BBC Radio 5 LiveJul 31, 2023
👋 Hi, we're new here and we're looking forward to meeting you all! We'll be sharing stories from Britain's news and sport station and we'd love to know what you think. It's all part of an experiment with BBC Research & Development. More about it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-07-mastodon-distributed-decentralised-fediverse-activitypub
The BBC on Mastodon: experimenting with distributed and decentralised social media

Trialling ActivityPub and the federated model for social media and it's possibilities for the BBC.

BBC R&D
Show threadWill PhoenixJul 31, 2023

@BBC5Live it would be nice to be able to use this platform to get back in contact with the studio again. A lot of people lost that ability when they came off the old birdsite. You'll find alot of people here arnt on other social networks such as myself . I sort of use whats app but only to talk about vinyl but 5Live isnt on it either anyway.

Anyway just wish Colin Murray would join up.

Show threadWiredfire 

@Whiskeyomega @BBC5Live collecting the fractured landscape for social media now I can imagine makes using it as an inbound route for studio contact is painful.

Mastodon along wouldn’t be enough, it would need to be Threads and BlueSky and whatever else pops up. Then that’s going to be an in-studio pain to manage as there no unified view for all.

You know what would work though? The oldest federated platform know to mankind: email 😜

Jul 31, 2023 at 6:56pmWeb
Show threadWiredfire Jul 31, 2023

@Whiskeyomega @BBC5Live email is the absolute only communication method essentially guaranteed to be available and usable by 100% of people online.

It is fantastic and really needs to be better utilised again. Less great for some personal conversations I appreciate with the general lack of e2ee but for less sensitive topics and things like contacting a studio is it.. perfect.

Show threadWill PhoenixJul 31, 2023

@wiredfire @BBC5Live Yea Email is the one platform that is actually universally used at the BBC but what annoys me is the BBC continued to be massively into twitter for communication to their output.

I guess im just not into using email for a quick message and see it as more formal communication

Show threadWiredfire Jul 31, 2023

@Whiskeyomega @BBC5Live that’s a shift, seeing email as formal, I’m trying to challenge.

We’ve started sending out some family updates to friends & family via email so as not to share personal pictures & news on Facebook etc.. and it actually feels a lot more meaningful, more personal. It’s directed at an included audience rather than thrown on a digital kitchen notice board for whoever happens to pass by to see 😊

Show threadAlex RyanAug 2, 2023
@wiredfire @Whiskeyomega @BBC5Live
The problems with email that leap out at me are:
1. Length - before opening a message, it's hard to know how long of a time commitment it will be;
2. Organisation - unlike Social Media, replies are all on the same 'feed' as the people you follow, so if it's a fairly public or especially a controversial figure, your email inbox is going to fill very very quickly. Or if the replies aren't public, you won't have any interaction from other users at all on them.
Show threadWiredfire Aug 2, 2023

@Lakeomancy @Whiskeyomega @BBC5Live

1. Not an issue. Long email? Mark unread come back later or archive / delete if not interested. Beats social media where if you don’t read it now or vanished down the feed.

2. I don’t know.. Mastodon, Twitter, Facebook.. most social media revolves around a single feed too. Lists or custom feeds require user effort, which can be easily replicated on most email services with rules and folders / labels.

As to replies..

Show threadWiredfire Aug 2, 2023

@Lakeomancy @Whiskeyomega @BBC5Live I’m not suggesting email replace social media as a formal of social media.

I’m suggesting it replace SM as a communication platform for entities like BBC etc.. and as a better way to connect with those close to us.

I send an email, if people want they can hit reply. The recipients don’t need to see each others replies - it’s not social media.