People grumbling that #Mastodon is slow at the moment... You just turned up with 1 million people in a tiny, rural village and you're complaining there's a queue to get into the only tearoom, which is run by gay pensioners Babs & Maureen as a retirement hobby on Mons-Weds. Relax!
#TwitterMigration
To my new followers: You will experience delays as both a new signup (email delays) & an existing user (slow service; inability to load images, etc). It will settle down. Patience will be required. Remember, Mastodon is run by volunteers. It's not corporate & is still in the process of upscaling.
Mastodon is different. It's polite and friendly. There's a different code of conduct (please look up some of the basics), a slower pace. It's not a sprawling, hectic shopping centre in a grim industrial park on the city rim; it's a pleasant village street with artisanal shops and cafes. Take your time. Be nice.
@Richard_Littler
Being on Mastodon for the past few days and it reminded me of the friendliness of the earlier days of the Internet, before *coughs* forced engagement, and *coughs* metrics. It's nice to feel heard and seen, and to reciprocate naturally to that. I don't mind the slowness.
@djphng @Richard_Littler its got an IRC/BBS/Forums vibe, right?
@JeanPhilippe @Richard_Littler Yes! Just that the IRC chats all happen simultaneously at once.

@djphng @Richard_Littler

I mean, the old internet also had trolls and flamewars and whatnot, but it was much more of a local phenomenon. The biggest fault of the Big Socials has been to pump up the scale of these to worldwide.

@oblomov

Oh yeah, they were part of the lnternet landscape back then too. It's an inevitable part of the commentary and exchanges on the web. But it's increasingly difficult to get a conversation, or any dialogue going on a neutral level without getting personally attacked or canceled. So socialising becomes a loaded process, where you figure out that its pointless, exhausting and keep your thoughts to yourself. At least that's how the bird site felt to me.

@oblomov

I feel (personally) that the Big Socials should be accountable for trying to maximise that effect.

@djphng @Richard_Littler

Big Social: «accountable? us? for anything? bwuhawuhawuha»

(Joking aside, the inner structure of those things is designed for avoidance; just look at how FB is defending from the privacy violations)

@oblomov

Well, they can't blame the Mass Twitter Exodus then. 😂

That's just disturbing, really. You've just reminded me of this New Yorker interview...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/can-mark-zuckerberg-fix-facebook-before-it-breaks-democracy

@oblomov @djphng @Richard_Littler outrage = engagement = money.

Getting folks depressed and doom scrolling makes money

I haven't been doom scrolling here

@djphng @Richard_Littler 100%!! I am really really trying not to look at follower counts (mine or others), boosts etc but I swear a lobe of my brain has been permanently colonized and it’s like my brain now conflates metrics with love.

The really disturbing thing is to see this mirrored back by our teen (who has grown up listening to me + my husband share our viral moments). Whenever one of their Instas blows up they have to tell us the exact number of likes every hour. AND IT’S ALL OUR FAULT.

@awsamuel

@Richard_Littler

Exactly. It's such a fucked up phenomenon, how did it end up becoming like that? I've made friends and acquaintances through these social media sites, and there was a genuine sense of connection in the early days. Now its people posting lots of content, just for the sake of engagement.

I know right? The IG likes are like serotonin riggers, I can't blame you at all. I can't count the number of times I've deleted and reinstalled the app...

@awsamuel @djphng @Richard_Littler Omg... I work at a youth centre, and this week two of the girls were comparing and showing off their tiktok follow counts and it made me so sad!!
@Richard_Littler my experience so far: it's more social, like an actual social media. Very interesting experience, even if confusing.
@minnastiina I saw people interacting in a good way.. they do discuss for best.. 🤩
@Richard_Littler "it's a pleasant village street with artisanal shops and cafes. Take your time. Be nice." - fantastic simile.
@Richard_Littler I'm finding it so much less stressful than Twitter, and so much easier to keep track of things too! It's just...nice and I hope it stays this way. Babs and Maureen have been doing a lovely job.
@Richard_Littler can we do swears as long as it's not at somebody else?
@Richard_Littler Mastodon actually does remind me a bit of the village I live in, except there are a few less mobility scooters on the back roads.
@Richard_Littler it would also do well to remind ppl that there are so many other Mastodon servers as well as alternate platforms (I'm on a self hosted instance of the misskey fork Calckey for example). The Internet Archive just set up an instance as well as Vivaldi, known for their browser and even MIT. The problems you describe are bc so many folks are going to mastodon.social, a single instance in an ocean of them.
@Richard_Littler Also referring to this space as Mastodon is a bit like calling email Gmail. You're in the Fediverse! Doesn't that sound so much cooler?!
@Richard_Littler as one of the 1 million, *brings* 🍵 and 🍰 then goes to sit in a corner with a book.
@Richard_Littler it's like a warm hug on a winter's day
@Richard_Littler all I want is to find a few accounts that post news and updates for tv, culture, etc, for the UK. I think then I'll be happy to scroll on here over Twitter.
@Richard_Littler wait till everyone else shows up 😃
@Richard_Littler this is why I get the feeling it's not going to fully take off on a mainstream level. Not enough drama/toxicity and people's short attention spans may not have the patience to absorb the way it works
@Richard_Littler
Thanks for the explanation. Today is the first day I’m feeling capable on here. 🤝
@Richard_Littler - the little I have seen and looked at is stress free for me 😍 and at 69 that is much appreciated...
@Richard_Littler g'morning Richard, I love the description of Mastdon... give me the simple quiet respectful life any day!
@Richard_Littler I like that I can check Mastadon only once or twice a day and be involved. With most others, you have to live on your phone or you miss everything that’s happened.
@Richard_Littler Plus Maureen's sciatica is really playing up!
@Richard_Littler seems like they forgot how it was on the first days of twitter...
@Nora @Richard_Littler Haha! Remember that Quote tweet feature before the interface revamped 😅
@Nora @Richard_Littler we all collectively groaned when the #failwhale arrived. 😬
@Nora @Richard_Littler a lot of the folks were children back then so understandable. It was kinda meh until 2008, the election then was when it took off.
@Richard_Littler Not to mention, or actually to really drive the point home, that nobody actually joins "mastodon" and "mastodon" is not slow. You join a server and that one is slow. Join another smaller server maybe?
@kaukamieli @Richard_Littler
Even then at least part of the experience might still be slow, as soon as you access stuff from other instances (assuming not everyone you follow is on your small but not overloaded instance) - probably especially noticeable for loading images/videos
@kaukamieli @Richard_Littler It was slower. Wouldn't you like to see a photo?