If you're new here, and considering whether this space could become a social home for you:
Many of us have been here for a few years, since well before Threads, BlueSky, Spoutible, Post, Hive, Pebble, Cohost, Blurble, Blarble and Blorble.
We've made it through waves of user migrations, claims of imminent demise, and tech bros telling us we're doing it all wrong.
Years later, we're still here. Ad-free. Non-profit. Open source. Millions strong.
Stay a while. You might just like it. :)
We aim to please 😅
Mastodon calls it private mentions -- it takes a bit of getting used to and is a slightly different concept, but I use it a lot for casual direct comms, and switch to secure messaging apps like Signal for more serious comms.
Much better than the false sense of security of Twitter DMs IMO
Hah, Instagram is the one I've never been on.
There is something a bit like it here on the fediverse, it's called @pixelfed
Just like Mastodon there are multiple servers, and you can follow Pixelfed accounts from on here.
Here's me on Pixelfed for example:
@[email protected] (I haven't posted much)
Oh, sure. There's lots I love about the fediverse but back in the before times, I completely understood why many folks preferred Twitter. In 2023, with Musk turning it into a nazi bar, not so much :)
On the discussion front, I do like a couple of things here better:
- higher character counts (no subscription required)
- I can switch into private mention if a discussion feels like it should no longer be public, without it being a "DM".
As far as UIs for threading, there's tons of alternative UIs and mobile apps -- more than for any other social network that's ever existed, I would guess. I know that doesn't help the average user, but I hope it'll inspire mainline development.
It's super weird and super cool once you realize that it works :-). And then a little less cool when you see some of the ways it doesn't ;-)
Not really!
- Mastodon, the org: legally a nonprofit. Difficult to take over, but if someone did, it wouldn't matter, because:
- Mastodon, the software: irreversibly open source, so anyone else can take it and run with it. Some people have already done so (there are Mastodon variants maintained by other folks, and also completely different software that interoperates)
- Mastodon.social the server: just one of thousands of servers in the fediverse :)
It's pretty billionaire-proof!
ngl, we had some good times on blobrle
@eloquence It’s simple really-
#Mastodon is legit
One of the weird things about Mastodon is that your server may not "know" all about someone else's account. Basically, if nobody on your server follows this person, it will not show you any posts from them.
In the Mastodon web UI there's an "open original page" link hidden under the kebab menu in the top right when you look at someone's profile. Most mobile apps have that, too. It's worth checking sometimes, and you might find a bit more info about the person who's following you.
There are also a lot of newbies who are building out their profiles, so they often haven't posted yet.
I've not seen many spambots following me, maybe 3-4 over a few years, so far. 🤞 They tend to come from a bigger server like mastodon.social, and they'll often have an AI generated profile photo.
@eloquence slow and steady, all the way. Just like Mastodons. But can move very fast when they want, and have a trunk and tusks that they're not afraid to use.
Funny comment aside, yes, it is very nice here.
What use are you hoping to get out of it, that you're not getting?
Ah, sorry to hear. FWIW, my feed here really started boppin' once I crossed about 1,000 followed accounts or so -- it took a while, but now I have to actively tear myself away from it at times. 😅
Being able to follow hashtags was another game-changer, I discover a lot of stuff that way.
It does help, of course, that my interests align well with fedi's core demographic -- e.g., open source, AI, anti-capitalism, STEM, and gorgeous photography. ;-)
If you've not run it in a while, I always recommend spinning the ol' https://followgraph.vercel.app/ wheel (annoyingly you have to put your address in email format, like "[email protected]", or it won't work).
This is something that some apps have started to build in to make it easier to find interesting accounts to follow -- it's basically just walking your existing social graph by one step.
Probably not the same folks from X, but maybe some interesting new folks :)
Definitely recommend hashtags to future arts desk posts -- it was less important on Twitter, but here it really makes a difference, especially with the hashtag-follow feature.
If you add "[email protected]" with a @ in front as well (not doing that to avoid triggering it), a post will be boosted to the 1K members of that group -- another good way to get reach, and they all signed up for it by following that account so it's not considered spammy :)
> Blurble, Blarble and Blorble
You can’t fool me. Those aren’t social media sites. Those are three of the dwarves that went treasure-hunting with Bilbo Baggins in *The Hobbit*.
@dpnash
I honestly havent heard of those names before.
I was roughly guessing they were some media site I never heard of before.
I dont recall those being the names of the other hobbits.
But my memory with names is pretty bad anyways, so I pretend like I'm reading some more indirect implications I dont understand but am expected to nod and be quiet, and/or not argue with publicly, while my brains screams at the screen, without uttering a sound (if I can keep this thing quiet)
@GreenRoc @eloquence Argh, nothing like having to explain my own jokes. 😞
I’m pretty sure the original poster was riffing off the actual “Bumble” dating/social media site and making up three applications/sites with similar names. In *The Hobbit*, three of the dwarves were Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, which sounded enough like the three made-up social media sites, at least when said a bit quickly and possibly when slightly drunk, to make a suitable punchline.
Ah, I remember Plork. As a wise horse once said, time’s arrow neither stands still nor reverses, it merely marches forward.
Annette R
Erik Moeller
Simon Campbell
Mim1956🟥🍀🌹 🍉🍋
Cynister
craftycat
tomvdp
xs4me2
GoNancyGo
George Goodman
Florian Egermann
Jennifer
Dilman Dila
J.J. Tindall
Mori
Irena
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David Nice
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David Nash
Green Roc Thoughts
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