Mastodawn

Kiran Jun 3, 2023

Replies on Mastodon seem to come 80% from the kind of folks that panic when a conference call is ending and they realize they haven't spoken, so they just think of anything at all to say in order to participate. Or folks who submit formatting nitpicks to a code review just so everyone can see they didn't rubber-stamp approve.

They aren't offensive trolls like on Twitter, it's more well-intentioned and sincere but also totally irrelevant and annoying.

Michael Knepprath Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton that’s “I want to be a part of this community but don’t know how” energy

Rod Hilton Jun 3, 2023

@mknepprath yeah, exactly. There's like a "I just want to participate" vibe that just creates a lot of replies that are already addressed in a thread (or in the original link), or hall monitoring shit like complaining about content warnings or alt-text, or just generally irrelevant observations.

It's so well-meaning and socially awkward that it's hard to be super angry about it but at the same time when a post blows up and you get flooded with dumb-as-fuck reply notifications it's enraging.

Rod Hilton Jun 3, 2023

@mknepprath Also kudos to you for having the guts to reply to that post, it was a very easy set up for a "see, this is what I'm talking about?" response to any reply and you went for it anyway 😂

Michael Knepprath Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton Oh, I’m totally empathetic - I see the same dynamic at conferences. The issue here is you can’t just be present, you’re invisible unless you say something.

Beeks Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton unfortunately it's difficult to find interesting people to have conversations with on Mastodon out in the void, but in the replies to large accounts you can find and interact with people interested in the same things as yourself. So guys like you get stuck with guys like me treating your replies like it's the bartop at the local discotheque, (or wherever you meet people out in meatspace these days.)

Rod Hilton Jun 3, 2023

@Beeks wait what? Am I a large account?

Beeks Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton I can't find the average follower count anywhere but I'm confident it's significantly under 6000. You made it bud. 👊🏼

Rod Hilton Jun 3, 2023

@Beeks fucks sake, I had never considered this perspective.

Tim G Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton @Beeks In my experience, large accounts are often indicated, not by absolute follower numbers, but by the level of specialisation and/or self assurance in their posts (especially if they've moved here from elsewhere).

I'm curious as to what replies these larger accounts are *hoping for* when they post.

(Sorry the conference call is ending.)

David Lynch Jun 3, 2023

@Beeks @rodhilton also worth considering that, because of how federation works, my understanding is that only the people viewing a post on its original instance are guaranteed to be seeing all of the replies. So in practice people who're on small instances might genuinely not be able to tell that they're repeating already-common things in the replies.

Zaphod Beeblebrox

@kemayo
Case and point: I don't see any of the @Beeks comments you're replying to
@Beeks @rodhilton

Beeks Jun 3, 2023

@Xtrems876 @kemayo @rodhilton aww wtf? I see you :/

David Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton The conclusion to draw is that code review is a bad idea - I believe it’s a bad idea also. I know of a very, very rich company where their dev teams are usually small - sometimes only 1/2 people - so in order to have “code reviews”, they’ve decided to have non-developers “code review” the developers’ code.

Rod Hilton Jun 3, 2023

@david1 see what I mean?

Grant Miller, Bygone Lands Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton I’m just thankful it’s not all covered in reddit lingo or Twitter rage … at least not yet. Most comments I get seem like they come from normal people, with all the social awkwardness that entails. It’s like taking an internet time machine back ten years.

Zaphod Beeblebrox

@rodhilton
So, reddit-like

mrpieceofwork Jun 3, 2023

@rodhilton what percent is it of peeps just commenting to be silly? lol