Mastodon isn't perfect.
But the fact a social network exists that is completely free to use
has no venture capital investors
has no shareholders to answer to
has no growth targets
with a web interface with zero tracking cookies
and mobile apps with zero trackers at all
with ten thousand server administrators who donate their time for user safety
is - in my opinion - mindbogglingly cool, given the state of the world we live in. Not everything has to be shit. People make things better.
@GossiTheDog
with no ads, even without ad blockers!
With no engagement-reinforcing force-feeding of content
with no arbitrary rules that only exist to keep the platform "advertisable" (there are still arbitrary rules, though 😅)
just wanted to extend your list by some additional noteworthy selling points
@DJGummikuh @GossiTheDog It would be nice if we could come up with language that captures the difference between ads and “posts that someone paid to place on timeline”.
There are ads on Mastodon, such as the artists who post to promote their work or services for sale. They are generally a good thing because you only see them under the same circumstances that you see any post.
But there are no posts that are forced onto your timeline.
@macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh @GossiTheDog
In the long lost days of the #cluetrain we called these "having a conversation“ — unlike 'advertising', you can reply, share or block, and if the OP doesn't grasp that "business is conversation" it's not because we didn't give them the chance ☺️
@macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh @GossiTheDog
I think a big part of the difference is that the admins that run fedi instances aren't paid by advertisers.
This means that any advertising is just like any other post. It's not done by the social network itself, only by its users.
So maybe sth like "not ad-funded" would be a good short-hand way to describe it.
@macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh @GossiTheDog
I call them posters, just like the ones we put up around town, advertising our punk concerts or book cafes, back in the day.
@macberg @MartyFouts @DJGummikuh @GossiTheDog
If I'm in a room full of people, and tell everyone I talk to about a gig I've got coming up, am I advertising? Is that an ad?
@siobhansarelle @macberg @DJGummikuh @GossiTheDog Yes, you would be advertising, if you were talking in a way meant to encourage people to attend. There’s nothing wrong with that and self promotion is a necessity.
“An ad” implies that there is a record of what you said that you meant to publish more widely, possibly repeatedly, but broadly speaking such encouragement is an ad.
@ravirockks Because they are made and programmed by humans, an inherently flawed species.
@finlaydag33k @GossiTheDog Humans are not flawed. The people viewing humans as flawed are flawed.
Those people need to be shown the mirror.
@ravirockks Ah yes... Because all those times kings, dictators and other types of "rulers" sent people to die in wars, just so they themselves can obtain more power and riches sure is an indicator of a "perfect species"...
And 1001 more jokes to tell yourself.
@ravirockks It's hard to pick up jokes over text.
@maxi Ah, I hadn’t inspected the edit log and time stamps. I didn’t even see that this post was edited. 🥹
Thanks for letting me know, in a kind way. 🙂
@GossiTheDog Yeah, it really feels like something different.
It's a shame that it isn't growing as fast as some alternatives, but the slow but sustainable growth alongside the evolution of the technology makes it feel much more like "technology as infrastructure" than the "technology as capital" we've had for the past decade.
Now if only we could diminish the number of reply guys with "actually it does have cookies or else the login wouldn't work...", we could really make it perfect.
@eskuero @GossiTheDog it was two years ago
Attached: 2 images This one did some numbers back then
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