Mark GurmanSo far my experience with Mastodon has been more toxic than on Twitter. It seems like the only benefit here (as perceived by some) so far is who it is/isn’t owned by and third party app support.
Mike Beasley@markgurman you might be the first person having a more toxic experience here. never heard of anyone having that issue…
Bruce@MikeBeas @markgurman I've heard a number of minority users say that their experience on Mastodon is more toxic.
Eric Kissack@markgurman Sorry to hear that! I have a great respect for you and your work and I hope you stay!
Darin Warling 
@markgurman I’m really sorry to hear that. My experience has been pretty great so far, but unlike you I’m just a nobody.
Kyle 
@markgurman it’s said to hear that your experience is this way here. Many experiences here are quite different and rather more interesting, conversational, and involved than on Twitter. I know mine is.
Eshu Marneedi@markgurman What in the world? That's strange. Who's bullying you over here? I've got a bunch of mean mentions on Twitter in just the past couple of days, but everyone's been really nice here lol.
But yes, third-party app support is key and that's the main reason people should switch over.
tredstone@markgurman sorry to hear that, my experience has been the total opposite
Steve Brazill@markgurman While my experience here is notably different than yours, I’d suggest that the later two points - ownership and third party app support - are not small things. My overall experience is much less toxic, and using Ivory alone makes the UX much better. Never realized how bad the native Twitter app is.
John Birkhead@markgurman interesting. I have found Mastodon less toxic than Twitter. Guess be careful who you follow
chris actual@markgurman Sorry you are having such a bad experience, but if it means anything you are the first person i've encountered who has ever said that, so yay!
Paul Haddad 
@markgurman your experience here, from what I've seen, has sucked. It's not the norm, but I'm sure that's of little comfort.
D-Love 
@paul @markgurman I agree with Paul here. Please stay, Mastadon needs profiles like you.
Adam Williams@paul @markgurman give it more time as well as apps more time to mature with appropriate filters. i suspect your twitter is already well filtered but likely not abandon twitter until day it sinks.
serko@paul @markgurman I’m sorry to hear that, I’m feeling a bit guilty now.
Bob Liptrot@markgurman My experience has been wonderful. Less trash …more substance. Keep trying !!
ZenobiaVayne@markgurman it may be harder to exist on here as a person with a somewhat sorta large following. Using aggressive curation of my feed and my following list has helped this be a pleasant place for me but YMMV. I’m also on an instance with extremely strict moderation rules so that seems to help. Sorry you’re having a challenging time on here.
Tyler 👋@ZenobiaVayne @markgurman That makes a lot of sense…
Personally I had a 🤏 microscopic following on Twitter and it was easy to get lost in all the bustling content and people. But here it’s nice and small and cozy!! I’m looking for new people to follow and so is everyone else, and there’s a sort of synergy to that. It’s been wonderful!!
Personally I had a 🤏 microscopic following on Twitter and it was easy to get lost in all the bustling content and people. But here it’s nice and small and cozy!! I’m looking for new people to follow and so is everyone else, and there’s a sort of synergy to that. It’s been wonderful!!
Jaime Rafael Barcelo@markgurman For me is the opposite, less toxic, very calm and more focused on what I want to read and share.
Hope you stay here because more and more people are moving.
Jason Allen @markgurman can you screenshot a few so they can identified? This could be a good test of how Mastodon will deal with this moving forward. Or at least whoever governs your instance.
Warner Crocker@markgurman Sorry and surprised to hear that is the case. It feels almost unique, but I’m sure that’s not accurate. I’m kinda amazed.
Pierre
Jeff@markgurman Yikes!! That’s saying a lot, too! Sorry you’re seeing that. It’s the reason I’m here and not there (nearly as much).
John K@markgurman So sorry to hear! I hope you hang around.
Tylor Sweeney@markgurman That really sucks. My experience here has been far more positive not because the people are more/less toxic, but I'm exposed to way less content that is designed to outrage me. I'm managing to avoid the outrage machine here. I still check in on the bird site to see what's going on, but I always end up feeling angry not long after I pop in. Not to diminish your experience at all. It's terrible you have to deal with that here.
tambourineman@markgurman there’s potential for Mastodon to prevent certain behavior by blocking specific instances, but the legal-but-still-toxic is harder and probably needs algorithmic timelines.
The main appeal for me is exactly that it isn’t owned by anyone. That’s huge.
Bucky@markgurman The big difference I have noticed is that if I’m seeing something political or toxic in Mastadon, it’s coming from someone I’m following so it’s an easy fix. On Twitter, I can’t stop it no matter what I do as it shows me stuff anyway.
Jeff the AlienMark you've been here less than a month, you have over 7,000 followers, you only follow 19, and have posted 13 times.
The reason we like it here is that there is no algorithm telling me who to follow, or to siphon my personal posts for ad revenue. We are no longer 'the product'.
If I may suggest? Follow more accounts and I think you will get more out of this platform. Use this to find the accounts you once followed on Twitter: https://twitodon.com/
John...@hackdefendr @markgurman I don’t think that’ll solve his problem of people being negative towards him. Regardless of who he follows, people can post at him.
I wasn't really trying to solve the negativity problem. No one can solve that because everywhere you go there will be negativity.
My response was to point out he hadn't really given Mastodon a chance only being here a month.
Mark, you know you can fully control things here vs. at Twitter. For example, you can block entire domains if you choose, or simply filter words and phrases to keep your timeline clean.
Heng-Cheong@markgurman I’m sorry to hear that.
Sungjin 성진@markgurman sorry to hear that
Joshua@markgurman I think you need a little bit of @Alice in your feed
Alice McFlurry 
@Joshua @markgurman 🤣🤣 thank you, Joshua!
Eduardo 
@markgurman I don’t believe you 👀
Wes Morgan@markgurman Would a more specific / moderated instance be helpful? That’s made all the difference for me, but I am also a nobody.
Tad van Sander 🇺🇦🇵🇸@markgurman sorry to hear that. My experience is completely different
ᴿᴵᴷᴿᴵᴾᴾᴱᴿ@markgurman it’s all about who you follow. I’ve been having a blast here. I’m sorry your experience hasn’t been as positive. Maybe make some adjustments to who you follow and give it another go.
FawazI agree
Mad Dog Ace Run@markgurman
I did have one bad experience with one user but that has not stopped me. I used to have a lot of bad experiences on Fakebook, but that is kind of a different place than Mastodon.
No place is perfect.
Stephen Tatton@markgurman sounds like you need to unfollow some people
@TattonTreks @markgurman I don’t think it’s the people he follows, I think it’s the people who post at him in responses.
Chuck O'Rourke:verified:@markgurman Boost some baddies!
Kyle Stay@markgurman bummer to hear that, glad you are here and thank you for the work you do!
SebastianView@markgurman please don’t go. I’m happy to see you here. You addition added a lot of content to my timeline. Hopefully more people migrate fro Twitter so I can finally stop opening that app. We love you man
Kevin Doyle@markgurman not my experience at all
Tom@markgurman I think mastodon has a bit of a pathological problem with people who are journalists, analysts or other “news breakers”.
Definitely not healthy. I’ve even seen you getting hate and that’s a wake-up call.
Federation Bot@markgurman I’m not sure how anything can be more toxic than Twitter, especially Musk’s Twitter. Can you elaborate?
@markgurman that sucks. No one needs more toxicity in their life. Sending happy thoughts your way.
Dan@markgurman Sorry to hear that. It’s a new brave world out there, but thank you for trying it and hope you stay.
The way I am looking at it is there is a storm brewing so I’m battening down the hatches and moving to another area (Mastodon) to weather the storm.
Let’s see what remains when the hurricane rolls though.
Granneman 😡@markgurman That really sucks. I for one really value your presence here and greatly enjoyed reading what you post.
George Hammerton 
@markgurman I’m sorry to hear that Mark, my experience has been much more kind and respectful on the whole. Not sure if there could be a vocal minority out there worth filtering out, perhaps that would help? You don’t need those negative voices in your life.
Caleb@markgurman That’s super disappointing to hear 😞
Pascal B. Kreil@markgurman with more and more tutorials popping up to show people how easy it is to use Mastodon (which is good), the amount of weirdos will raise (which is bad). Blocking toxic people or whole servers that breed toxicity is the only option. There are additional features available for server admins to block stuff, but the larger the instance the less flexible it is. „Old“ Twitter had departments to help prevent this, Mastodon does not. It’s the sole responsibility of each single server admin.
Jake Kitchener@markgurman
That’s a bummer Mark. I’m hoping things turn around. I appreciate having your content here!
That’s a bummer Mark. I’m hoping things turn around. I appreciate having your content here!
Richard 
@markgurman that’s very disappointing to hear. I’m completely unfussed about what platform you use, but the toxicity isn’t acceptable wherever that may be.
Corey Scott@markgurman I'm very sorry things have been so bad for you here. You're a person I was very excited to see have a presence on Mastodon and I hope there's some way to keep you feeling like it's worth your engagement. That said, I would not expect you to stick around if it's not worth your time or if people are being crappy towards you. Whatever you decide on, I wish you the best.
@markgurman Give it time, use it more. This is way much better than all the noise on Twitter. Focus on giving good content. We are here because we love technology and connect with real people.
Guy Lev@markgurman it’s the third party app support for me… Twitter without Tweetbot just isn’t the same
Christina Warren@markgurman really sorry to hear this, and I think it is indicative of a certain type of user here, especially in tech circles, that can be very toxic in ways that a lot of people don’t want to admit. I’ve been lucky, so far, but I totally understand your point.
TimH@film_girl @markgurman I wonder if it’s a function of having a long list of blocked users on Twitter and starting over means blocking the same people again over here. It stinks that it’s necessary to do that, though