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-
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.
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
melissasage
Rafał Piątkowski