melissasageMay 2, 2017

So @gaditb and I were chatting on tumblr, and discussing about how it's odd that there isn't more of a general Left presence on F/OSS. There's a general lack of Leftist theorizing about the growth of technology in general and F/OSS in particular, despite the fact that it's a Marxist dream come true.

I think I have a good reason why tho-

Show threadmelissasageMay 2, 2017
I believe it was @creatrixtiara, a few weeks back, who pointed out that Masto, currently is pretty white. Despite some growth recently, that's still the case, and I think that it boils down to the same things: time and money. ironically, F/OSS, including Mastodon, is more expensive.
Show threadmelissasageMay 2, 2017

Obviously not in terms of cash, but in terms of time and spoons. We who are currently users of Masto are primarily people who are one or more of 1. professional techies 2. computer hobbyists 3. reasonably well-off.

we can afford to spend time learning a counterintuitive interface and dealing with the occasional frustrations that go into learning a new platform. It's even kinda fun for us. But all that stuff has a different name: Bad UX design.

Show threadmelissasageMay 2, 2017

A site like Facebook has every incentive to make a good UX- because the people who use it are the product. They want peopl to use it so they can sell adspace, and they have legions of engineers dedicated to just that.

But Masto is one guy. It's just @Gargron and the handful of people who graciously help him out on Github. UX gets triaged out repeatedly because if it's "good enough" then there are other things that are higher priority

Show threadRafał Piątkowski
@melissasage I think it's more related to the fact that people who do free software, are predominantly not UX designers, but programmers, developers, and only occasionally designers. And even then, usually graphic designers.
May 2, 2017 at 11:36pmWeb
Show threadmelissasageMay 3, 2017
@crecca i hadn't thought of that but you're right there too! That's an additional important piece, because even when they do get around to UX they don't have experience in the area and so are inferior to the professionals.