Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@tael Respectfully, we're looking at very different feeds. I assume you've heard of the reply guys getting in peoples mentions telling people off for not doing alt text, or content warnings? THAT is why good people are bouncing and that is exactly why it *is* an echo chamber. If you don't conform to these rules, instead of, you know, just not following them, or blocking them, or hell, defederating their server (all of which I would be fine with) people feel so privileged that they get in these new comers face and tell them "you're doing it wrong".
We should be encouraging communities that we don't agree with. This isn't "the nazi bar" story. There ISNT a single bar! It's the "you can't come into MY bar" story. That's what federation was built for. Why is that so hard for people to live with?
@scottjenson I don't think you're going to be persuaded away from this view. However, the reply guys exposing you to a paradigm different from your own, holding you to expectations you're unfamiliar with, are exactly what makes it not an echo chamber. If nobody ever bothered you or came into your notifs to disagree with you, you'd be in an echo chamber. Which it seems is what you're used to.
In most social media, there might be Nazis and communists on the same website. The algorithm constructs separate "bars" for them by simply not showing them each others' posts, heavily auto-moderating what language you can use in your posts, and recommending you people to follow that you like to interact with because you agree with them.
That is what builds social media platform retention. Mastodon has none of that. Instead, you defederate the Nazi bar and only talk to the bars that don't allow Nazis. Most people don't "get" that because it's always been done for them. And that's OK.
@scottjenson You're looking at a tidal wave of criticism crashing into you and calling it an echo chamber. The echo chamber is when you are never exposed to exactly that. In an echo chamber, you don't realize you're in one; the only viewpoints you're hearing are your own.
The argument we're having isn't over whether people leave because they get criticized too much. That's obviously a real phenomenon. It's over whether that constitutes an "echo chamber." Those people leave because they are used to echo chambers.
> That isn't my priority,
Why is that? I would like you to be comfortable, that is what builds diverse communities: tolerance and respect.
Scott Jenson
Tael 🔜 AC26
Worik
Mateusz 🏳️🌈