Dan GillmorApr 10, 2023

When you refer to Musk's site, you should call it "Saudi-funded Twitter" just for the sake of consistency. Bonus: You'd be 4x more accurate than his claim that NPR, which gets about 1% of its money from taxpayers (well, their grandchildren), is "government funded".

(Corrected to fix Saudi ratio; Qatar also owns a chunk of Twitter, so Middle Eastern oil sellers hold about 5% of the shares together.)

Show threadDan GillmorApr 10, 2023
Meanwhile, NPR continues to show its fundamental cowardice by remaining on Saudi-funded Twitter despite Musk's visible contempt for it, and for all journalism other than right-wing mockery of the press.
Show threadbmazApr 10, 2023
@dangillmor Maybe because Mastodon is such unusable steaming horse manure that NPR needs an actually usable platform.
Show threadDan GillmorApr 10, 2023

@bmaz Surprised to hear you say that when, from my experience, that's not correct.

I have (had) 3x the followers there and 10x the engagement -- real, valuable engagement -- here.

Show threadbmazApr 10, 2023
@dangillmor I have no compunction whatsoever with what I said. The user interface here is discombobulated garbage. And a fair amount of that seems driven by holier than thou pious overlords that have decreed that it be so. No quote responses! No search function, use hashtags! Etc. These people are as big of pricks as Musk Maybe there will be a better alternative to Twitter in the future, but Mastodon sure is not it.
Show threadDan GillmorApr 10, 2023

@bmaz There are or will be client software that does what you want -- and there's a fair amount of pressure building on the "overlords" to accommodate more functionality.

To compare these people to Musk is way, way, way over the top.

Show threadCathy GellisApr 10, 2023

@dangillmor @bmaz I think the original decision not to have quote tweets was an arrogant one but it also sounds like one that may soon be reversed.

The rest is just the growing pains of a system suddenly handling a lot of growth, plus the time it takes to iterate new features. Not arrogance.

I also disagree that it's too underdeveloped to be used. The core functionality is there and probably more robust than Twitter now is. Plus with a lot more potential than a proprietary platform would have.

Show threadbmazApr 10, 2023
@cathygellis @dangillmor It is not remotely close to what twitter was, and, though less so, twitter now. Mastodon is crap. If, and when, the overlords of Mastodon make it better, I will care. For now, they are just more imperious assholes mandating how I can interact with the world.
Show threadDan Gillmor

@bmaz Every word of that last sentence applies to Twitter, not Mastodon.

Mastodon, and the protocols it uses, are open source. Anyone can create client software that'll do whatever you want. If that isn't happening fast enough for you, so be it.

But I'm truly baffled at your anger toward people who have been doing this mostly as volunteers, not profiteers, nor with political motives other than offering an alternative to corporate centralization. @cathygellis

Apr 10, 2023 at 10:51pmWeb