I really only ever spend time and energy criticizing things if I think my notes might help make them better.
That is 100% the vibe I tried to bring to the Mastodon criticisms here—I really like this place, but I *really* want it to work better for more people who aren't like me.
If you found it useful, yay! If you disagree, that's cool too—I'm very frequently wrong about all kinds of things. (If you need to represent me as a Bluesky cheerleader who hates Mastodon, that is also a thing you can do!)
But my mentions are kinda demolished so I'm going to peace out for a day or two as a little gift to my brain. (I'm not going anywhere long-term bc I'd miss the lichen pictures way too much.)
Yeah, that was good stuff. "Earned" you a follow. (As if a follow from me is worth anything. :) )
@kissane I really appreciate the post.
I agree that we need much better onboarding, people search to find your friends, referral loops, and content search.
It's work that needs to be more distributed. It can't all be up to Mastodon gGmbH.
The number one thing that is going to get people here, and keep people here, is the social aspect.
I just did a big piece of HCI research on personal social connections in Mastodon for my graduate program at Georgia Tech.
I'll be publishing my work soon!
I would not!
@kissane
This really encapsulates many of the criticisms and discussions I've seen and participated in over the last 5 months. Well said. Particularly on transparency and telling people to go lookit GitHub to figure out what is being done, rather than engage with the community they're supposed to be trying to serve. We need actual change to both processes and tools, but also we need onboarding into the change process.
It's unfortunately like what's happened recently in Texas where they've made it illegal for students to be taught civic engagement. It's another chokepoint to real decentralization.
Today we’re making signing up on Mastodon easier than ever before. We understand that deciding which Mastodon service provider to kick off your experience with can be confusing. We know this is a completely new concept for many people, since traditionally the platform and the service provider are one and the same. This choice is what makes Mastodon different from existing social networks, but it also presents a unique onboarding challenge. To make this step easier, we now have a default sign-up option that works with a server we operate. If you wish to leave or join a different server, you can do so at any time.
"But the missing step, to me, is when people with principled objections to other platforms are unwilling or unable to make the alternatives of their choosing more welcoming to more people."
Well said!
@kissane You described that particular food culture horrifyingly well.
Where I live there was a place where miserable people had been selling wet cardboard to other miserable people for decades somehow. But a new co-op was built in town and featured such innovative things as lights (ooh!) and colors (aah!) and employees who seemed to want to be there. (whaa?) It won't come as a surprise that the old place closed in less than six months.
I agree with your #Mastodon concerns, because they are the same I have seen in #freesoftware for decades now. I explained this here:
https://stop.zona-m.net/2023/04/if-fediverse-remains-just-like-free-software.../
@mfioretti_en @kissane Mastodon is not the Fediverse. There are other fediverse software.
Also, nothing's wrong with free software. There are people who just don't care about software freedom. Trying to bring them in by compromising a lot will be a net negative for everyone involved. People who don't care still won't care, and the people who did care will end up with a compromised product.
re:
"Trying to bring [ppl who don't care] by compromising a lot will be a net negative for everyone"
No. Net negative is what we have today, exactly because of purity:
i.e. FOSS used to run the likes of Facebook, and nobody caring.
Which results in human rights problems, censorship etc... on EVERYBODY, including those obsessed ONLY with "software freedom"
sw freedom as such is worthless. Ignoring the need to bring everybody in is exactly "what's wrong with FOSS"
ALSO:
I have already expanded a LOT everything I said in previous toot for ~20 years now, in the links at the end of that post.
Therefore, ONLY to save everybody's time, NOT as snobbery:
pls check those links first, and if you disagree, quote their parts and explain why. Thanks!
@mfioretti_en I'm sorry, I'm not arguing with the whole body of 20 years work, just the statements you made in the posts I replied to. Which is the sentiment I intend to keep here.
SF freedom is worthless for what? It is a great consumer protection thing for the consumer, who cares.
Ignoring the need to bring in everybody? That is just the opinion of a minority. The majority does not care. I think everyone should use free software (including mastodon) instead of proprietary.
@mfioretti_en But if I mention it to the vast majority of the people, they don't care. Many don't mind the corporate surveillance and manipulation of our lives. Most who do mind, are not doing anything about it, just waiting for the government to do something, but they do not even try to campaign so the government acts, they just... wait.
So how would it help, if we have up half the free software philosophy?
1/2:
"the whole body of 20 years work, just the statements you made..."
which are exactly the synthesis of 20 years of work, not the result of eating too much yesterday evening.
Dismissing them so lightly isn't productive.
And I put those posts online EXACTLY to not have to rewrite the same things over and over on social media.
"
"But if I mention it to the vast majority of the people, they don't care."
of course they don't, until other things change.
If the majority does not care today is exactly because people with your attitude have ignored, for ~30 years now, the few like me who were saying exactly "if you don't change attitude, ~95% of human beings will never care, and EVERYBODY will be worst for that"
@mfioretti_en So people do not care "because people with your attitude have ignored, for ~30 years now"?
really?
People in general have minimal interest in technology. They use a computer only because there is no other way to do certain things in 2023. They have a smartphone because that way they can watch videos while on the bus.
Where is the evidence, that there was anything that could have been done? Because I see a lot of people complaining, but no actual proposal to make people care.
@mfioretti_en And even if someone made a 1:1 free software replacement to some proprietary software, which people would start to use (ie. OBS, Blender, Ardour) don't actually make people care about free software, and they will switch back to proprietary software in an instant, once that software gets ahead in functionality or addictiveness.
As free software actually limits the vendor on how to exploit the users, proprietary software will make more money as long as people don't care.
yes, really. And no, not exactly.
The problem is FOSS enthusiasts, not me, refusing to accept for decades now exactly what YOU say, that is that the other 95+% of humans has minimal interest in tech.
As for proposals: yes, I HAVE made them for ~20 years, eg:
https://stop.zona-m.net/2011/02/we-want-more-linux-presentations-inside-shopping-centers/
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