Bob Mottram
(cringe) This is what I'd call technologically illiterate journalism. It's not quite as bad as complaining about the name of the project (insert crying baby gif), but it's not far elevated above that level.

https://medium.com/dark-mountain/fatal-flaw-with-mastodon-1ef0cb1965ed

He mentions that the system is distributed, but obviously hasn't grokked what that actually means.

Servers have user accounts. I know, shocking, isn't it? Same applies for email, xmpp, forums and just about any other service located on a server. They're not all magically synchronized by some universally agreed protocol. Nor would it be reasonable for them to be.

If you want a pre-internet analogy, there could be Bob living in Manchester and Bob living in Glasgow, and they might be different Bobs!

Scandalized? I thought you would be.
Apr 16, 2017 at 5:25pmWeb
Show threadRysiekúr (old account)Apr 16, 2017
@bob I think you should have put the whole thing behind a "Trigger: cringe" content warning ;)
Show threadEdward VielmettiApr 16, 2017
@bob Even better, on the UUCP networks there could be two machines named "frodo", and your route would have to be explicit to bang-path your mail to one or another of them, leading to centralized UUCP Map project and the adage that "all the good names are taken".
Show threadChrisApr 16, 2017
@bob damn, that article is god-awful. He almost seems to get it in the first paragraph then quickly nosedives into "I don't know how to use the internet without corporate overlords helping me" territory.
Show threadtobyApr 16, 2017
@bob these people think Gmail is email
Show threadالتنينوكسApr 16, 2017
@bob Little did he now the actual ID is in the form @[email protected] rather than a simple @username.
Show threadPaul PritchardApr 16, 2017
@bob While we're at it, let's ban TLDs. It's terrible that I need a .com a .org and a .net
Show threadFrankie SaxxApr 16, 2017
@bob I hesitate to describe things published on medium "journalism".
Show threadUnaSpenserApr 16, 2017

@bob every bad "review" I've read about mastodon, thus far, seems to have this critical problem: they don't understand the decentralized concept.

they all feel like old guys yelling, "get back on MY lawn!" where they can control the game.

Still, decentralization is the sustainable future.

Show threadZak AuerbachApr 16, 2017
.@bob So one of the things that I do genuinely think differentiates Mastodon and Email is that if you control the domain for email you can change servers very easily. You leave old data behind but changing MX records means you fully control where new mail and messages get routed.
Show threadZak AuerbachApr 16, 2017

.@bob the "you have an email account on a server" is true inasmuch as you use a given server to host email while you point your domain at it. I can stay [email protected] and also leave an email server I don't like anymore.

I did this exact thing, in fact, when I switched from google apps to fastmail. Control over domains means more options and control for users. Forums and mastodon don't have this.

Show threadfrank87Apr 16, 2017
@bob It's a feature, you can join a server with your friends.
A flaw is it's impossible to use links to other servers as a reference. It would be nice to toot a link to other servers you find on the internet.
Show threadVertanaApr 16, 2017
@bob I think this is a legitimate criticism. It is, of course, by design and I happen to agree with the design. However, if you see that this service is being compared to Twitter and not email, what else is a person who may not be technically savvy supposed to think? I also agree that it poses a problem for "mainstream" users. Instead of 1 URL to see what a famous person is posting, you now have to know the server that person is on. Was "therealdonald" on .xyz or .cloud?
Show threadStonehippoApr 16, 2017

@bob You're right that simple identity is not unique across federated systems. But this isn't clear to everyone.

The problem arises from an incorrect assumption on the part of most users, which the implementation has reinforced. Many usere are coming from monolithic platforms, where their handles are globally unique. At times Mastodon clients have not shown fully-qualified handles, so they assume uniqueness here. Unlike email, where FQ ID has been the habit for decades.

Show threadSabo BorbApr 16, 2017

@bob Lol I know right? like how when Gmail goes down I can log in through Yahoo and everything is fine.

moron.

Show threadSunitaApr 16, 2017
@bob That was a strange post. Why is it so hard to grasp that your handle is the only one in your instance but in the federation you have your handle + instance as your ID?
Show threadJan De DobbeleerApr 16, 2017
@bob https://mastodon.herebedragons.io/media/kSjk-BZ-I9sFg3v8wYc
Show threadmanicphaseApr 16, 2017
@bob man needs to learn the difference between fatal flaw and hypothetical annoyance
Show threadtonnydouradoApr 16, 2017
@bob This is what I'd call illiterate journalism, period. Guy writes like a caveman.
Show threadSolApr 16, 2017
@bob well put!
Show threadJeff AuriemmaApr 16, 2017
@bob it seems to me that some form of opt-in identity verification could conceivably be a feature of Mastodon at some point, so the author's bluster seems premature. It would have been more appropriate for the author to have opened a GitHub issue requesting this feature. This isn't Twitter, the community has a voice thanks to @Gargron 's vision.
Show threadDennis JacksonApr 17, 2017
@bob so true! These negative articles seem lazy. The one on Mashable is the same. Talks about instances, but author doesn't even bother to dive into why it is that way.
Show threadTobiasApr 17, 2017
@bob I wonder how many bob@host email address are out there, wait we are all on AOL so that cannot be a problem.