Mastodon is an incredibly rare opportunity for open-source, non-profit, advertising-free, decentralised software to be a real contender in a category – and, if it continues to grow, even to pull many other social networks into being part of (or interoperable with) the fediverse.
It's strange to me that this isn't mentioned more in the endless opinions about features, onboarding, UX, "vibes" etc.
@tomw There's plenty of UX experience amongst #Mastodon user (probably the most genious #UX person I've had the pleasure of working with myself, @scottjenson , being one). The biggest problem is this pervasive view that focusing on UX/onboarding is what "dot con" does. Or VCs. Or that great UX brings in the unwashed masses.
I want my wife and kids to use Mastodon. They won't if there's a smoother experience someplace else.
Focusing on UX and #onboarding is something you do for the very same reason as Mastodon really nudges you to write image descriptions.
To be inclusive.
@tomw But people never get to the stage of taking those other factors into account if the onboarding process is too hard for them.
I'm a big Mastodon evangelist but the overwhelming response I get is "I tried it & couldn't figure it out." Can't enjoy the features of the sportiest sports car if you can't get past the ignition on the test drive!
@citizencat your argument reduces down to "I'm personally fine with the status quo therefore you should leave" which is illogical, unnecessarily hostile, and adds no value to the conversation (other than signalling to others that your future comments are likely to be of equivalent low value).
You're welcome to ignore this feedback, that's entirely your choice, but I thought it'd be worth sharing in case it helps.
Tom Walker
Troed Sångberg
Stephanie King
Citizencat
Richard Marr