Nolan LawsonNew blog post: "Thoughts on Mastodon" https://nolanlawson.com/2022/11/22/thoughts-on-mastodon/
This was a tough one to write. Sorry if it's a bit of a downer.
To be clear:
- I don't plan on shutting down toot.cafe. Ever.
- I don't plan on shutting down Pinafore. I'm happy to accept pull requests, and I may even tinker a bit as long as I find it fun.
I am just being honest and upfront about my feelings toward the fediverse these days.
AlexTo give more context: for me, Mastodon lost its luster when my wife stopped using it.
She was on "weird Mastodon." Her entire goal was to make funny jokes and boost and riff on other people's funny jokes. Mastodon for her was sheer joy.
She got driven off the platform by the replies. (She is a woman on the internet, after all.) Weird sexual innuendo, "well actually"s, and people not getting the joke. Plus the funny people left. It became un-fun for her.
I used to joke that I was guided by "wife-driven development" (WDD). She would complain about a UI issue in Pinafore, and I'd fix it.
I could tell she was using Mastodon because she was alternating between laughing and typing. I was helping to enable her joy! What a motivator!
When she left the platform, and asked me to delete her Mastodon instance (freedom.horse), the raison d'être of Pinafore died. That's why I largely stopped working on it.
I find it fascinating that the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen has described Twitter as a game, and "weird Twitter" as the purest expression of that game: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347062879_How_Twitter_Gamifies_Communication
People on "weird Twitter" (and "weird Mastodon") were not interested in notoriety, or success, or influence. They just wanted to have fun. How many people can say that social media is just pure "fun" for them?
I think it would be great for that kind of culture to thrive on the fediverse.
That's all I have to say. Sorry to be a downer. I honestly want to see the fediverse succeed, but maybe it's just not my cup of tea at this point in my life. Thanks for listening.
Severák@nolan just keep Pinafore server running. It's still great client and I use it daily.
Stefan@nolan doesn't feel like that much of a downer to me. Any platform has to be able to handle people coming in and out as interest allows. You contributions are big and will pay off for a long time. Have you written anything about what you learned building Pinafor and what other clients can learn from it?
@stefan Yeah but more from a webdev POV and not a Masto POV. That's a great idea for a blog post!
Adrian@nolan Thanks for creating and maintaining Pinafore! I use it in desktop for my main account and really like it. After reading this I will understand when it will shut down one day soone ror later
a pile of moss@nolan i remember taking to you about typescript years ago and you were so head-on-the nail about it, I don’t doubt you aren’t wrong about this. What excites me about “mastodon” rather is the interactivity it allows with other platforms, not a twitter clone. (Although having quit twitter years ago too its nice to reconnect with some people here!)
Francis 🏴☠️ Gulotta@whale_eat_squid @nolan mastodon has so many more people here now and so many more developers, I can’t wait to see what pockets develop and what types of communities shake out. I’m already seeing people go “unlisted” or “home servers” that have limited federation. I hope we collectively figure out a place your wife and others like her can be comfortable. I’m sorry it isn’t that today.
@whale_eat_squid @nolan I also wholeheartedly support you following your bliss, not at all trying to sway you one way or another. I’m just hopeful it can be a step towards our healthier relationship with social media =)
Bálint Szilakszi@nolan your love is beautiful
eviloatmeal, resident Death Stranding 2 apologist (arch, btw)@nolan Not a downer at all. You guys are an inspiration. Providing us with good laughs and good software, and showing us that all it takes is a bit of passion and a lot of work to make that happen. To say that I don't miss seeing ElfLord in my timeline would be a lie. But I don't feel down about anyone moving to a different place in life, just like I don't feel down about a friend moving to a different place on Earth. You don't owe a friend your physical presence until the end of time. You don't owe someone a Mastodon client. And you certainly don't owe anyone some funny words on the internet. I'm happy about the gifts you have given us, not sad about the ebb and flow of life.
Thank you.
Thank you.
james@nolan I miss weird twitter. I am sad to hear I've missed weird fediverse, too.
Lau@nolan Hello, weird user here, then ✋
Ombra 🔵🌻@nolan I wonder will instances ever choose not to federate or to only whitelist a few instances keeping their community small.
Could be useful for some communities, or to keep things small and weird.
Zatty 
bhaugen@nolan
I immediately contrast a culture of fun with a solidarity economy,.
https://social.coop/@cheyenna/109382862699742543
@cheyenna @mike_hales
I immediately contrast a culture of fun with a solidarity economy,.
https://social.coop/@cheyenna/109382862699742543
@cheyenna @mike_hales
Cheyenna Layne Weber (@[email protected])
@Matt_Noyes @mike_hales Yes we took into consideration the RIPESS work but felt that it was crucial to get more specific and to distinguish between "social" and "solidarity" economy. This isn't to be pedantic, but because on the ground in the US our more radical work is being coopted and we lacked precision in our solidarity economy framing, let alone in our attempts at alignment. The website has a "list" but what actually animates this project is a community of practice that's forming.
@nolan @cheyenna @mike_hales
To be more clear, I think a solidarity economy can have some fun, but it could in the way if the fun dominated the flows.
To be more clear, I think a solidarity economy can have some fun, but it could in the way if the fun dominated the flows.
@nolan @cheyenna @mike_hales
That should have said "the fun could get in the way if it dominates the flows" but my eyes are geting worse and I can't see what I am typing....
That should have said "the fun could get in the way if it dominates the flows" but my eyes are geting worse and I can't see what I am typing....
Michael 🗝@nolan I ❤️ WDD! I didn’t know that was the term I always needed!
Administrator@nolan I'm so sorry to hear that -- this is why I've wished (for *years*!) that Mastodon had an _allow-list_ method of federating, instead of a _block-list_. An allow list would allow people to slowly become part of the Fediverse, only federating with those they feel are friendly.
A block-list method, by comparison, is worse -- it allows people to be flooded right away by stuff they may not want.
I have no idea why this isn't a feature already!
András N.@nolan there's no purer reason to develop something than to help enable someone's joy (except maybe world peace)
@nolan I'm so sorry for your wife. All my thoughts. I hope she is fine and even feeling better now...
keb@nolan also realized this as the fediverse has exploded in population. Jon Bell's thread was enlightening, but I disagree that was his team at Twitter did actually made it "better" for users -- it just made it different and definitely more addictive. creating a healthy (as in, "good for you") social media platform is difficult -- the closest thing I can think of are small user forums of the day of old.
AceOfWaggery@nolan If the funny people left, where did they go? I've been trying to find them here but had only very modest luck so far.
John Lusk