Austin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022

What’s different about Mastodon? Here are some cultural observations that I’ve noticed through my own “digital ethnography” over the past two weeks or so.

I’m sorry that this is a thread and that feels a little Twittery but that’s how I have to roll on this one, friends.

Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
1. Superficial attention seeking is deprioritized (by design) and also somewhat stigmatized by the community. People will not respond well if you try to import Twitter norms. You may not even realize you’re doing it, so be mindful. Be more authentic.
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
2. I think some longer-term Fediverse users may be feeling a mix of sudden excitement and also what I might call digital displacement or digital realignment (smaller group of long-term users face sudden wave of newcomers reconfiguring social space). Norms may be changing with scale of user base. Curious to hear from longer users about this.
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
3. Hashtags are the local currency. That’s probably not going to change, at least not any time soon. Even if you don’t like it, take time to understand *why* universal search is not a feature. (Spoiler: it’s not because devs don’t know how to do it.)
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎
4. Content warnings! Yes, everyone is talking about it. There is a strong (legacy?) preference for using CW for topics that are political charged or likely to generate controversy. It reminds me of when I used to attend a liberal Mennonite church, actually. Progressive crowd, but didn’t want to ruffle feathers. This has pos and neg consequences, but it also contains (potentially white-biased) normalized assumptions about what counts as “political.” Regardless, just be aware that it’s a thing.
Nov 9, 2022 at 2:23amWeb
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
5. Invisiblization of labor appears to be happening in terms of who gets credit now that Mastodon is hot. Please keep in mind that (a) this Fediverse/ActivityHub project is bigger than one person, (b) many brilliant people built this thing for us and we should find ways to acknowlege them all, and (c) many NEW people are likely to now contribute to the project and we really need to find ways to support their contributions and labor.
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022

6. People are much nicer here. Enough said.

7. People are smarter and more attractive here, too. I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.

That’s all I’ve got.

Show threadWyatt EichholzNov 9, 2022
@austinkocher let’s keep it that way
Show threadS. Z. Attwell ☕️💻Nov 9, 2022
@austinkocher this has basically all been my experience and I’m trying to adjust quickly (this is day 3 or so) while also helping others to adjust (so might be one of those loud new voices, sorry 😅 - but I’m very up for helping as I can). Whatever I/we newcomers can do to make the influx easier for everyone, I’m happy to listen.
Show threadJeff HaluskaNov 9, 2022

@austinkocher I love this point.

It's probably one of my biggest societal annoyances...we, as in society, give too much credit and thus money to people based off their perceived contribution.

It happens nearly throughout every industry.

Show threadjosh buermannNov 9, 2022
@austinkocher Whoever did the hard labor of getting ActivityPub through the W3C consensus process deserves a really big shoutout.
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
@buermann I’m boosting this, because I want to know the answer!
Show threadjosh buermannNov 9, 2022
@austinkocher Thanks! Me too!
Show threadMr. Funk E. Dude 🫠Nov 9, 2022
@austinkocher @buermann I have no idea what some of that means, but it feels like something I should boost.
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
@Mrfunkedude @buermann gibberish is my superpower.
Show threadjosh buermannNov 9, 2022

@Mrfunkedude @austinkocher

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the standards body through which internet protocols are published. It operates by consensus, where something only progresses when all objections end, which makes it more tedious the less technocratically expert its members are.

Doing that for ActivityPub, a standard encompassing all social media conventions over which the Fediverse operates, is a considerable accomplishment either way.

Show threadMr. Funk E. Dude 🫠Nov 9, 2022
@austinkocher @buermann thank you for that explanation. 👍
Show threadloptaNov 9, 2022
@buermann @Mrfunkedude @austinkocher s/Internet/Web/
Show threadjosh buermannNov 9, 2022
@lopta My apologies, an insult to the Internet Engineering Task Force to confuse them.
Show thread♾️ Yuki (스노 雪亮) 🐬 🦣Nov 9, 2022

@buermann

That would be Evan Prodromou, primarily.

2008: he launched #identica powered by #OStatus protocol (a #WebStandard)

2010: #Friendica launched (by Mike Macgirvin)

2010-2012: #identiverse became #Fediverse

2013: Evan started #PumpIO with the #ActivityPump protocol

2014: Evan, et.al., created a @w3c working group for #ActivityPub based on ActivityPump

2016: #Mastodon first came out with OStatus and early ActivityPub support

2018: ActivityPub became a web standard

@austinkocher

Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 9, 2022
@youronlyone @buermann @w3c THANK YOU!!! This is amazing information! So so grateful.
Show thread♾️ Yuki (스노 雪亮) 🐬 🦣Nov 9, 2022

@buermann Disclaimer: That is so far what I was able to remember and gathered.

I'm not sure who, if anyone, kept a more complete record of the journey. I only started listing the timeline today (some might need a correction).

Show threadjosh buermannNov 9, 2022

@youronlyone That was a more complete rough first draft of history about a relatively obscure bureaucratic process than I think anybody could have hoped for.

I would imagine there are meeting notes filed away for posterity?

Show thread♾️ Yuki (스노 雪亮) 🐬 🦣Nov 9, 2022

@buermann There should be. I think the W3C ActivityPub working group kept a record, or probably their mailing list?

Maybe @w3c can give us more info how to access.

Show threadjosh buermannNov 9, 2022

@youronlyone @w3c @austinkocher Thanks so much! A real busy fellow!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Prodromou

Evan Prodromou - Wikipedia

Show threadQuelaaNov 9, 2022
@austinkocher. But oh, the Eternal Pink-Outlined Ears? 😄