Jerry 🦙💝🦙Apr 16, 2025

8 years on, Mastodon is still failing because it’s so hard to use https://v.cx/2025/04/mastodon-exit-interview

(For clarity, mastodon is not failing - that was my apparently bad attempt at sarcasm. Please see my response to this post for more details)

Mastodon Exit Interview

I am currently winding down the Mastodon bots I used to post sunrise and sunset times. The precipitating event is that the admin of the instance hosting the associated accounts demanded they be made nigh-undiscoverable, but the underlying cause is that it’s become increasing clear that Mastodon isn’t, and won’t ever be, a good platform for “asynchronous ephemeral notifications of any kind”. I’d also argue (more controversially) that it’s simply not good infrastructure for social networking of any kind. There are lots of interesting people using Mastodon, and I’m sure it will live on as a good-enough space for certain niche groups. But there is no question that it will never offer the fun of early Twitter, let alone the vibrancy of Twitter during its growth phase. I’ve long since dropped Mastodon from my home screen, and have switched to Bluesky for text-centric social media.

Rob’s Posts
Show threadhal8999Apr 16, 2025

@jerry While the complaints about individual use are valid, I also have to think....one more mindless bot (or a hundred) are dead? Good riddance.

Don't let the exit interview hit you in the ass on the way out.

Show threadRob ShearerApr 18, 2025
@hal8999 @jerry "I'm glad this content I never noticed is no longer available to the thousands of people who chose to make it part of their day" vibes are common. 🤷
Show threadhal8999Apr 18, 2025

@rvcx Rob, the bot craze makes the human:non-human ratio ridiculous.

I don't notice thousands of bad drivers on the roads around the world. But I am annoyed and endangered by the ones near me.

So, yeah, I'd still be happy if thousands of bad drivers disappeared. Even if they weren't near me.

Maybe your bots were nice. Or non-obtrusive. Or only notif on request/subscribption. But, overall, IMO, automated non-human posting is more noise and litter than actual 'social' interaction. YMMV.

Show threadRob Shearer
@hal8999 Questionable analogy aside, there is very literally a piece of metadata on every single account—and every single post—to say whether it's from a bot. Kinda seems like if "no bots" is what you want, your software is seriously letting you down not to offer it.
Apr 18, 2025 at 6:39pmWeb
Show threadhal8999Apr 18, 2025

@rvcx My application is sub-par through ignorance: web browser with an empty filter page.

I'll do some homework to see how to trap a metadata tag for self-proclaimed bots.

I do appreciate your human response.

Show threadRob ShearerApr 18, 2025
@hal8999 Good luck with that. Mastodon's development wrt filters has been as stalled out as everything else. I know a dev community with no momentum when I see one. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/8293
Add an option to hide bots' posts · Issue #8293 · mastodon/mastodon

I think it should be useful to add an option to the local and global timelines to not display posts made by bots (aka. users who have the "service" Actor type). EDIT: Actually, it may be good to ha...

GitHub
Show threadhal8999Apr 18, 2025
@rvcx yep, you see the same circle of 4-5 issues linking to each other...none of them really resolved.
Show threadRob ShearerApr 19, 2025
@hal8999 I know mastodon peeps get defensive about all this, and all I can tell you is that I don't harbor any real animosity. I picked an instance with an *explicit* policy of allowing bots, with *very* clear rules about how often they can post. I set up all the metadata, including making sure the *same* agent url was used on every post to allow filtering across all accounts. And then "we hate bots here, but we've avoided implementing even the simplest features for SEVEN YEARS, so f*** you"
Show threadRob ShearerApr 19, 2025
@hal8999 If you notice I'm called out by name in the issue I linked. Because that guy sent me an anonymous email—not just no Mastodon handle but not even a name, signature, or greeting—calling me an asshole and demanding that I change my bots immediately. I traded a half-dozen emails with this guy and he refused to give a name or explain what his interest was in this at all.
Show threadRob ShearerApr 19, 2025
@hal8999 It's fine. This was never a "side hustle"; just a lark. One that I have also received a bunch of very nice messages about. After certain disastrous political events, I receive a handful of "sometimes it means a lot to be reminded the sun will rise tomorrow" messages. And I feel a little guilty abandoning those people. But why on earth would I want to put up with the headache of injecting myself into a "community" that doesn't want me? A community whose identity is based on exclusion?
Show threadhal8999Apr 22, 2025

@rvcx

I hear what you're saying. My comment to the effect of 'good riddance' was tongue-in-cheek to bots in general. Not to humans like you.

In this server, there is a rule to self-identify as a bot. But, no way to filter out all bots. Strange technical connundrum.

Those two hurdles would make Mastodon a better place. 1. honorable creators who label their account as a bot 2. the ability of users to filter bots as a category, instead of account-by-account.

That makes subscriptions to a feed seem more in control of the user.

The younger folk just tell me to scroll past. But when a feed is 90% automated posts...that gets old. I'm the kind of old geezer who would read the Sunday newspaper for hours. I enjoy human-created that speaks to other humans.

I'm a dying breed of consumer according to the internet. :(

Don't stop creating because of rude dudes like me. If your bots are bringing value to peoples' feeds, then keep feeding them. It's good to know there's a human behind the things.