How to get people to use Mastodon?
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Mastodon servers are separate entities, too. The fact that they communicate with each other doesn't change that, and the persistent desire that folks here have to imagine otherwise is a hurdle to adoption.
The mental model is of a central space that instances grant or bar access to, but that's simply not how the technology actually works. Too much effort has gone into trying to make ActivityPub-enabled websites look like something they're not (centralized social media), while totally ignoring what they are: small forums and microblogs that have optional access to other forums and microblogs.
Mastodon is web server software. "Mastodon" doesn't exist. It's an illusion. And the fact that everyone keeps trying to sell this illusion is exactly why there are all of these broken expectations and hurdles.
My gut reaction was to reject what you said, but the more I think about it... You might have a point.
I don't know. I don't want to say too much and regret it, but you did give me plenty to think about. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion.
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Oh man. I had forgotten Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I think I last played that in high school.
Ah ha, a fellow crawler! The game's still going and getting updated!
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When I told my best friend about mastodon, it misimprinted on her brain in a flash as "walrus chat" and now she can't for the life of her remember its actual name.
It's the tusks, clearly.
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There's actually an Android Mastodon client called Tusky, which I think sounds really nice.
I really know nothing about this stuff >///< thank you for your input!
I love Tusky, it is my app of choice for Mastodon
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The geolocalized choosing is a great idea! Sometimes you join based on communities as well, in that case a “join custom server” button could be added!
There's a new server planned relatively locally to me and it's capitalising on the terrifying plunge into fascism that all the Big Socials now have as their badge of dishonour. People have never been "happy"
to be on Facebook but the local focus in a pretty leftie iinet city area is a good idea. If people know people irl on Fedi they will maybe have an easier time. -
My gut reaction was to reject what you said, but the more I think about it... You might have a point.
I don't know. I don't want to say too much and regret it, but you did give me plenty to think about. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion.
Maybe email is a better comparison for federated stuff than phpbb? You wouldn't tell someone to 'just get an email adress'. You'd recommend a specific email provider.
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Maybe email is a better comparison for federated stuff than phpbb? You wouldn't tell someone to 'just get an email adress'. You'd recommend a specific email provider.
Yes, perhaps. But I suspect that still distracts from the fact that we're trying to sell an illusion with the fediverse, and I personally believe that that is a mistake. So many issues people voice about their experience here come from the design of everything emulating Big Social, and Big Social is centralized.
Aping the design language of centralized social media and then trying to get anyone other than enthusiasts on board is never going to work.
One of the ways we do this is by referring to "Mastodon" and "Lemmy" as if they are places you can go to, websites you can use. This is why I chose phpBB as my reference point. I've used WordPress and Joomla in the past, with less impact. We don't and have never spoken about phpBB as a singular location. You would respond to someone suggesting you "use phpBB" with, at the very least, a confused look. Or, if you didn't know what it is, you'd ask them "what is that?" and they'd tell you "forum software", revealing that their request of you was absurd. "Get an email address" is, at the very least, something that isn't a nonsensical request. Websites demand it of us all of the time.
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As long as we're suggesting improvements for Masto:
- Remove character limits. This forces users to either not fully explain themselves or to break their post down into 5 different posts which then have to somehow be assembled by the reader. GoToSocial raises this to 5000 as the default. If someone posts >500, by all means, collapse the post.
- Stop fucking tagging literally anyone who was ever involved in a thread. I don't understand why this is a thing. It just makes every message super cluttered and makes me not want to get involved in any discussions for fear of having my notifications blown up with irrelevant BS at any time.
But, but, unlimited characters aren't purist, old-skool, original-gangsta microblogging! And understanding threaded conversations isn't purist, old-skool, original-gangsta microblogging either!
What do you want next, full HTML rendering support? Embedded in-line images? More than four options for polls?!
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