elevator pitch

40 comments

  1. [8]
    Deimos
    Link
    It's not anything resembling an actual plan, but I've had some vague thoughts that it might be neat to run a Tildes instance of Mastodon eventually. If it's possible to link up the user accounts...

    It's not anything resembling an actual plan, but I've had some vague thoughts that it might be neat to run a Tildes instance of Mastodon eventually. If it's possible to link up the user accounts so that everyone on Tildes has the same name on the Mastodon instance, it could be a pretty neat way to have a more "casual" space that's separate but still attached to the site itself.

    32 votes
    1. [3]
      Eva
      Link Parent
      Oh wow, that'd actually be pretty cool! Might be worth considering another ActivityPub implementation, though; Mastodon fails in a few areas pretty strongly which other implementations prevent....

      Oh wow, that'd actually be pretty cool! Might be worth considering another ActivityPub implementation, though; Mastodon fails in a few areas pretty strongly which other implementations prevent.

      (They can all see each other, so it wouldn't change a tonne.)

      9 votes
      1. [2]
        Tenar
        Link Parent
        (disclaimer: second hand knowledge, I don't code) Agreed, Pleroma apparently handles the AP implementation in a much better (stricter, better defined) way, meaning it's much easier for Pleroma to...

        (disclaimer: second hand knowledge, I don't code)

        Agreed, Pleroma apparently handles the AP implementation in a much better (stricter, better defined) way, meaning it's much easier for Pleroma to add things if they'd like to, as the general fediverse grows and other people start using things for non-microblogging purposes more and more (plume, pixelfed, etc)

        5 votes
        1. Tenar
          Link Parent
          As a reply, since this has been a few days; pleroma just added better support for working with misskey (another AP-based project), and I think it's mostly due to the way they've structured their...

          As a reply, since this has been a few days; pleroma just added better support for working with misskey (another AP-based project), and I think it's mostly due to the way they've structured their code that they're able to do it fairly quickly/painlessly.

          3 votes
    2. clerical_terrors
      Link Parent
      I'd be up for that, there's probably something which can be done code-wise to bridge between the two sites.

      I'd be up for that, there's probably something which can be done code-wise to bridge between the two sites.

      3 votes
    3. [2]
      kandace
      Link Parent
      You might like counter.social! It's an unfederated ... not fork exactly, but not the same as the rest of Mastodon. Super nice place.

      You might like counter.social! It's an unfederated ... not fork exactly, but not the same as the rest of Mastodon. Super nice place.

      2 votes
      1. Tenar
        Link Parent
        I'm not a fan of them for two reasons: the whole banning large swaths of countries (and I know a large portion of other mastodon instances use a shared blocklist which is equally… thoughtless?),...

        I'm not a fan of them for two reasons: the whole banning large swaths of countries (and I know a large portion of other mastodon instances use a shared blocklist which is equally… thoughtless?), and the unfederated aspect. I mean in that case you're just using a twitter replacement without the federation, which is a bummer, because there's so many cool projects on the fediverse, even outside of mastodon.

        1 vote
    4. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. Tenar
        Link Parent
        If you're creating your own I'd suggest Pleroma, actually, because it's much smaller & requires a lot less resources. Their dream pretty much is as many small instances as possible, and that's...

        If you're creating your own I'd suggest Pleroma, actually, because it's much smaller & requires a lot less resources. Their dream pretty much is as many small instances as possible, and that's what they're programming for.

        2 votes
  2. BuckeyeSundae
    Link
    I'm not a huge fan of "containment" as a policy to deal with toxicity. I think it ends up at scale invading the culture of the entire place ala reddit, even if it is technically limitable to a...

    I'm not a huge fan of "containment" as a policy to deal with toxicity. I think it ends up at scale invading the culture of the entire place ala reddit, even if it is technically limitable to a specific (unnamed) space. So while I appreciate that this would be taking many of the important steps needed to address the problems of twitter, I'm not sure they're sufficient.

    18 votes
  3. [7]
    demifiend
    Link
    No brands No advertisements No bullshit algorithms No @realDonaldTrump The alt-reich is contained TERFS get the trebuchet William Shatner can't find anybody What's not to like?
    • No brands
    • No advertisements
    • No bullshit algorithms
    • No @realDonaldTrump
    • The alt-reich is contained
    • TERFS get the trebuchet
    • William Shatner can't find anybody

    What's not to like?

    14 votes
    1. [3]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. Tenar
        Link Parent
        Consider a different instance? Echo chambers might form more easily, but there's plenty of instances/accounts outside of the mastodon.social general leftist slant

        Consider a different instance? Echo chambers might form more easily, but there's plenty of instances/accounts outside of the mastodon.social general leftist slant

        3 votes
      2. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. Celeo
          Link Parent
          Why are you jumping down their throat just for having a different opinion? Stop.

          Why are you jumping down their throat just for having a different opinion? Stop.

          7 votes
    2. [2]
      zaluzianskya
      Link Parent
      If TERFs are banned, the rest of the alt-right needs to be banned too, not just "contained".

      If TERFs are banned, the rest of the alt-right needs to be banned too, not just "contained".

      2 votes
      1. demifiend
        Link Parent
        There's nothing stopping TERFs or the alt-reich from having their own servers; it's just that every other server admin can refuse to let their server talk with servers infested by TERFs or the...

        There's nothing stopping TERFs or the alt-reich from having their own servers; it's just that every other server admin can refuse to let their server talk with servers infested by TERFs or the alt-reich. Hence my use of the word "containment".

        3 votes
    3. [2]
      starchturrets
      Link Parent
      TERFs? Are you talking about trebuchet memers?

      TERFs? Are you talking about trebuchet memers?

      1 vote
      1. spit-evil-olive-tips
        Link Parent
        TERF is a term used to describe feminists who reject male-to-female transgender people as not "real women".

        TERF is a term used to describe feminists who reject male-to-female transgender people as not "real women".

        3 votes
  4. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. Tenar
      Link Parent
      I can try. joinmastodon.org is a good-ish starting point to finding an instance. I'm going to assume that you've found some communities that look interesting to you. (have a look at the kind of...

      I can try. joinmastodon.org is a good-ish starting point to finding an instance. I'm going to assume that you've found some communities that look interesting to you. (have a look at the kind of people that are on there, and see what their rules are, etc; if you need help I can try to give a hand)

      The next step is finding people and content to follow. There's the easy way: hashtags on topics that interest you. Then there's the built-in (really neat) way, which is the local timeline. You've found a community of people that is interested enough in $SubjectThatIntruigesYou that they've built an instance around it. So the local timeline only shows posts from people on the same instance/server/community. That's a good starting point to find people to follow & interact with. Then you can see who they follow, or which people (from other instances too) they boost, talk with, etc, giving you more people. There's also #ff or #followfriday which can help. There's #introductions posts that usually get boosted quite enough by people that find your introduction interesting (provided of course that you explain what you want, who you are, what interests you—liberally use hashtags here because that provides another avenue).

      Then there's the using, which is just posting content, links, pictures that interest you, and talking with others.

      Lastly, there's the federated timeline which might be too much to handle on a lot of instances, but that also provides toots from people who might be interesting to follow

      3 votes
  5. [8]
    mrbig
    Link
    I think the Mastodon model is too complicated for its own good. Federation is good on paper, but how many people can deploy and pay for an instance with 100% uptime? And who wants to go to the...

    I think the Mastodon model is too complicated for its own good. Federation is good on paper, but how many people can deploy and pay for an instance with 100% uptime? And who wants to go to the trouble of finding a suitable instance with open registrations when we're already buried in social networks? Right now, Mastodon is a niche platform for very specific and possibly very private groups. Maybe going mainstream was never their plan. If so, they're entirely successful.

    8 votes
    1. [4]
      kandace
      Link Parent
      Counter.Social has done pretty good. It's not federated, though. We have Wil Wheaton :) I like it a lot more than Twitter so far. Been there a few days.

      Counter.Social has done pretty good. It's not federated, though. We have Wil Wheaton :) I like it a lot more than Twitter so far. Been there a few days.

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        mrbig
        Link Parent
        Congratulations on Wil Wheaton! haha So I checked counter.social and they're extremely aggressive towards security, privacy etc. Which is great! But sadly, most people don't care about that. They...

        Congratulations on Wil Wheaton! haha
        So I checked counter.social and they're extremely aggressive towards security, privacy etc. Which is great! But sadly, most people don't care about that. They should redesign the site to make it less sad-purple-guerilla-monkey, and emphasize other features beyond security. The FAQ could be smarter and friendlier. I mean, I get the point, but this is just bad rhetoric:

        No. The nations blocked contain individuals of all races. Nations are not races.

        1 vote
        1. kandace
          Link Parent
          They're just 9 months old - I think we'll get there. :) The FAQ is a result of some kerfuffle with Mastodon a few months ago (thus being defederated from the rest of Mastodon). Mastodon didn't...

          They're just 9 months old - I think we'll get there. :) The FAQ is a result of some kerfuffle with Mastodon a few months ago (thus being defederated from the rest of Mastodon). Mastodon didn't like that they blocked all of those IP spaces and called it racism.

          2 votes
      2. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. kandace
          Link Parent
          Naw, we still have him. He's not on Mastodon, but he's on Counter.Social :)

          Naw, we still have him. He's not on Mastodon, but he's on Counter.Social :)

          1 vote
    2. [3]
      Tenar
      Link Parent
      Considering how many people exist? Enough. And you don't need to do the work, you just need to find an instance that you like. or use something like masto.host that handles everything besides you...

      how many people can deploy and pay for an instance with 100% uptime?

      Considering how many people exist? Enough. And you don't need to do the work, you just need to find an instance that you like. or use something like masto.host that handles everything besides you actually running the instance.

      Or look into Pleroma, which has been rumoured to be able to run on a slightly overelectrified toaster. (actually it can run on a raspi or a $1 server, and has a really easy installation procedure)

      And who wants to go to the trouble of finding a suitable instance with open registrations when we're already buried in social networks?

      Consider that the fact that it's federated might help you out in this in the future (you'd need to switch social networks ofc, but dream with me; besides that it's become a w3c recognised thing, so might more easily show up in the future). There's Plume, and write.as, blogging platforms that (will) have ActivityPub implementation. So you see (kind of like RSS) that your fav blogger made a new post, and you can read it, and comment directly from your comfy home on your account. Videos? There's peertube, which handles videos well, and allows you to watch/comment from the timeline. Images? Pixelfed, Anfora, some others being made. There's more (see this list and their account for example).

      It would mean a variety of possible social networks that all are able to talk to each other. You wouldn't need to check twitter, facebook, insta, snapchat, blogs, etc, because they'd all appear in the same timeline (or separate if you choose to do so but whatever)

      (disclaimer, many beta products, and I don't know how well some work yet)

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        mrbig
        Link Parent
        If I understand correctly, your argument is that this federated thing could be huge in the future. And I agree. Right now, though, they're present no threat to their centralized counterparts.

        If I understand correctly, your argument is that this federated thing could be huge in the future. And I agree. Right now, though, they're present no threat to their centralized counterparts.

        1. Tenar
          Link Parent
          And depending on your point of view that's quite OK. Some poeple see the fediverse, and Mastodon in particular, as being able to upset the entirety of social media as we know it. And I think the...

          Right now, though, they're present no threat to their centralized counterparts.

          And depending on your point of view that's quite OK. Some poeple see the fediverse, and Mastodon in particular, as being able to upset the entirety of social media as we know it. And I think the wider fediverse definitely has the power to upset the concept of social media, but there's a good chance it'll never become more popular than what's in use now. And I'm quite OK with that, because at least I've found some nice people to follow on there and am having a good time (I don't care for following famous people, for example)

          1 vote
  6. Zeph
    Link
    I've heard of mastodon before but never bothered signing up. I've done so now, I'll be giving it a go :)

    I've heard of mastodon before but never bothered signing up. I've done so now, I'll be giving it a go :)

    4 votes
  7. [8]
    meghan
    Link
    https://twitter.com/acegiak/status/1030264889409826816

    https://twitter.com/acegiak/status/1030264889409826816

    Yes, Twitter as a platform is bad and getting worse, but I cannot afford to migrate away from a system where I've built a community and audience I love in favour of other platforms where that's actively harder to do.

    4 votes
    1. [7]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      I understand the sentiment, but that's also exactly why Twitter has no motivation to improve anything. They really don't care if you're unhappy with the site but keep using it constantly anyway....

      I understand the sentiment, but that's also exactly why Twitter has no motivation to improve anything. They really don't care if you're unhappy with the site but keep using it constantly anyway. The execs/investors don't care how the users feel, just whether the site's still growing and the engagement numbers are going up.

      7 votes
      1. [6]
        Celeo
        Link Parent
        Same with Facebook. They'll pander to the media when they're caught doing something, but as long as people keep saying "but all my friends are on Facebook!", there's nothing they have to really do...

        Same with Facebook. They'll pander to the media when they're caught doing something, but as long as people keep saying "but all my friends are on Facebook!", there's nothing they have to really do about it.

        5 votes
        1. [5]
          Deimos
          Link Parent
          Yeah, and YouTube, and reddit, and every other major platform. It's really easy to ignore complaints when all the people complaining keep using your site for 4 hours every day anyway.

          Yeah, and YouTube, and reddit, and every other major platform. It's really easy to ignore complaints when all the people complaining keep using your site for 4 hours every day anyway.

          4 votes
          1. [4]
            Tenar
            Link Parent
            Seeing as you're advocating for this, have you considered making an official ~ account on fosstodon.org or mastodon.technology? Might be neat

            Seeing as you're advocating for this, have you considered making an official ~ account on fosstodon.org or mastodon.technology? Might be neat

            2 votes
            1. [3]
              Deimos
              Link Parent
              I could - I mostly just haven't spent enough time looking into Mastodon to feel like I understand the etiquette, and didn't want to be one of those people that creates an account solely to promote...

              I could - I mostly just haven't spent enough time looking into Mastodon to feel like I understand the etiquette, and didn't want to be one of those people that creates an account solely to promote their project.

              2 votes
              1. codesections
                Link Parent
                I'm the author of the article linked in the OP and a mod at https://www.fosstodon.org. I can't speak for any other instance, but I can say with 100% certainty that you wouldn't be violating any...

                I'm the author of the article linked in the OP and a mod at https://www.fosstodon.org. I can't speak for any other instance, but I can say with 100% certainty that you wouldn't be violating any rule of etiquette if you create an account at fosstodon to tell people about this project. It sounds like exactly the sort of thing our users would be interested in—and, from what I've seen so far of the tildes.net community, the culture of the two communities would be a great fit too.

                5 votes
              2. Tenar
                Link Parent
                There's some others that already have accounts, and it really depends on what you're using it for, like you said. I think engaging with people and questions is nice, but you won't be lynched if...

                There's some others that already have accounts, and it really depends on what you're using it for, like you said. I think engaging with people and questions is nice, but you won't be lynched if most of your proper posts are about updates to the site/code instead of kitten pics

  8. [4]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. [3]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      The article says that you can't (which is why it says boosts are better):

      The article says that you can't (which is why it says boosts are better):

      Boosts are essentially like retweets, with one key difference: there's no option to add your own commentary. You simply can't post something awful with a message saying how awful it is—all you can do is boost something awful without commentary.

      4 votes
      1. nsz
        Link Parent
        Damn, that's actually kind of a big change - makes it harder to have any any press be positive press.

        Damn, that's actually kind of a big change - makes it harder to have any any press be positive press.

      2. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. Tenar
          Link Parent
          Absolutely nothing, just like you can make multiple email addresses at multiple domains. (or even set up many yourself). Why do you ask?

          Absolutely nothing, just like you can make multiple email addresses at multiple domains. (or even set up many yourself). Why do you ask?

  9. [3]
    yungmutualfunds
    Link
    iirc it was around a couple years ago right after the ello death, I remember using some of the servers? it was just memeposting and maybe a tiny amount of discussion/

    iirc it was around a couple years ago right after the ello death, I remember using some of the servers? it was just memeposting and maybe a tiny amount of discussion/

    1. [2]
      Tenar
      Link Parent
      Depends on when you think ello died? There's been gnu social for a looong time, but very underused. mastodon itself has been around for ~2 years now?

      Depends on when you think ello died? There's been gnu social for a looong time, but very underused. mastodon itself has been around for ~2 years now?

      1 vote
      1. yungmutualfunds
        Link Parent
        I remember hearing about it in summer 2014 and a friend sending me an invite during a lecture that same year, barely used it; forgot about it then kept getting emails until they stopped in 2016(?)...

        I remember hearing about it in summer 2014 and a friend sending me an invite during a lecture that same year, barely used it; forgot about it then kept getting emails until they stopped in 2016(?) I'd have to check my filters and dig through my emails but I've yet to meet/interact with anyone online that's active on it, as a young person from one of the biggest cities in NA