Xe Jul 14, 2023
I tried using Email but the onboarding was very confusing. I have to choose a server? And I'm at the whims of server admins having petty disputes for if my posts are delivered to my friends?
Show threadThinkaholic is 🐸 antifaJul 15, 2023
@cadey Ah, yes, the time-honored technique of mocking potential Mastodon users for not being geeky enough. The same approach that made Linux on the desktop so successful, now brought to anti-social media.
I will never understand this mindset of wanting Mastodon to absolutely fail to make a dent in the world and to see corporate platforms continue to dominate because… non-techs users are cringe? Because it’s so much fun to say “It works for me” and smirk? I guess I’m not cool enough to get it.
Show threadLisPiJul 17, 2023

@pooserville @cadey Users unwilling to learn or help themselves are cringe.

Being a noob isn't inherently bad. Everyone starts there. Some choose to stay there against their own well-being and *that* is what's deplorable.

(Also the fact they generally already faced the exact same challenge with email, so they're not really failing to understand, they're intentionally refusing to do it.)

Show threadThinkaholic is 🐸 antifaJul 17, 2023
@lispi314 You know, email is a great example! Let's compare email to Mastodon:
There is one default consumer email provider, and it's Google. Microsoft is a distant second. So let's pick one instance, say Mastodon.social, and make it the default for new signups.
Which provider doesn't matter, because nobody except hobbyist neckbeards will ever defederate from Gmail or Microsoft or other large providers. So let's make it impossible to defederate from major instances.
Yeah, I think this can work…
Show threadLisPiJul 17, 2023

@pooserville Good luck have fun with moderating that. We've already seen the megacorps can't (and won't) effectively do it.

We've also seen exactly how easy it is to completely takeover and ruin such an instance too.

And at the moment, Google exists because antitrust is being ignored (and Microsoft because it was already halfways dead by last time).

Unlike email however, very few people *need* maximum reach social media (or at all), so telling megacorps to get fucked is absolutely an option.

Show threadThinkaholic is 🐸 antifaJul 17, 2023

@lispi314 OK, so the goalposts have moved from "noobs should figure out Mastodon like they figured out email" to "Mastodon should be nothing like email and harder to use in every respect because email sucks." Nobody could have seen that coming!

So, it's okay that Mastodon should only be for people who prove their tech worthiness because nobody needs social media. And megacorps should get fucked so that's why mastodon should push non-techy users to megacorp social media.

Do I have that right?

Show threadLisPi

@pooserville Not really, the comparison to email was only ever a comparison.

Email never actually had this issue in a way that mattered until the idiotic tendency for assuming constant low-latency TCP-friendly connections fully set-in.

You can still send email over #floppies, #Fidonet, #UUCP and #NNCP just fine, by the way.

And you completely ignored my second post, which suggested several ways by which the design could've avoided reimplementing #SMTP but for social media.

Jul 17, 2023 at 2:44pmWeb
Show threadLisPiJul 17, 2023
@pooserville I'm quite aware of the issues with #ActivityPub's chosen design and annoyed because they were entirely avoidable.
Show threadThinkaholic is 🐸 antifaJul 17, 2023
@lispi314 I began composing my response to your first post before I saw your second post, which is why I ignored it.
Assuming for the sake of argument that ActivityPub is far from ideal technically, I still think the primary problem with Mastodon is social. We are driving potential users away into the arms of the megacorp instances by making new users' Mastodon experience crappy, and we should fix that to keep Mastodon relevant and valuable. The technical aspects are IMO much less important.