Ricki Yasha TarrI keep seeing articles about Mastodon slumps, and journalists going back to Twitter. Is it fair to say, that maybe Mastodon isn't for journalists, or brands, or even people who want large accounts? Maybe Mastodon is true social media, for people who want to interact and discuss, not be influenced, sold to, or manipulated with cult style tactics and followings. There will always be groups who dislike the idea of the people controlling their own inputs, people who don't like the idea of accessible Administration, and people who don't like the idea that if we don't like a space that we can just move to another one, or even create our own. Individualism is scary to the kind of people who thrive on complacency, and not challenging the status quo.
ask330 🪨🦣@RickiTarr I am here for good. Twitter is shit.
@ask330 What I liked about Twitter was the connections I made, it seems easier here.
Tom Delargy@RickiTarr @ask330 Easier for what? What happened to my 18,000 connections? They're not here. I can RT posts I agree with that over 1,000 others agree with. I can't find such amplification of my voice here. If you don't want journalists or politicians here you're surrendering the broadcast equivalent of universal suffrage to #ElonMusk, who'll pull the plug to stop us using it at key moments when needed most by democratic and human rights activists. Politics isn't a spectator sport.
@TomDelargy @ask330 It's not that I don't want journalists and politicians here, what I don't want is this becoming Twitter. Getting your news off social media sites might not be the best idea. Journalists throwing fits about Mastodon not falling all over themselves to change for them is a big issue. If they want to be here then put in the work, like the rest of us did, earn your place.
@RickiTarr @ask330 You posted this before reading my last response? Please understand I'm NOT keen to get journalists here to read their words of wisdom. Before coming here, I'd blocked most journalists on the other place. But I don't want them to isolate themselves from their critics, giving them an excuse to pretend no one disagrees with them. Mastodon MUST aspire to become the broadcast equivalent of universal suffrage. Hashtags can allow us to expose defenders of the reactionary status quo.
Martin Edwards@TomDelargy @RickiTarr @ask330 A few observations, Tom, if I may. You have almost half a million tweets to your name, which is quite unusual! Yet looking at your most recent, you're not getting much interaction — considering your high follower count. So I'm not sure that this amplification of your voice, of which you speak, is happening. And anyway, should it? Social media wasn't created for big accounts, nor indeed journalism. If anything, Twitter showed that some of the most toxic interaction occurs around big accounts and journalism. To suggest it was a place for truly useful discourse on politics is a very rose-tinted view. Mastodon is a throwback to better times.
@medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 I have almost half a million tweets to my name? You talking about the other place? I tweeted for a decade. That's not that much. If I'm not getting much interaction recently that may be because I've taken a decision to barely post anything there. That's been going on for month. I'm now focusing on Mastodon. My other account is mostly being mothballed. But if this site ignore journalists then I'll abandon this site and move back there until Musk kicks me off.
Steve@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 How is it ignoring journalists? Because they're not getting some tools they think are necessary to inflate their egos and engagements? There's no obligation on #mastodon devs to do any of it. And here's the thing: Mastodon is #opensource. Anyone can fork it and create a platform that includes tools that journos want. Anyone can open an instance. Anyone can develop a platform that runs on Activitypub.
@lime_juice_cube @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 I have no idea what Activitypub is. As for everyone being able to create tools, I've got a postgraduate diploma in information technology. But my skills are years old and I have no idea how to do the things you suggest. Nor do I have the money to buy a server. Most of us don't. But if journalists employers can buy servers and introduce these tools, why aren't they here? Why are they sticking with birdsite, at least until they're kicked off?
@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 I suggest that you read about Activitypub. It offers a lot of context as to why Mastodon is like it is. Twitter is a centralised service. The Fediverse is decentralised. This makes it vastly different to big social. Activitypub is a protocol, not a platform. That means anything running on it can communicate easily. Mastodon is just a single expression of this protocol, but the Fediverse is much larger than Mastodon. I don't suggest anyone can develop for it, but it is possible. It's open, unlike Twitter or FB. And you can pay for Mastodon hosting already if you want your own fully supported instance.
@lime_juice_cube @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 How can I pay? I have no money. Does that mean you don't care about my rights. I'll find out about the other parts of the fediverse eventually. But it's Mastodon I care about. Communication isn't easy; I've no idea why you think it is. Lots more work needs to be put into this. Server hopping causes big problems at this stage. The decentralized aspect isn't an impediment to using hashtags to make this today's broadcast equivalent of universal suffrage.
@lime_juice_cube @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 Like most people who disagree with me on getting journalists here, the root of our disagreement is our attitude to using the platform for human rights and democratic advocacy. The msm is owned by the establishment; so radical critics need to challenge them. We did that a lot in the pre #ElonMusk days. But that's drawing to a close. Mastodon needs to pick up the baton. Or do you like the political/economic/social status quo globally? I hope not.
@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 I don't like it, but I also don't expect to bend things to my personal needs. I don't experience over-attachment to stuff. Mastodon is what it is. It may or may not replace Twitter. If you want to make it that tool, look at Activitypub, talk to others of like mind, get in touch with developers who have a vision, use the power of open source, investigate other options that may suit you better 😊
@lime_juice_cube @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 Mastodon is what it is. Great. You are a conservative. I'm not. You like the status quo. So we don't have anything to discuss. Cheerio.
@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 I'm not conservative politically at all by the way. If anything, I often consider that the left is too conservative. I'm interested in many fields, including psychology, philosophy, and history. Study in such areas has led me to have an overarching view of a great many human behaviours. As Buddha says: the root of human suffering can be found in our desires for things and our attachment to them. These things we discuss are simply ideas and that's interesting to me. We each are far more than simple sketches of left and right. For what it's worth, I understand your frustration and your need to find a tool that helps to liberate people from the corrupt.
@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 So, why don't journalists come here? Likely a number of reasons: they've spent a long time building engagement on Twitter and have inertia/fear of change because they don't want to lose all that engagement/followers and work; they fear a platform where algos don't make them mini-celebs; basic fear of change; attachment to Twitter's culture and way of doing things, making them less likely to seek an alternative and more likely to denigrate any alternative because it doesn't fit their ideas of who they are and what big social should be. In other words - ego, inertia, fear and over-attachment in many cases. Your basic human nature reasons really.
@lime_juice_cube @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 Your idea of human nature & mine are light years apart. Journalists won't come here if no one else is here and those who are are telling them we don't want them. They look at how many are posting stuff and how many are following others and it looks pitiful. We can and must change that. Why am I followed by so many who joined long before I did and haven't posted anything & aren't following anyone I can see and aren't being followed by anyone I can see?
@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 I don't know your specific circumstances so I won't guess. But my feed is active and I find it easy to shape my experience here. I find the lack of intrusive algos liberating, but for many used to Twitter's silo, it could feel frustrating and empty. I understand that. I felt that way the first time I tried Mastodon a few years ago. This is my second time.
@TomDelargy @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330 Human nature is what it is. With science and decades of research in mind I don't see how it can be another way. I mean, we can believe whatever we want about human nature. We're free to do that. But being involved in an evidence-based area like psychology, there's a difference to me between fact and belief.
Peter Butler@TomDelargy @lime_juice_cube @medwds @RickiTarr @ask330
1. There are tons of journalists on Mastodon already. Tons.
There are more than 1,300 journalists on this list alone (including myself) and certainly orders of magnitude more in reality.
2. Starting fights with people about what “Mastodon” should or shouldn’t do is not likely to accomplish anything.