Mastodawn

Tim Chambers Feb 12, 2023

From: @pluralistic:

"To understand the future of Mastodon, we have to understand network effects...a product or service that gets more valuable as it attracts new users.

The people who stay...make it a busier, more exciting place...the next surge will find an even higher equilibrium as users who try Mastodon find more fully acclimated users who can hold their hands as they get settled in, and also provide the vibrant community that presents a good reason for doing so."

https://doctorow.medium.com/of-course-mastodon-lost-users-c48ef8102891

Of Course Mastodon Lost Users - Cory Doctorow - Medium

This week (Feb 10–17), I’ll be in Australia, touring my book Chokepoint Capitalism with my co-author, Rebecca Giblin. We’re doing a remote event for NZ on Feb 13. Next are Melbourne (Feb 14), Sydney…

Medium

Tim Chambers Feb 12, 2023

3/3 from @pluralistic:

"Meanwhile, the experience of the Fediverse will only get better and more obviously valuable to users. #Fediverse developers will continuously improve the service, even as the technical concepts one has to master to establish oneself become more widely understood and less esoteric."

https://doctorow.medium.com/of-course-mastodon-lost-users-c48ef8102891

Of Course Mastodon Lost Users - Cory Doctorow - Medium

This week (Feb 10–17), I’ll be in Australia, touring my book Chokepoint Capitalism with my co-author, Rebecca Giblin. We’re doing a remote event for NZ on Feb 13. Next are Melbourne (Feb 14), Sydney…

Medium

Emelia 👸🏻Feb 12, 2023

@tchambers @pluralistic I really love this section from that article:

StarkRG Feb 12, 2023

@thisismissem @tchambers @pluralistic Weird, I haven't encountered any of those.

Globaltom Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @thisismissem @tchambers @pluralistic you get what you follow. So if this person's feed is full of porn and Nazis...

(Edit: I've misunderstood the point being made! I'm leaving this post up because there's some great replies)

StarkRG Feb 12, 2023

@Globaltom @thisismissem @tchambers @pluralistic I don't think Corey Doctorow is following a lot of porn and nazi accounts, but he will have done his research and sought out the parts of the fediverse most of us don't want anything to do with. And, perhaps, at one time, that actually was the case. I was merely remarking that, as it now stands, that is definitely no longer the case.

Emelia 👸🏻Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic sometimes you might see it on the federated timeline, but I've long argued that the federated timeline is actually kinda toxic: it's a firehose of everything, of course there might be stuff in there you don't wish to see

LisPi Feb 12, 2023

@thisismissem @StarkRG @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic I think it's more that it's a weirdly common complaint from tourists.

Definitely a lot of it would come from the federated timeline... but you can just /not/ look at it (by unpinning it from the UI) or by muting or blocking users or instances.

Or just filtering by hashtags, instance & so on.

I'm not sure how it was on #Twitter but a lot of those users seem unused to the notion of actually having control given back to them.

@lispi314 @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic On the rare occasion I've ventured into the Federated timeline, I still haven't seen that stuff. Perhaps you need to actually hang out there for a while and look at more than nine or ten posts at a time. I don't even check the Local timeline much.

Emelia 👸🏻Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @lispi314 @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic one thing I do know is that when I was a mod on switter, majority of our reports were coming via the federated timeline, which a few people wanted to keep PG or even beyond that like G or something.. and that's just not representative of the world we live in.

LisPi Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic You pretty much have to monitor the federated timeline yeah, which is how I interacted with #Mastodon & the #Fediverse for a few weeks.

There are a few idiots that tend to group by instance, but I usually just muted them individually. Eventually the instances proved to annoy everyone else including the admins and got limited.

On larger instances these days the federated timeline is nearly unreadable due to speed. That'll only increase.

Emelia 👸🏻Feb 12, 2023

@lispi314 @StarkRG @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic yeah, I think the federated timeline is rapidly approaching it's point of irrelevance. When the network is small, it's good for discovery, but as the network grows it becomes potentially harmful.

Probably better to have a 2nd or 3rd degree timeline: your followers + who they're talking to + who those people are talking to OR your instance + everyone your instance is talking to

StarkRG Feb 12, 2023

@thisismissem @lispi314 @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic Yeah, mastodon isn't great for discovering new people unless you're already following people who boost others. I'd definitely be for an "accounts that interact with accounts you follow" timeline and maybe even a "recently favourited" timeline (I like that favourites aren't included in the home timeline, but it would be nice to have the option to see what posts have been liked anyway).

Globaltom Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @lispi314 @thisismissem @tchambers @pluralistic you are right - I misunderstood the point being made.

LisPi Feb 12, 2023

@Globaltom Yeah I'd noticed as much, that's why I tried to clarify it with my original answer.

Joris Meys Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @lispi314 @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic depends on the hashtags you follow as well. I'm working with the typesetting system LaTeX, for which the hashtag turns out to be #TexLatex. My initial guess gave me some errr... "rather interesting" results.

LisPi Feb 12, 2023

@JorisMeys @StarkRG @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic Ah yes, I could see that.

Such collisions would need manual pruning.

LadyT Feb 12, 2023

@JorisMeys @StarkRG @lispi314 @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic the issue here is to get people to regularly use #s the only people who seem to use them are cat pic'ers and those who get turned on by thick tree trunks

StarkRG Feb 12, 2023

@LadyT @JorisMeys @lispi314 @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic I often forget and it's an additional multi-step process for posting a toot. Instead of just posting what you're posting, you have to figure out what kind of topic applies, find out what hashtag is appropriate for that topic, and then enter it into the toot. I can't see any way to streamline that process, but it's definitely a massive hurdle for me to remember to do it.

LisPi Feb 12, 2023

@StarkRG @LadyT @JorisMeys @thisismissem @Globaltom @tchambers @pluralistic I tend to (ab)use the edit feature to add them post-facto.