Matt Blaze

About a month ago, I observed that two main things I found lacking here vs. Twitter were accounts from professional creatives (artists, etc) and discussion of breaking news.

The creatives have definitely started to arrive. But the breaking news has been much slower. However, it also seems like breaking news is starting to disappear from Twitter.

I wonder what will fill that gap. Perhaps it will be here, eventually.

Dec 20, 2022 at 6:37pmWeb
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
Up until very recently, if there was something important going on anywhere in the world, it was virtually certain to be in my Twitter feed. Not just RTs of media reports, but discussion, etc. That just doesn't seem to be true any more over there. And it's not here yet.
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
I suspect this has much less to do with software features, and algorithms and more to do with culture and who's come over here.
Show threadJake Is Writing (Allegedly)Dec 20, 2022
@mattblaze The newsmakers haven't jumped aboard yet. The politicians, the business owners, the marketing directors, yada yada yada...that'll pull people over here too, one would think.
Show threadChristian HuitemaDec 20, 2022
@callmejake @mattblaze The early investors in Twitter actively cultivated journalists and politicians as a way to grow the influence of the Twitter platform. That's easier to do when a centralized organization can dedicate budget, manpower, etc.I wonder who could drive similar lobbying for a distributed network.
Show threadJake Is Writing (Allegedly)Dec 20, 2022
@huitema @mattblaze It might take a group of influencers making their own server on here, tbh. If I know anything about influencers an famous people, they love exclusivity. If a server can be cordoned off that's exclusive to them, they might bite, but then that gates off a particular part of the fediverse and I dunno if they wanna start doing that either.
Show threadJeffrey VagleDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze I agree. There are folks who, because of expertise, etc, become natural nodes around which these conversations grow. As they appear here, so will the conversations, I think.
Show threadJeffrey VagleDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze There also seems to be some reticence based on unfamiliarity with the concept and culture. To the latter element, I think some culture scolds have dampened enthusiasm for the twitter style, at least initially.
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@jvagle another thing that seems to be missing (or significantly dampened) here is political activism, protest organization, etc.
Show threadJeffrey VagleDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze Also possibly related to the occasional culture policing that pops up.
Show threadIan Coldwater šŸ‘»šŸŒæDec 20, 2022
@jvagle @mattblaze The lack of quote posts and discoverability also doesn't help
Show threadJeffrey VagleDec 20, 2022
@ian @mattblaze Indeed. We've become twitter diaspora.
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@jvagle @ian well, now youā€™re going to get yelled at by the ā€œmastodon is perfect, donā€™t touch itā€ scolds.
Show threadIan Coldwater šŸ‘»šŸŒæDec 20, 2022
@jvagle @mattblaze yesterday's post devolved into people yelling at me for besmirching the good name of emacs, so
Show threadJeffrey VagleDec 20, 2022
@ian @mattblaze Always a risk with religion arguments.
Show threadbrandon šŸŒ»Dec 20, 2022
@ian @jvagle @mattblaze certainly unusual for the internet to react with such vim and vigor over something as inconsequential as editor choice
Show threadIan Coldwater šŸ‘»šŸŒæDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze @jvagle @bdimcheff
Show threadbrandon šŸŒ»Dec 20, 2022
@ian @mattblaze @jvagle was it something I sed?
Show threadIan Coldwater šŸ‘»šŸŒæDec 20, 2022
@bdimcheff @jvagle @mattblaze awk-ward
Show threadArne VisscherDec 20, 2022
@ian @bdimcheff @jvagle @mattblaze this is turning into a cat-astrophy and I love yā€™all.
Show threadNorman WilsonDec 20, 2022
@zomgwtfbbqkewl @ian @bdimcheff @jvagle @mattblaze ed(1) is the standard editor.
Show threadSuzanne Aldrich (she/her)Dec 20, 2022
@zomgwtfbbqkewl @ian @bdimcheff @mattblaze @jvagle joe mama so old she donā€™t know nano
Show threadArne VisscherDec 20, 2022
@bdimcheff @ian @jvagle @mattblaze I had a real good laugh when @nova tried to launch emacs during the maintenance yesterday. Yā€™all should go watch the VOD 
Show threadSethOnOps Dec 20, 2022
@ian @jvagle @mattblaze
Wait... emacs has a good name?
Show threadIan Coldwater šŸ‘»šŸŒæDec 20, 2022
@jvagle @mattblaze @SethOnOps that's not what I Hurd
Show threadJohn MinnihanDec 20, 2022
@ian @jvagle @mattblaze
[perl clutching] well, i do declare
Show threadleifnixonDec 20, 2022
@ian @jvagle @mattblaze That was a bad thing, and you should feel bad.
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@ian @jvagle @leifnixon Itā€™s amazing how much you can learn about a person from their choice of text editor. Itā€™s a window into the soul.
Show threadValentin SawadskiDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze Agreed, only noticeable exception is #Twitter. If Elon does something weird, my Mastodon timeline is all over it.
Show threadRoel WillemsDec 20, 2022
@vsaw @mattblaze Same experience. Although I do think that it is mostly due to the presence of many media outlets (and individual journalist) active on Twitter. With more people joining I do expect that more regular media outlets will incorporate Mastodon in their social media strategy.
Show threadPatrick O'BeirneDec 21, 2022
@vsaw @mattblaze I tried adding a filter so I wouldn't see all this tedious news about the chief twit. But I still see posts with his name in the text.
Show threadValentin SawadskiDec 21, 2022
@PatrickOBeirne @mattblaze To be honest, I donā€™t mind so much if every once in a while people share the latest developments from #Twitter. But I get that some people prefer a clean break from it after their #TwitterMigration
Show threadTim McLeanDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze What stopped that discussion from happening on Twitter? Did too many people leave, or was it an algorithm change?
Show threadVille VainioDec 20, 2022
@timmclean Algo change, very few people actually left
Show threadTim McLeanDec 20, 2022
@vivainio I think that's true overall, but it feels like a large portion of the frequent posters in tech/programming circles really did leave!
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@timmclean My impression is that it's mostly just people (in my circle) leaving or losing interest.
Show threadTim McLeanDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze It really is quite surprising how quickly people left, at least in tech/infosec. 90% of the technical discussion is gone off my Twitter feed now, and I didn't even unfollow anyone!
Show threadStephan NeuhausDec 20, 2022
@timmclean Same for me.
Show threadSpainCoDec 20, 2022

@timmclean @mattblaze

Yep. In a number of the areas of folks that I follow it basically was a social media rapture.

Show threadPatrick O'BeirneDec 21, 2022
@timmclean @mattblaze Infosec yes, I joined M as soon as @Brianhonan flagged it. But for the Microsoft world, it's only on Twitter. Eg all the Excel / BI people I follow.
Show threadBrian MartinezDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze
I've been on Mastodon for all of a few hours, and I definitely and very immediately noticed the same thing.
Show threadnumber137Dec 20, 2022
Ā» The old world is dying
and the new world struggles to be born
now is the time for toots Ā«
Show threadDave SwerskyDec 20, 2022

@mattblaze Hopefully hashtags will start to fill this void.

I also hope John Mastodon and his merry band see fit to create a pan-Fediverse "trending hashtags" feature. I think this would be a good compromise to enable discovery without falling into the algorithmic traps of the birdsite.

Show threadLynn KellerDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze I need to change my instance. I'm not permitted to post anything political or I get a warning. And any profiles with politics in the heading are censored
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@majordopolis yikes. Yeah, that wouldnā€™t be for me at all.
Show threadQuinn NortonDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze yeah, it's not. i have some hope for that emerging here, but not sure it's ever coming back to the birdsite. much has been lost, maybe to be regained, maybe not. :/
Show threadwolfstettlerDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze Hopefully, when more people are on Mastodon, the news will follow. If the people boost those news enough to spread them.
Show threadAndyDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze Iā€™m not keen on the accounts that just mirror Twitter news accounts but have been using a couple.
Show threadMoon Baron Dec 20, 2022
@mattblaze gods willing, it'll be RSS :P
Show threadTHIS ACCOUNT HAS MOVEDDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze I am seeing it here. Are you following the usual major outlets? My feed has too much of their stuff.
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@noplasticshower I'm following a few, more than I did over there (I tend to follow individual journalists rather than the news orgs themselves).
Show threadTHIS ACCOUNT HAS MOVEDDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze the orgs do the breaking thing
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@noplasticshower That wasn't true on Twitter. You'd often see first hand discussion before the story was written
Show threadTHIS ACCOUNT HAS MOVEDDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze agreed
Show threadTHIS ACCOUNT HAS MOVEDDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze and it was fun to watch A/B testing and then get the resulting paper the next day
Show threadDouglas BarnesDec 20, 2022

@mattblaze

I similarly followed a lot of journalists on the other site. Agree it's much better than following the news enterprise iteself.

Have you used any of the migration tools to identify folks you followed on the other site who are now here? There was (for obvious reasons) a huge crossover of the journalists I followed there recently, and I just mass followed them with this tool: https://www.movetodon.org/

Movetodon: Finds your Twitter Friends on Mastodon

Show threadStu Duerson, machina exo deusDec 20, 2022

@mattblaze

It will re-appear somewhere, and Mastodon is the most likely suspect. Nature, and especially NEWS, abhors a vacuum.
The question is, how will the fediverse maximize the reach of news sources. That's what will determine their landing pads. It seems new connection/indexing tools might be helpful.

Show threadK. Ryabitsev-Prime šŸDec 20, 2022
@mattblaze I hope not. People getting news from social media was exactly the reason why so many things started going wrong.
Show threadMatt BlazeDec 20, 2022
@monsieuricon I disagree.
Show threadRandom Damage šŸŒ»Dec 20, 2022

@monsieuricon @mattblaze social media expanded the reach of primary sources as well as misinformation.

So it makes it easier to be well informed on a topic as much as it makes it possible to be misinformed, and *really* highlights both the power and responsibility inherent in news editing

Show threadSteven RostedtDec 21, 2022
@monsieuricon @mattblaze there's been several times I found news about things I was unaware of from social media, as my news feeds always try to predict what I'm interested in (forcing me into a bubble as it's based on what I click on). I enjoy seeing articles posted by others as they are not usually within my normal interests.