this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025

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Mastodon’s founder cedes control, refuses to become next Musk or Zuckerberg (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 years ago by some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

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His grand vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears in their timelines.

I don't use Mastadon cause I don't care for micro-blogging, but nevertheless, I like this.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 29 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I think it is because Bluesky is simpler and easier to understand, as well as more familiar to use than mastodon. My favorite streamer said he is reluctant to move to the fediverse because of how different it is and the learning curve it has to it. I'm also, like, EXTREMELY new here and understand but once you start to get used to it, its easy to see how the fediverse and this "New Social" wave is far superior; the only hard part is getting "normies" to try it long enough to build enough familiarity to see that.

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[–] naught101@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Is it just the choosing-a-home-server thing, or something else?

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That and finding relevant things or anything at all sometimes; also I hear that people want to see everything like a friendica environment but don't like the differences from the social medias they know already. I'm not sure if it is all valid or relevant because I am extremely new to the fediverse in general myself.

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[–] naught101@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Mastodon could definitely do with some more discovery methods. Hopefully something like bluesky's starter packs get implemented eventually (but I understand why they aren't rushing it, there are abuse risks).

Best approach for now on mastodon is to follow all the hash tags you're interested in, and then follow everyone in your feed who posts anything interesting. Takes a few weeks to ramp up, I guess. My feed got good once I was following around 1k users. You can always unfollow if someone's annoying.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Thanks for the tip -- new to fediverse altogether and my most annoying challenge is the social aspect of finding people to connect with and making an interesting feed! Lemmy has been the easiest; right above friendica!

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[–] naught101@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Yeah, Lemmy is good because of the topic and threading focus. Mastodon seems better for exploring lots of issues. I'm finding them fairly complementary, they cover different bases.

Still need something I can pull my IRL friends in with though. Pixelfed might work for people who are used to Instagram, but I think it's probably still a bit sparse content wise.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 2 points 2 years ago

I’m starting to realize that too. I might be more active on one than the other but it’s nice to have them all because it seems like a fuller experience; I am starting to see how they are complimentary.

I think either mastodon or pixelfed. I’m sure we are due to get a specific crowd — just from the political climate at the moment.

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[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

I guess I don't understand. Why would someone want to "find" microblogs of people they don't already know about from elsewhere? It's like wanting to find someone's email to me.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Not sure; I guess as a new person, I'd like to find micro blogs about topics and things that I might agree with? I was never really into twitter or micro-blogging; I don't really understand the appeal but I figure since it is a social media, you might want to find similar people with like-minded blogs or whatever? Like I found a new up-coming political streamer that I like from another. Maybe that isn't what micro-blogging is for and I'm off base.

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[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

I see microblogging as a way of following the thoughts of someone you're already interested in. Maybe a friend, maybe a famous person. But it's not a way to get deeper understanding. Nothing profound has ever been conveyed in a tweet. So I don't know why I would look for the tweets of strangers. It's more of a event tracking or relationship-maintaining kind of communication tool.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

Fair enough, I just figured that as a social network, part of the goal is to connect new people together. You can look at Facebook in the same way you described it. That’s what its original purpose was. To just connect with people you already know, but I feel like social networking in general has since evolved from this. We can look at things like Facebook groups for example where it is more on the lines of what I’m thinking, people join groups that interest them and interact with like minded people that they have likely never met before.

I find the idea of using hashtags as the same.

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[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

Not saying I never made a friend online, but it was generally through more long-form blogging, friendsof friends, or gaming. That is, through more in-depth interaction than a quip-making machine. But I think the Internet was a little more innocent then too. People could be weird or awkward or overshare without getting doxed or harassed, maybe because we had more in our unmediated lives. Very little interaction is unmediated now it seems. I have seen even IRL friends, or people I thought were friends, start acting like online trolls. Online at least. "The medium is the message" seems to hold.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 1 point 2 years ago

I can agree with that; but I also think that the average person has not the attention span for long form "macro-blogging" to use it as much as something like twitter or bluesky or microblogging platforms. I think this is why things like vine, tiktok, and twitter are so popular; its because they are all short form content. Things like tumblr, which I'm sure has declined for other reasons, but I'm also sure it is because no one wants to read a whole blog of someone they don't know, but they might read a few words or sentences and if they agree or find it funny or like it for whatever reason, they would be inclined to follow and keep up with that person and may be more inclined to read or give a chance to their content that is of longer form.

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[–] pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

I can't speak for others, but when I joined I was definitely confused by instances, federated internet, moderation variances, and how to operate the various ~ 4 beta apps I downloaded at the same time.

I'm definitely not a tech normie, but it was still unfamiliar and I would never have migrated if I hadn't been fed up with Reddit.

Most people don't want to have to look up guides to figure out how a system works, they just want to download an app that their friends all use and move on with their day. Blocking instances you don't like? Doing research to find a "home" instance? Ain't nobody got time for that.

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[–] naught101@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

I'm not saying you're wrong, but how did you choose an email provider, or a phone service? How do you block spam? Those are basically identical questions, and yeah, they can be annoying, but I don't think anyone finds them that hard to comprehend.

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[–] pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 1 point 2 years ago

Maybe, but those questions are part of the normal daily zeitgeist. Everyone is exposed to those concepts and services through natural osmosis, but when I wanted to join Lemmy I got an app and I didn't realize until I started trying to use it that it was a distributed system. Then I'm like, wait what? And I had to go read some stuff about it. Wasn't anything too crazy but I was confused at first.

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[–] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

It's absolutely insane to hear that a streamer, of all types of people, said there's a learning curve to it. Twitch is/was bewildering to me, just as a user, much less a streamer who would need to learn to configure and use OBS, etc. SMH.

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[–] rascalnikov@literature.cafe 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Very valid! This guy is like 38 though so I think he has gotten to the age where he has streamed for so long that it’s second nature but using a new social media that isn’t familiar enough seems like a hassle I guess? I feel those closer to my age, people in their 20’s, are either a bit intimidated by it or feel that there is a lack of people and content because it’s hard to find relevant “tweets” (or whatever the equivalent is called). That was my biggest thing when I first tried it a few years ago. I had this “so… what now..?” Feeling. It felt like the social was missing from it. I’m a little bit better at finding things to engage with; such as now, but I can somewhat remember the feeling I had that originally deterred me till now.

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[–] xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 1 point 2 years ago

Thanks for providing more details. I wouldn't be surprised if Mastodon was quite a bit quieter before the Twitter exodus. I moved over during the exodus and found it to be pretty active. I understand that they have kept developing features trying to address the feeling of "what now?" when you first sign up.

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