christina bNov 18, 2022

Them: "Mastodon is hard to use."
Me: _gets started easily_
#coops

Them: "The #fediverse is fragmented - hard to find anyone."
Me: _easily finds many folks here I know or enjoy_
👋

Them: "It's just white male tech nerds"
Me: _discovers fairly robust presence of non-white, non-male folks_
✊

Them: "It's set up so it's antiviral"
Me: _sees more interest in my thoughts here than ever on the birdsite_
🙃

Them: "Local servers are like isolated islands."
Me: _finds a canoe to explore archipelago_
🛶

Show threadChristamerNov 18, 2022
@christina Congratulations! I'm struggling with it.
Show threadSiun
@Christamer @christina Any particular struggle? #mastodontips is a great help as is #mastodonmigration . I found two things really made a difference for me — first realizing how much I was used to the algorithm feeding me - someone said #YouAreTheAlgorithm and that helped shift my mindset. The other was starting to use Metatext, an iOS app for mastodon. I hear Tusky is good for android. Just some random tidbits.
Nov 19, 2022 at 12:16amWeb
Show threadChristamerNov 19, 2022
@ChristinaSiunOConnell @christina TY for the advice. Although "you are the algorithm" sounds empowering, I don't think I want to "be the algorithm" exactly. I appreciate the serendipity of cross-connections, of seeing random posts outside my filter, of seeing conversations and ideas and communities I could not have known to go looking for. And having four different feeds to check! Home, explore, local, federated—yikes. I mean, I'll get it. But I admit up front, it's not intuitive or easy for me.
Show threadchristina bNov 19, 2022

@Christamer @ChristinaSiunOConnell

makes sense! and also that's because the money's not here (yet)

the polish of simple design and user experience - especially for a complex and multifeatured tool - is a HUGE cost investment.

on the bright side, with recent developments, this open-source effort will have people interested in helping with design efforts... so hopeful that improvements come.

also, today I learned that you turn on advanced view and add a multicolumn (kinda like tweetdeck)

Show threadSiunNov 19, 2022
@Christamer @christina Have you tried Metatext if you’re on MacOS? I used to do user interface testing a few years ago and this made me so happy — so clean, uncluttered, etc. I gather there is similar for other platforms. Some really lovely design work here.
Show threadChristamerNov 19, 2022
@ChristinaSiunOConnell @christina Not on Mac, but thanks. The timeline looks fine to me; it's just, there's four of them. Meanwhile, I've just read that the server ("instance"?) I'm on is blocked by some other servers? Which I gather means people on those servers are prevented from seeing me. Apparently the one I picked has a bad reputation---poor admin or something. So the advice is to move to a different server/"instance." And hope that the new one doesn't have a bad rep like this one. *sigh*
Show threadSiunNov 19, 2022
@christina @Christamer Hmmm … I have no idea who blocks who but the admin for mastodon.social is @Gargron who started the whole thing so I can’t imagine it being blocked —- very busy, sure but blocked, nope.
Show threadChristamerNov 19, 2022
@ChristinaSiunOConnell @christina @Gargron Oh, that's a relief!