@Noupside Like, it was fun to imagine that "everyone" was watching Johnny Carson (or the superbowl, or the moon landing...) at the same time together. But that was an illusion. It never was everyone, and those who were watching weren't having the same experience. It just feels good to imagine we are.

@Noupside Is it possible we're just coming full circle to our default pre-radio/tv/internet state? Were we ever really all "together" or did the early phases of those inventions just give us (specifically, those of us lucky enough to participate) a false sense of it?

@tomw No doubt the odds of success are always slim, I just don't think that's a reason to discount it out of hand.

@tomw I think it actually makes a lot of sense as an idea: Underlying platform is open, first node is proprietary to build hype and kickstart a user base, and then later nodes are whatever anyone wants to build. Whether they actually see the plan through correctly remains to be seen, but we have plenty of examples of great open source software with corporate origins (React, Kubernetes...)

@andybaio How much it cost to get "certified"?

@mtsw Do people on Mastadon talk about other subjects besides Twitter?

@Ciantic @itzme2 @lauren @jeffjarvis In the early days of email most people got an account handed to them by their school or job. Maybe that's what needs to happen with Mastadon?

@rbreich Why shop small? I don't get it.

@mmasnick Might not have a specific purpose in this context, probably just built into whatever spambot software they're using.

@mmasnick Definitely scam. The hidden garbage text is for confusing bots that deal with scams.