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HanaBothWays t1_j11b9wt wrote

For now Mastodon is pretty nice, although it does have issues with transphobic speech on a couple servers and people getting their panties in a twist about POC mentioning racism exists (full disclosure). It doesn’t have an algorithm to show you stuff to get you worked up all the time, uh, “promote engagement,” and people who troll around get frozen out very fast.

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GrymanOne t1_j11bx32 wrote

Mastodon won’t catch on. It’s too techy for the masses.

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HanaBothWays t1_j11dj3w wrote

It’s not really that hard. If you can deal with using Discord where you can be on different servers and have different names and pictures for them, you can deal with Mastodon.

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GrymanOne t1_j11gjkh wrote

I'm 41 and I've worked in tech for over 20 years. I've done everything from sales, support, engineer, director of engineering, to where I am now as a solutions engineer for a large datacenter. Decentralized servers such as Mastadon have been around forever (see IRC, etc) but ease of use has always been a concern.

I'll use Mastadon, but I don't suspect people I care to follow like say, Stephen King, would also use Mastadon. However, I would love to be proved wrong.

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HanaBothWays t1_j11ho72 wrote

When I first started there, not a lot of prominent people were on there, but now with Musk’s shenanigans on Twitter there are a lot of big names moving there. All the big news services are posting there too. Government agencies are starting to post there.

King isn’t there yet but there is an account that reposts his Tweets there.

Also if you are in a tech field you are likely to find a lot of prominent people in your field there. I did and it’s actually a lot better for keeping up with my professional stuff than Twitter ever was. There’s a lot less clutter and things trying to advertise at me.

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DrabDonut t1_j14rh3v wrote

RemindME! 1 year “gloat if Stephen King is on Mastodon”

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small44 t1_j11tjao wrote

I don't have to make an account for every server I'm interested in and it's easy to switch between servers with the sidebar on discord

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HanaBothWays t1_j11tsw3 wrote

You don’t make an account for every server you’re interested in on Mastodon either, who told you you had to do that? You just follow servers you’re interested in to see what’s being posted there. Or individual accounts like on Twitter.

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small44 t1_j11w233 wrote

When I tried to post on multiple servers I had to create an account on every one of them.

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HanaBothWays t1_j11wrdu wrote

Dude you use it like Twitter, you post on your own timeline or in reply to other people. What’s this about trying to post on other servers.

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small44 t1_j11z3xw wrote

For example, I'm a person who likes hip-hop music, technology, and programming just to name a few but I want those themes to be separated. On discord, I can be on 3 servers about those themes, on Reddit on multiple subs, and on Facebook on multiple groups with a single account on each of those platforms.

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HanaBothWays t1_j11zrcq wrote

So it sounds like you use different social media platforms for different things. Why would you need another one to do everything for you, especially one that works mostly like Twitter?

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BrainKatana t1_j12x8lc wrote

To quickly interject here: the fact that you two are even having this exchange points to the reality of the issue being discussed.

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seenatcornerstore t1_j12y26t wrote

...Twitter has already been incredibly famous without whatever it is you're talking about. Following people rather than topics is honestly more natural

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small44 t1_j13r9a9 wrote

I never was a fan of Twitter. I like to be able to follow both people and topics,

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4_Alice_4 t1_j11ce9m wrote

As in difficult to use? Or is the current culture just very tech focused?

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GrymanOne t1_j11ctpj wrote

The fact that it’s decentralized with so many servers means it’ll cater to a niche, much like Discord does today. It’s not that our culture can’t deal with tech, since we continue to add more tech into our culture without much issue. It’s about ease of use. How do I easily get my older extended family onto Mastadon where we can all share cat photos? Do you have to explain the client server model to each person? Are they going to know which server their account was created on? I can’t ever remember which server I created my own account on without looking it up.

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4_Alice_4 t1_j11dppt wrote

Ah, so it's a less intuitive.
Thank you for the clear answer!

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vitorgrs t1_j12kt7r wrote

Well, people use emails. Isn't like it's a new concept for people.

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HanaBothWays t1_j11dpt6 wrote

Your older family members probably write their passwords down in a little notebook or something. They can write it down in the same notebook. Are you just trying to keep your parents off it or something? LOL

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Devccoon t1_j134a7g wrote

Figuring out how to get into a Mastodon server that doesn't offer its own instant verified account creation directly is enough of a painful and confusing process without seeking outside help, it would not surprise me in the least if families had a really hard time getting into Mastadon without a lot of work.

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DrinkMoreCodeMore t1_j11v8fz wrote

also server admins can read all your DMs

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HanaBothWays t1_j11vm8k wrote

Your DMs aren’t protected on Twitter either.

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DrinkMoreCodeMore t1_j11vtbm wrote

Of course but the main difference I'd say is the server admin can be anyone VS the people reading your DMs on Twitter is safety and trust team or the government.

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HanaBothWays t1_j11wy9o wrote

There’s no trust and safety team at Twitter anymore!

Also if you are on Reddit all the people moderating the subs are Just Some Guy, it’s pretty much the same.

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DrinkMoreCodeMore t1_j11x3qu wrote

Mods can't read or access DMs tho

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HanaBothWays t1_j11xh28 wrote

I assume that unless I am using a secure messaging app or using iMessage with the new feature where you can lock everything down, then anybody could be reading my “private” messages on anything. It’s in the fine print.

But I work in cybersecurity. So I just don’t make the distinction the way other people do.

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a93H3sn4tJgK t1_j12w1zu wrote

Mastodon is simply a decentralized version of Twitter.

It solved none of the problems that made Twitter toxic and given enough time and users, it too will descend into toxicity.

Also, since so many Mastodon servers are run by individuals, organizations, and non-profits, decentralization doesn’t mean you can’t be deplatformed.

Give it a few years and it’ll be like the email spam lists that many of the big email providers share amongst themselves.

If you get kicked off the Mozilla Mastodon server, what’s keeping them from publishing a list of users they’ve banned and all the other Mastodon servers refuse to allow accounts from people that were banned on Mozilla’s servers?

To me, a new era of social media platforms should:

Allow users to curate their own feeds. No more mystery algorithms. No more shoving content at you in the hopes of enraging you and making you comment to increase the platform’s engagement metrics.

I would love to see a platform that lets me pick to only see updates from Aunt Susan about life events instead of having to choose between reading her MAGA rants and blocking her.

Likewise, I think any future platform needs to have a social scoring system. No, not like the Chinese. I’m talking more like, someone with a PhD in physics should get more weight in a discussion about physics than some rando.

Also, people who are deemed helpful are given more weight than people who drive lots of rage engagement.

This would effectively kill trolling.

Like, on Reddit, why can’t I filter out all posts and comments by people with negative or low karma?

And why can’t I do that with all content. Why can’t I say, “You know what Reddit, I’m done hearing about Elon Musk’s latest Twitter drama, filter out all mentions of Elon Musk”?

It would allow everyone to choose to shadow ban trolls and toxic behavior.

Again, why can’t I say that I don’t want to see comments from anyone that is also a member of X, Y, And Z toxic subs?

Isn’t this how things sort of work in the real world?

If Timmy is a dick, people just quit inviting Timmy to social events.

And Timmy has to make a choice, quit being a dick or wallow at home alone because he’s a dick.

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