Ron Patz

This platform—#Mastodon—still lacks what I liked about Twitter all these years: enlarging my horizon beyond the usual suspects:

Follow a politician from Malaysia and a journalist from Zimbabwe alongside the IMF Managing Director. Learn about an earthquake in Mongolia from someone on the ground after a comment on Belgian party politics. Communicate with an activist in India and a bureaucrat in Palestine.

I think any modern platform should make accessible—and amply—voices we usually don't hear.

Dec 18, 2022 at 8:46pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadParents For Future HamburgDec 18, 2022
@ronpatz You’re right, Ron, this is a certain drawback… Even your federated timeline is restricted insofar, it’s the technical nature of this federation thing. You’ll have to first actively search for people and topics beyond your own timeline, but over time, the more people and hashtags you follow, the more "extra content" will become visible.
Show threadJohannes S. VogelDec 18, 2022
@ronpatz The people are increasingly here. I follow researchers and journalists from all continents. It just takes longer to find them without algorithm-driven suggestions. What helped me get started was also following groups and hashtags.
Show threadCat WestDec 18, 2022
@ronpatz That’s on you.
Show threadGlyn MoodyDec 18, 2022
@ronpatz I agree, I miss them too. but just think how far mastodon has come in a few weeks: give it a few months, and many of them will be here, I predict...
Show threadObserverDec 18, 2022
@ronpatz Give Mastodon half a chance. It has <9 million users, though growing rapidly. The bird site has ~400 million. It's going to take time for Mastodon to attract the scale and breath of user that the bird site has been building for years.
Show threadTim RichardsDec 18, 2022
@ronpatz I think it’ll get there. My initial approach has been to follow very widely and I’ve found interesting ppl from all over, with diverse backgrounds and expertise.
Show threadFerles  Dec 18, 2022
@ronpatz The federated timeline allows that I believe.
Show threadNicolas Kayser-BrilDec 19, 2022
@ronpatz I totally agree. But I haven't met many people who agree with me that's there is a resource issue. That setting up and moderating an instance in Bengali or Marathi is not the same thing as setting up an instance in Germany. I wish media dev agencies would give grants to that effect, but I'm not holding my breath.
Show threadRon PatzDec 19, 2022
@algowatching Yeah, don’t think this will happen. It will all depend on a few central servers set up for larger groups, that may have the same reliability issues as a typical centralized instance, maybe with a bit more robustness against Muskesk takeovers.