Maria AntoniakJul 5, 2023

Did you know that when you view the replies to a post, you only see the replies known to your server? The rest are hidden 🤯

If you're new to Mastodon (or maybe you've been here a while but haven't dived deeper into the community's design), I wrote up a list of things I wish I had understood when I first joined.

https://maria-antoniak.github.io/2023/07/04/notes-on-mastodon.html

This doubles as a list of things that I think need to change if Mastodon is going to be a Twitter replacement. I'd really like Mastodon to succeed!

Maria Antoniak

My academic website / portfolio.

Show threadMaria AntoniakJul 5, 2023
(Don't come into my replies if you just want to insult Twitter users or Twitter design or "algorithms" or if you want to claim "it's not that hard to use Mastodon." If you disagree with the premise that Mastodon should be a place for the public at large, not just FOSS fans, then we're not going to have a productive discussion.)
Show threadAdam LauretigJul 5, 2023
@maria_antoniak i think your post is great! I remain convinced that the modal Mastodon user is the kind of Linux user who thinks Ubuntu users are “soft/weak/coddled,” and they view the problems of Masto as a badge of honor. That they could figure it out and the “normies” couldn’t is seen as a good thing. This also explains why the more “hard core” Linux distros have faded into obscurity (ex: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3109830/why-did-gentoo-linux-fade-into-obscurity.html).
Why did Gentoo Linux fade into obscurity?

Also in today's open source roundup: DistroWatch reviews the Gentoo Linux live DVD "Choice Edition," and Google will kill Chrome apps for Linux

InfoWorld
Show threadMaria AntoniakJul 5, 2023
@lauretig Yep, 100% agreed. Someone needs to save Mastodon from that group, otherwise it's never going to work at a larger scale.
Show threadMaria Antoniak
@lauretig And that article with all the perspectives about Gentoo Linux is great, thank you for sharing!
Jul 5, 2023 at 6:46pmWeb
Show threadMaria AntoniakJul 5, 2023
@lauretig "I finally realized my time is worth something, and I’d rather use my OS than…with it all the time" lol
Show threadAdam LauretigJul 6, 2023
@maria_antoniak I think the point a bunch of people made about fractured/chaotic leadership rings home about Masto too! If there's no one to 1) have a decisive vision, and 2) be the "buck stops here" person, chaos results, important decisions pile up, and boring but necessary work doesn't get done.
Show threadDave 🦔Jul 17, 2023
@lauretig
Eugen Rochko is the single decision maker for Mastodon software, though?
@maria_antoniak
Show threadMaria AntoniakJul 17, 2023
@_dmh @lauretig So should we blame him for everything? Serious question!
Show threadDave 🦔Jul 17, 2023

@maria_antoniak
At some level maybe? But he's been the sole full time developer making Mastodon a thing afaik, and does not make a ton of money doing it (way below industry salaries) so I feel like saying he's responsible is true but calling it blame is a bit strong (unless we mean git blame ig)

I know a lot of folks are pushing the nonprofit to set up a steering board or something so he can focus on dev and decision-making can be more community organized, but these things take time to set up
@lauretig