Scott Jenson

The Mastodon backlash has begun.

1. New users are complaining about how hard it is to sign up

2. Long time users are shrugging and saying 'get gud'

This was inevitable and I'm not discouraged. There is the start of something very good here and we should just dig in and try to make it better.

Nov 6, 2022 at 4:46pmWeb
Show threadMatt QuirionNov 6, 2022
@scottjenson right. It's not "the new Twitter." It's something else. And besides, I remember a whole bunch of folks who didn't get Twitter at first who eventually became Twitter addicted.
Show threadScott JensonNov 6, 2022
@mquirion Agreed, a new model does take time. However, I hope we're in agreement that we can make it easier for people to a) understand the model and b) make instance choices
Show threadMatt QuirionNov 6, 2022
@scottjenson yes. Working on one small thing to help with that this weekend.
Show threadBenny PowersNov 6, 2022

@scottjenson amen

https://twitter.com/PowersBenny/status/1589231901587689473?s=20&t=MJkvJBK7r6K1ocSna0j9Xw

Benny Powers ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ ุจูŠู†ูŠ ุจุงูˆุฑุฒ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ ื‘ื ื™ ืคืื•ืขืจืก on Twitter

โ€œ๐Ÿฆ Lament! Cry Foul! A Terrible Man has taken control of our lives! ๐Ÿ˜ Look, you can take control! Don't just pray for a benevolent dictator's salvation! ๐Ÿฆ Surely not! What does this freedom cost? ๐Ÿ˜ You have to read a web page and make 2 extra clicks ๐Ÿฆ Fuck that shit UXโ€

Twitter
Show threadAdam Barth โœ…Nov 6, 2022
@scottjenson Sounds a bit like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
Eternal September - Wikipedia

Show threadDel Nov 6, 2022

@scottjenson could this be an instance thing? On mine Iโ€™ve only seen positive tips, help and guidance being posted.

The larger, most popular instances risk becoming just as negative as Twitter. Smaller instances FTW.

Show threadScott JensonNov 6, 2022
@del Fair enough but that only happens AFTER you've landed on an instance. The bigger issue is that people can't even find out *if* an instance is friendly. It's a bit of a dart throw and that's hard for most people.
Show threadDel Nov 6, 2022
@scottjenson many (but certainly not all) instances do allow you to browse as a guest before you join but itโ€™s not obvious at all.
Show threadMichael LeggettNov 6, 2022

@scottjenson It isn't just hard to sign up, it is confusing (I have to pick a server? Moving servers orphans my content).

Simply following someone on another server is also confusing (instructions are to copy the profile url and search for it but that didn't work โ€“ had to get their full user name)

Show threadScott JensonNov 6, 2022
@leggett complete agree. Baby steps ;-) IMHO the #1 problem is signup flow. But I agree that archiving my content on migration makes picking 'a good instance' terrifying. The big instances are relatively safe but overburdened and the little ones feel like hobby projects. There likely is a middle ground but it's extremely hard to find. (I'm still looking)
Show threadMichael LeggettNov 6, 2022
@scottjenson I picked my almost entirely on how short is the domain and was my username available. Brief glance at the server rules ยฏ\_(ใƒ„)_/ยฏ
Show threadAnkush SharmaNov 6, 2022

@scottjenson Absolutely. May need to consider a few design changes too, like
1. A slightly darker shade for the background, helping the tootsโ€™ readability.
2. Better segregation between consecutive toots (eg: via having slightly bigger font size for profile names maybe? just a top-of-the-head idea)
3. Thinking a better design alternative for nested comments.

Honestly, onboarding the incoming users smoothly holds top priority, design can be ever-evolving.

What do you think?

Show threadScott JensonNov 6, 2022
@ankksharma
1. The contrast ratio on mastodon.social is #FFFFFF/282c37 which passes AA and AAA contrast requirements
2. Interesting idea but we'd really need to talk to the Devs so we could separate quick fixes from 'OMG that changes everything' fixes
3. Absolutely, worth looking into