Erin KissaneApr 30, 2023

I meant to be finishing a post about books I'm reading but I got distracted and wrote ~2500 words about Mastodon and Bluesky and the related things (welcoming design, insular culture) I've been stewing on for a few months

And also about vegetarian meat substitutes in the 1980s, which were *really something*

https://erinkissane.com/blue-skies-over-mastodon

Show threadSteve LieberMay 1, 2023

@kissane Great piece. I've watched my entire industry bounce of off mastodon because of the UX.

Hundreds of my peers would like to leave twitter and have made accounts on one instance or another. But they left out of frustration that simple things like clicking a follow button would sometimes instead send them to a login page. And when they expressed concern or confusion about this, someone would helpfully tell them it's actually a feature of federation, that really it's like email.

Show threadGreg PakMay 1, 2023
@stevelieber @kissane Uff.
Show threadGreg PakMay 1, 2023
@stevelieber @kissane It's interesting because my onboarding experience with Mastodon -- back in 2017! -- was pretty smooth, and when I really started using it more than any other social network this year, the Elk and Ivory interfaces made it feel pretty great. But at the same time, this year I've really become aware of how tedious it can be to do something as simple as to follow people.
Show threadGreg PakMay 1, 2023
@stevelieber @kissane I still prefer Mastodon over every other alternative. But it's painful how many folks I'd LOVE to see on here who have been turned off by the interface friction.
Show threadG. Willow WilsonMay 1, 2023
@gregpak @stevelieber @kissane I think it's crucial to understand that as we move further into the digital age, people are getting less tech savvy, not more so. Those of us who grew up with Linux had to learn some basic coding and programming principles. Ppl today are used to everything being hidden behind the UX. The UX is king. Mastodon is like asking ppl who are used to driverless cars to learn stick shift.
Show threadExtremely Jordan
@GWillow @gregpak @stevelieber @kissane twitter has had the advantage of numerous iterative designs to its UX and that it’s already the main game in town that everyone will be compared to. Which sucks for us that want to leave twitter altogether
May 1, 2023 at 1:05amWeb