David CarrollI think we tend to overestimate the importance of software design as the main factor in explaining why social media feels “good” to us while underestimating the importance of good people posting good things. This comes to mind as folks wonder if Bluesky or Substack Notes or whatever new platform might be more “user friendly” than Mastodon and then therefore definitely “better.”
Fred@profcarroll I *mostly* agree but think that a lot of the subtle "I want to use that again" juice comes from frictionless UX which depends on a refined product, both visually and functionally. Mastodon falls down a lot here, and I think it's part of the reason why it's maybe not as sticky as it should be. Which is a completely different dimension than whether the content feels "good". Instagram knows this in their bones: https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/comments/12m13sf/heres_why_instagram_will_never_let_you_see_who/
Joost@fredbenenson @profcarroll This. There's no lack of good people posting good things here! And yet I have to kind of push myself to come back here, reminding myself that this place is ethically superior in every way so I really ought to. Because there's just a frustrating amount of friction that intuitively holds me back — that stuff matters.
@fredbenenson @profcarroll Recent example: already frustrated by the absence of functional search, I thought I'd follow someone's old-school advice and check the Following list of someone I admired to see if I'd find more interesting people there
Here's how that works on Twitter:
1. Click the name of someone in your feed
2. Click "Following" to see a list of accounts with bios
3. Click "Follow" next to someone's name if I like their bio
Here's how that worked out for me when I tried it here 👇
@fredbenenson @profcarroll
1. Click the name of someone in my feed
2. Click "Following" to see just a few accounts
3. Click "Browse more on the original profile"
4. Click "Following" to see a list of names. No bios. Unlike on Twitter you can't hover over a name to see their bio either + there's no "Followed by XYZ and x others you follow" to help you decide
5. Click on a random bunch of them individually on the off chance I like one
6. Find one I like + click "Follow"
Wait, we're not there yet!
@fredbenenson @profcarroll
7. They're on a different server, so click the "Copy" button next to the account URL
8. Return to my own profile/server
9. Paste the URL into the search field
10. Hit the follow icon next to their name 😓
Honestly, by then I'd given up. And that was on my *second* attempt — first I tried to do this on my mobile in my browser and got stranded at step 8, because there's no search field at all.
Even liking a toot can take the same five clicks as in steps 6-10 above. 😕
@almodozo @fredbenenson Mastodon apps solve this issue. Give one a try. They can work around the web security model that imposes the above friction by using the APIs instead of web sites.
@profcarroll @fredbenenson Okay, but i mostly use mastodon (and twitter) on my laptop, not on mobile. And this is frankly a very clunky experience for unexceptional things to want to do on a social media site.
Are there reasons for why it has to be this way because of Mastodon's structure? Maybe! But the result is a lot of friction, which helps explain why so many of the Twitter migrants have not stuck around. "Good people posting good things" isn't enough when you can find those elsewhere too.
@almodozo @profcarroll I just downloaded the main mastodon.social app for iOS and have to admit its pretty good, this will help I hope
@fredbenenson @almodozo the app ecosystem is thriving. Some nice ux/ui energy