jacobianJun 15, 2023

“Mastodon had its chance and it blew it”

I couldn’t agree with this post more. I had super high hopes, but I’m pretty convinced now that between the technical and social issues there’s not a good chance of mastodon being anything other than a tiny niche.

I’m unlikely to go back to Twitter, and BlueSky seems unlikely to be a place I wanna hang out, so I guess this is still home for me for now. But I’m pretty sad things here aren’t going in a different direction.

https://blog.bloonface.com/2023/06/12/why-did-the-twittermigration-fail/

Why did the #TwitterMigration fail? – Café Lob-On

Show threadZ̈oéJun 15, 2023
@jacob a lot of the article is just simply *not true*?? you can search for and follow someone who's on a different instance just fine no need to copy URLs what so ever. just throw in their handle into the search bar and click follow next to their name
Show threadFlorian LawsJun 15, 2023

@uint8_t @jacob the distinction between whether it is your URL or your handle that I need to copy and paste into the search box on my instance is unnecessary pedantry.

It is the copy-and-pasting and not being able to click the follow button that creates the friction.

(Same for replying, I needed to copy and paste the URL of your comment into the search box of my instance)

Show threadZ̈oé
@flaws @jacob I literally can just click reply? I don't follow.
Jun 15, 2023 at 9:17amWeb
Show threadFlorian LawsJun 15, 2023

@uint8_t @jacob if you happen to view the comment on your home instance then yes.
If you happen to view it on a different instance then no.

Why would you see it on a different instance?
Because for example if you got a reshared post in your timeline but your home instance isn't subscribed to the post's instance, you don't immediately see the comment thread. You need to click the ... menu to "view the post on it's original instance" so you can see the comment thread...
But then you can't click reply because you're not on your home instance anymore.

Show threadZ̈oéJun 15, 2023

@flaws @jacob yeah that's something the mastodon frontend doesn't implement well. it would only need to check if the link points to a fedi instance and in that case not open it in a new tab but use the AP APIs.

not an issue in other clients tho, and also not really a protocol problem... 🤷‍♀️