How any times do they have to learn the same lesson?
That post seems to be missing.
tatterdemalion 2 points 2 years ago
Technically it's an open protocol. Whether or not any other implementations will surface remains to be seen.
PotatoesFall 54 points 2 years ago
That mindset is the problem. A slightly better UX at the cost of freedom is a bad deal.
conciselyverbose 17 points 2 years ago
UX matters.
If open source software genuinely wants to be an option for normal people, they need to fix their shit.
PotatoesFall 5 points 2 years ago
That's fair! Although I fear big money will always come up with some way to make a "better" UX, either simply because they can afford more/better devs, and often by compromising privacy, accessibility, etc.
embrace extend extinguish has worked in the past and it can work again
scarabic 2 points 2 years ago
It’s a little more than a slightly better UX. Dismissing the entire concept of the instance removes a fair amount of complexity and fragmentation from the equation. There are so many cheerful guides out there about how to select an instance and every single one of them loses 95% of normal people in the first paragraph.
Having a signup model that people understand helps. Concentrating everything in one schema creates a noticeable increase in density of relevant content. Having corporate money for real hosting and security counts. When you fediverse instance goes down to DDOS or implements crippling safeguards because they can’t keep up with the spam, you really feel how the whole thing is run on a shoestring.
DahGangalang 21 points 2 years ago
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the microblog format, but I'm pretty sure everyone here is going to agree that Mastodon is the superior Twitter replacement.
Stanley_Pain 16 points 2 years ago
Nope. Not at all. I very much prefer BlueSky as far as Twitter replacement goes.
originalucifer 17 points 2 years ago
yep, people that loved walled gardens like twitter will absolutely love bluesky
DahGangalang 6 points 2 years ago
I don't think I get what you mean when you say "Walled Garden" in this context. Can you elaborate?
Stanley_Pain 2 points 2 years ago
Nothing wrong with that.
DahGangalang 1 point 2 years ago
Interesting. Ugh, I feel the need to go peek at it now, but I also expect to really not like it. Oh well, here goes.
tormeh 12 points 2 years ago
Unfortunately not. For me the main problem is discoverability. There's no recommendation algorithm except for boosts. I'm not suggesting Mastodon integrate some kind of machine learning or other advanced stuff, but number of likes from followed accounts and a threshold would be nice for a start. As it is, Mastodon is just bad for entertainment purposes. Maybe it works for other purposes, but for entertainment I'd rather have the algorithm-fuelled quote-tweet dunking on Twitter.
Munkisquisher 10 points 2 years ago
There's the explore tab in the mastodon app that shows you trending hashtags, and recommends people to follow based off who you already follow. There's trending accounts that just post about trending items too. Use them as your algorithm.
seaQueue 4 points 2 years ago
There's definitely an opportunity for someone to run their own curation service for personalized feeds based on a user's activity on other social networks.
I tend to just check All periodically for the first couple of months and follow tags and people that suit my own interests and build my own feed from zero. But that takes effort and time, and for folks who want an option further toward the convenience end of the privacy/convenience spectrum I suspect it would be a fairly popular option.
Tylerdurdon 7 points 2 years ago
It's built to be decentralized though, from what I read.
Tylerdurdon 6 points 2 years ago
I wasn't a fan of the format. (and apparently I'm not allowed to have an opinion on format)
jagged_circle 2 points 2 years ago
I value your opinion. What do you mean by format? Couldn't you just use a different UI?
psychothumbs 1 point 2 years ago
I mean, Mastodon is a joke if that's what you're asking
PotatoesFall 31 points 2 years ago
It's centralized. They allow federation using their own protocol.
But all you need to know is that it's a capitalist, for-profit undertaking.
lennivelkant 1 point 2 years ago
When it's built around lage aggregators, running which privately is rather hard, there's a bias in favour of centralised, large operators thereof, which mitigates some of the advantages.
HootinNHollerin 67 points 2 years ago
Now ditch that for mastodon
RandomVideos 42 points 2 years ago
There is another alternative to twitter
Its pretty unknown, especially on lemmy, so i dont think many people heard of it, its on something called "the fediverse" and is called "mastodon"
psychothumbs 1 point 2 years ago
Bluesky is just a lot better. I have no particular commitment to the ActivityPub protocol.
_NetNomad 17 points 2 years ago
The one drawback to Bluesky’s block feature is that a user’s block lists aren’t private. Through third party apps, you can find lists of everyone anyone’s blocked. That probably won’t bother most people, but it’s a potential issue for those who worry that public block lists could be used perniciously by persistent stalkers or harassers.
The only missing function is the ability to lock your account or go private as you can on Twitter, which would let you hide your account from non-followers while still posting to folks who already follow you.
But Bluesky has gotten considerable criticism at key points over the last year and a half for failures in handling anti-Black racism in particular. Rudy Fraser wrote extensively about some of these issues along with a deep dive into his goals and challenges as the creator of the now legendary Blacksky feed in a great post a year ago.
Every time someone recommends me Bluesky, I learn something else about it that makes me never want to make an account. Any one of these three quotes should be a dealbreaker on their own
todd_bonzalez 14 points 2 years ago path: 0 12756236, hotness: undefined, score: 14, children: 9
jagged_circle 12 points 2 years ago
The fucking lack of site wide search is why I hate these federated services. Such a glaringly missing feature.
4shtonButcher 6 points 2 years ago
I’d rather have a smaller but somewhat predictable group of peers I grow to somewhat respect and trust than being confronted by thousands of random strangers that are there for mere “engagemen” but not for helping each other out or saying nice things.
Specal -1 points 2 years ago
Idk man if you're talking about Lemmy there's not much respect going on in here, alot of comments get disappeared. It's like the mods are on cocaine constantly sometimes.
I got accused of being transphobic and banned from an instance because I said that hate towards trans people is a dead cat argument. I forgot that America literally wants to kill trans people my bad.
todd_bonzalez 4 points 2 years ago path: 0 12756236 12756616 12757905 12758226 12764901, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 1
psychothumbs 2 points 2 years ago
Yeah it really makes Mastodon unusable as the "one big forum" that twitter was and bluesky is trying to be.
todd_bonzalez 2 points 2 years ago path: 0 12756236 12756616 12764806, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
jagged_circle 2 points 2 years ago
I want to be able to search for a URL and see what others have said about it. This is important for assessing credibility.
Its absolutely necessary in an age of disinformation
Obviously I shouldn't be able to read posts that are marked as "private" (eg only visible to people I follow), but the default "public" toots should be searchable. And not just site-wide, but fediverse-wide.
4shtonButcher 5 points 2 years ago
Thanks, this was helpful! Sounds like I’ll pass on Bluesky!
4shtonButcher 12 points 2 years ago
I tried Threads and it was horrible. Honestly not using Mastodon that much. But maybe that format is just not my thing.
Lost_My_Mind 6 points 2 years ago
See the thing is........you have to microblog like a crazed hobo yelling things into the void. It doesn't need to make sense. It's better if it DOESN'T make sense.
sugar_in_your_tea 3 points 2 years ago
Yup, I've tried Twitter and hated it. I remember when Mastodon launched, and it was described as "federated Facebook" IIRC, and now people are claiming that it's more like "federated Twitter." I hate both Facebook and Twitter, so I use neither.
So honestly, I don't really care about Twitter/X vs BlueSky vs Mastodon, because I don't want to use any of them. Reddit/Lemmy is a much more interesting format to me TBH.
4shtonButcher 2 points 2 years ago
I really need local interest groups. For example a local skating community or local hardware selling group - that’s only Facebook today unfortunately.
sugar_in_your_tea 1 point 2 years ago
Dang. Does meetup work? I know it's pretty decent for tech meetups, not so sure about the others.
4shtonButcher 2 points 2 years ago
Sort of. It’s definitely worse since Covid with the majority of “local” events being online either way. And where I live now it’s much quieter than where I used to live.
geography082 6 points 2 years ago
How about, no
thanks for using Leebra!
go to feed...
Surely nothing will go wrong with THIS corporate owned walled garden.
save