Mastodawn

Jose Gutierrez Jul 1, 2023

It’s super privileged to tell people to “simply stop using Twitter.” People who rely on mutual aid can’t do that here due to much smaller reach (and sometimes even server rules). People have life-saving community on Twitter that doesn’t exist elsewhere.

Ever try sharing a Mastodon link to someone who isn’t a user? It’s a garbage experience and if you run a business or something Mastodon is not the place.

Stop putting the onus on marginalized people to make your platform succeed, that’s a garbage take!!!!!

Shantini Jul 1, 2023

Additionally, just because a person is on here doesn’t mean they’re a fediverse evangelist or enjoyer. Many of us are just here because other people came here from Twitter. Many of us will also leave once a better alternative becomes available.

Shantini Jul 1, 2023

This place is never going to be where “everyone” is. I’m sorry. Give up on that. Twitter was easy to sign up for, had search, and you could share public links to Tweets without friction. This place has too much “ideology” and too little functionality.

william.maggos Jul 1, 2023

you don't know that. you're acting as bad as the people who want to police how people interact here. that's like saying everyone won't ever be on the internet. it's not one place. everybody has email. functionality is improving. the percentage of ideologues will decrease as more normies join. please support the people who build the software and pay for your instance without deciding what you see for their own goals, pushing ads at you or data mining your experience.

william.maggos Jul 2, 2023

no reply, no convo. she just blocked me. 🙃

Bynkii Jul 1, 2023

@shantini oh the HOA is big mad at you

Shantini Jul 1, 2023

@bynkii yeah time to start smashing that block button again

Bynkii Jul 1, 2023

@shantini I got two off that post alone! 😁

🇨🇦Jul 1, 2023

@shantini Perhaps. But here I am confident that I am messaging a person. And that the flow of toots to my screen is not algorithmically selected to make me angry. Do I wish there were 10x as many users? Of course. Do I wish I could find things that I saw before ? Yes, sometimes. But all of my complaints fall into the category of “so what. Keep giving it a try”

Paul Cantrell Jul 3, 2023

@notveryhandsome
Take a moment to read the 3-post thread you’re replying to there.

Were those posts asking for •your• opinion on •your• experience?

Or were they asking you to consider the experiences of people who are •not• you, and whose needs are different from yours and you may not have considered?

🇨🇦Jul 4, 2023

@inthehands
@shantini

On rereading my own remarks, I realize that I was too quick to pass over valid criticism of Mastodon. Sorry about that. In hindsight it was too late at night for me to give a great reply.

I really want Mastodon to succeed. I like it conceptually and have invested more time into discovering other users than I ever did on the bird platform.

But all the criticism @shantini is making is valid. Sadly Mastodon has the flavour of Linux on the desktop. Of course it works, and the enthusiasts are very happy. But the sudden migration to desktop Linux did not happen.

Paul Cantrell Jul 4, 2023

@notveryhandsome
Thanks for taking the criticism well. Not everyone can do that. I know that the barrage of replies to posts about Mastodon’s shortcoming have really exhausted and demoralized a lot of people, including Shantini.

I agree about the Linux on the Desktop parallel. I think Mastodon has better odds of wider success, but it shares similar problem. I too want community-owned social networking to succeed.

Sandip Bhattacharya ☮️Jul 2, 2023

@shantini i think beyond Twitter, we just have to accept that the social networking world will splinter. There will never be a place where everyone is. My only hope is that these alternatives are going to be small enough to deter large corps from taking them over. Only then we can hope that their walls are going to be short enough for people to build bridges across them

Hughster Jul 3, 2023

@shantini There are some big instances, like universeodon.com and infosec.exchange, that offer full search just like Twitter. Worth a go for anyone who misses it.

Wesley Hilliard Jul 2, 2023

@shantini yeppppp, I like mastodon, but the longer I’m here the more it feels like a stopgap. Too many people playing gatekeeper for “how mastodon should be”

Hurry up and make MySpace 2.0. I want to play with 2000’s html to add glitter to my music player that just loops theory of a deadman.

Hobie Henning Jul 1, 2023

@shantini That’s going to be the hardest thing for me is losing my Twitter community. It seems like people are kinda splitting up and dispersing. With my community I don’t know if I would have stuck with tech and taken the path that I’ve taken. I’m sure things will pan out with time, but the transition will be difficult some days.

Shantini Jul 1, 2023

@hobiehenning 💜

Jose Gutierrez Jul 1, 2023

@shantini I’m really hoping Bluesky becomes a closer experience to Twitter. I don’t see Mastodon becoming the next thing. I think Facebook has lost too much credibility for Threads to succeed.

Brian Grinter Jul 2, 2023

@jose @shantini not holding out much hope

tw1tch Jul 1, 2023

@shantini have you considered contributing to the Mastodon codebase? It’s open source, right? What would you do to “fix” it (I just got on to Mastodon and don’t know anything)?

Antti Peltola ⁂Jul 1, 2023

@tw1tch
You understand this is an elitist take? 😁

tw1tch Jul 1, 2023

@anttipeltola you will have to explain which is elitist please - my suggestion to contribute in an effort to improve what she sees as deficient or her unwillingness even to acknowledge my suggestion because of my social standing on the platform I just joined?

Antti Peltola ⁂Jul 1, 2023

@tw1tch
If you're working multiple shitty low paid jobs just to keep a roof over your head you don't have energy for "learn to code". That's why this is a privileged take on it.

tw1tch Jul 1, 2023

@anttipeltola she’s a software engineer at Apple.

Antti Peltola ⁂Jul 1, 2023

@tw1tch
Users shouldn't be required to fix UX issues by themselves which Mastodon have plenty. No matter how capable they are.

tw1tch Jul 1, 2023

@anttipeltola it’s an open source project, right? I just cloned the repo and deployed the code to Heroku the other day, so I know it is. If I had the background and understanding (and time) required to make edits to the application, I know I would at least try to fix what I saw as a problem, but I like to tinker.

tw1tch Jul 2, 2023

@anttipeltola https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon

mastodon/mastodon

Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community - mastodon/mastodon

GitHub

tw1tch Jul 1, 2023

@anttipeltola or are you suggesting I wouldn’t have time to learn to code? I’m very confused.

Antti Peltola ⁂Jul 1, 2023

@tw1tch
Mastodon receives over 30,000 USD per month in Patreon donations now. That should comfortably cover for full-time employees to figure this shit out and fix them.

Ricky Smith Jul 2, 2023

@anttipeltola You know that's the salary of only 3 half-decent software engineers?

Antti Peltola ⁂Jul 2, 2023

@rickysmith
Around 5 across the pond.

tw1tch Jul 2, 2023

@anttipeltola @rickysmith There have been 13 engineers making pull requests against the repo since it was created, according to GitHub. There’s a section in the README.md about contributing which points to CONTRIBUTING.md which suggests that users can/should submit their bugs, features they see as missing, and code contributions. It’s written mostly in JavaScript and Ruby as far as I can tell. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

mastodon/CONTRIBUTING.md at main · mastodon/mastodon

Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community - mastodon/mastodon

GitHub

Ricky Smith Jul 2, 2023

@tw1tch @anttipeltola I meant cost-wise. $30k is only enough for the salary of 3 engineers. I don’t know how they’re spending that money.

tw1tch Jul 2, 2023

@rickysmith @anttipeltola right, and I don’t know anything about the project beyond what I saw in the repo. I see 13 people committing (or think I do). I don’t know where their donations go, and the only point of my reply to the parent post which I can no longer see because I was blocked was that anyone can make a contribution to the project. OPs complaint was Re: sharing posts to unregistered users. Anybody know Ruby?

Doug Bostrom Jul 1, 2023

Axiomatic conundrum: people are reading this.

🙂

Matthias Bürcher Jul 2, 2023

@shantini Sharing convenience may depend on the app but with Ivory on iOS sharing a post is as easy as sharing an URL from the browser.

Mark Keisler Jul 2, 2023

@shantini amazing that anyone was able to live before the 21st century.