Do you have a friend or family member who is not on Mastodon?
And you are thinking, "love to introduce them, but the whole multiple servers thing... 🤔"
Well, you are in luck.
A new site makes joining Mastodon a snap >>> https://spreadmastodon.org/
In minutes, #newbies will be up and running on mastodon.social (other instances coming soon).
@spreadmastodon has been developed by @tchambers and his team, so you know it's safe to recommend.
Let's do this!
@mastodonmigration @tchambers
It looks interesting, but what does it do?
First thing the web site does is ask me to sign in to my Mastodon account.
Second thing is, my Mastodon instance asks me if I want to authorize SpreadMastodon.org for full access to my account.
No explanation of what is going to happen or what is intended.
I'm not saying Yes if the website isn't even going to give me the courtesy of telling me what is intended, other than: "Do this! It'll be really cool!"
#SpreadMastodon
@spreadmastodon
@mastodonmigration @tchambers
Sounds useful!
But, to this point, I seem to be just talking to "business" accounts SpreadMastodon@ etc. without an actual person, so I have some questions:
1.What is your name?
2.Can I get Tim Chambers to verify?
3. I see the text "@tchambers" mentioned, but without an instance name, that just refers to your own instance, so it's @Tchambers which is NOT the same account as @tchambers, right?
../2
@spreadmastodon
@mastodonmigration @tchambers @Tchambers
..2:
Also, could tchambers please show Mastodon verification? I mean the equivalent of the Blue Checkmark from Twitter, meaning that on your website there is a tag that produces the green Verified checkmark on Mastodon. (I think you're supposed to embed <id= (your Mastodon account)> on that web page, or something.
It should be easy to do, and I don't want anyone spoof name-dropping tchambers.
Sorry, go ahead and call me paranoid.
@potungthul @spreadmastodon @mastodonmigration @Tchambers
And Mastodon social was my first account and migrated over to a new server I admin at Indieweb.social…. 👍
Okay, I tried it, and it basically goes through about 5 web pages, each one a step to set up your Mastodon account. It shows a whole bunch of suggested accounts and tags to follow. You can Select All, or choose categories like "Science" or "News" to follow, which checks/unchecked a bunch of accounts/tags for that category, and you can fine-tune it further if you like.
Very well done! But do explain your intent before requesting access, please.
@mastodonmigration @tchambers @spreadmastodon
is it too late for "spreadiverse"?
@xurizaemon @mastodonmigration @spreadmastodon
One second, be right back -- going to go design some "Spreadiverse" merch! 🙂
@bengo @mastodonmigration @spreadmastodon
For the sign up we have SSL, and for the site we have privacy policies, etc. And that sign up never sees our server, goes right to the server they are created on.
Happy to add more language to make that clearer if you think that helps.
For the "Enhance your account" we do ask for authentication, but it's entirely optional, and all is under the same privacy policy, etc, and its entirely optional.
@tchambers @mastodonmigration @spreadmastodon adding language would mitigate (remember to use a unique password for this site! or a password manager)
It wasn't clear to me exactly what the 'enhance your account' value prop was so that's why it felt surprising to be asked for a password
@bengo @tchambers @mastodonmigration
No the new account is not ours. Initially it is at Mastodon.social but with an easier sign up, and we are looking to replace that with a sign up to a round robin. of a good number of other trusted, reputable, well run, third party mastodon servers.
@spreadmastodon @tchambers @mastodonmigration awesome. I like how it's signing up on a separate place.
Ideally from an end-user security perspective they would only have to type their password in on a web page on mastodon.social in that case
@mastodonmigration @tchambers @spreadmastodon
This makes little sense. Your funnelling the whole concept of federated services and pushing users into a single server.
That's not what federation is about.
@simonzerafa @tchambers
@mastodonmigration
Hi Simon: you may have missed this: https://spreadmastodon.org/utilities/round-robin
This is where we are wanting to build to but looking for users feedback. We feel this avoids the concern about centralization but keeps ease of sign up. Open for suggestions on it.
@spreadmastodon @tchambers @mastodonmigration
No that doesn't seem to do it either.
New users need information on how to pick an instance they will be comfortable using has a local community they find interesting and relevant.
Ask questions and offer instance suggestions based on criteria they pick based on subjects, interests or location perhaps? 🤔🤷♂️
Exclude those instances with a track record of toxic content and poor moderation standards.
@simonzerafa @tchambers
@mastodonmigration
The round robin option now defintely excludes any that do not adhere to the Mastodon Server Covenant so no toxic behavior or moderation.
And user choice is something we will think about - how to have this simple sign-on but still offer users a way to go beyond the recommended server if they choose.So we hear your concern over how to show more choice to some.
But do you think this method removes the issue of "a single server" you were concerned of?
@mastodonmigration @tchambers @spreadmastodon fyi the hamburger menu isn’t working for me. On Firefox iOS.
Also, what does the ‘enhance’ action do? It isn’t explained.
We know of a bug in some mobile UI on the hamburger menu...thanks tho, on our list.👍
Enhance: is a set of tools for adding recommended active followers, following top hashtags, and points users to apps.
@spreadmastodon @Brendanjones @tchambers
Having just used it on a less important account, I can say it's a very basic onboarding type scenario, where it gives you a bunch of topics and people it thinks you might want to follow, then a bunch of tips and information, and a way to migrate your Twitter follows.
What I find odd about it is that it asks for way more permission than it needs to follow people. I'm wondering if maybe whoever was programming it set it up to ask for everything when they were working on it, then forgot to remove that when they narrowed it down to follows.
@Raccoon @Brendanjones @tchambers
For the one-click following of hashtags, group of accounts, etc we def needed read/write access, but happy to go back into our app and ensure that we were asked for the bare minimum to get the app working:
Marc Meyer
Mastodon Migration
Spread Mastodon
Potung Thul
Marion Grau
Tim Chambers
ervinsson
Chris Burgess
bengo
Simon Zerafa
Brendan Jones
Raccoon🇺🇸🏳️🌈
C.S.Strowbridge
Probably Paul