Mastodon

Dec 22, 2017

Mastodon

You can find me on Mastodon and follow me there, if you want. It's 100% optional (at least until the GOP 2018 tax bill is in effect).

I'll give it a few weeks, but I'm not sure it really solves my issues with social media. I guess it depends on how many people use it. Not enough and it's boring and pointless. Too many and it's Twitter all over again.

I do think Maston has a huge "on boarding" problem. It's very confusing and the idea of separate instances just makes it worse. My name (grumpygamer) is only unique on my server, anyone else can create that username on any number of servers and there is no way for you to know.

I think this is a recipe for disaster. It would have been nice if they had created some kind of repository for usernames. I know this goes against the "distributed" nature of the service, but to all but the technically elite, it's confusing. Mastodon even recommends using keybase to verify your identity, that's a nice idea, but why isn't it built into the service? How many people even know what keybase is?

How do I find people? Is there a central place to search for users? If there is, I can't (easily) find it. I wasn't even sure the url for link to my account, I just guessed. This should be on my account page. Discovery is going to be a issues.

Zak Phoenix McKracken

Dec 22, 2017

Did you try other popular social media, like Facebook, instagram...?
Different audience, maybe it could be a new start, if that's the case.

Pixelfehler

Dec 22, 2017

Glad to see that you're trying new things after leaving Twitter. Personally I don't use any of these "social" services and I'll keep following you on RSS / your blog instead; I do expect tons of new posts here! ;)

Also, I hope you can leave the comments enabled, there are some wonderful people in your audience.

Someone

Dec 23, 2017

I agree with Pixelfehler: I don't use these social media things and I'm looking forward to your news blog posts. :)

LowLevel

Dec 23, 2017

If you want to try a super-nerdy social network containing people interested in science and art, you can try Google+. It has not many active users like Facebook but you won't find there the same unpleasant environment that exists in more popular social networks.

Alessander

Dec 25, 2017

I also don't use social media. RSS is perfect for me. Please keep Mastodon optional.

Ron Gilbert

Dec 26, 2017

So far, I'm not impressed with Mastodon. It seems to be created by people who hate twitter, so they recreated twitter, but with even more ways to keep you in a self-reinforcing bubble. And it's fill with people who tell you you're using it wrong. Thanks! Welcome to Mastodon!

There is a lot to hate about twitter, so instead of recreating twitter, how about coming up with something new, innovative, and interesting. Not Mastodon.

Max

Dec 29, 2017

I think of Mastodon more like email than twitter. It's email where every account gets an automatic public newsletter (if they wish), and from that a public RSS (well, ATOM) feed, too. (For example: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/grumpygamer.atom for those above that prefer RSS, which is also auto-discoverable directly from the profile page linked above.)

Instead of recruiting the user experience wheel, they are borrowing the work done by twitter, certainly, but I think the real innovation is more in what Mastodon's experiments are in community building and engagement. Sure, some of that looks like self-reinforcing bubbles, but there are many experiments happening. I'm not sure if any can be considered successful experiments yet, but certainly people are trying.

Chris

Dec 29, 2017

Yep, Mastodon looks creepy too. Unfortunately any popularity it's getting seems to be driven in the main by people who want to view / post weird porn.

A new, rethunked social network is sorely needed - I have bookmarked lots of old blogs I used to follow, feels good. Remember those blog aggregator things that popped up before the facebook/twitter craze? Maybe a new social version of something like that might work nowadays.

Katie Parsons

Jan 05, 2018

Just so you know, in your profile text you've put 'Mansion Mansion' instead of 'Maniac Mansion'. I guess you had TwP on the brain :)