Ars TechnicaMastodon fixes “confusing” sign-up process to attract users fleeing Twitter
Mastodon forms a plan to make decentralized social networks go mainstream.
Stephen Cerruti@arstechnica I, for one, am confused about your use of quotation marks in this headline. I read it to mean that there is debate the sign up process is confusing.
I myself would have written, 'Mastodon "fixes" confusing sign-up process...' acknowledging the confusion of the process and calling into question the chosen fix.
The idea that people who would abandon sign-up over the confusion will someday decide to try to switch to an alternate instance is flawed.
Shiri Bailem@scerruti @arstechnica It's specifically marking it as a quote and not a statement from the journalist or the editor. The author isn't saying they find it confusing, but that people are calling it confusing.
@shiri @arstechnica I'm not convinced by that explanation. If people are calling it confusing, unless they have some reason to lie, then it is confusing to some people by definition and therefore quotes shouldn't be required.
The article says "becoming instantly confused" it hardly seems they are quoting users.
@scerruti @arstechnica Titles are written by editors while the content is written by journalists, so the patterns and rules differ between them.
It also makes the title more interesting and dynamic. Their entire point is just to get you to read it, and even better if it strikes up a conversation, so you're just proving that it was a good choice.
That headline choice helped me decide to unfollow @arstechnica . TBH it was also the lack of hashtags. So, I don't think it was a good choice.