3 ms·

Honestly, it's a barren wasteland, worse than Google+. As far as I've seen it's mainly used as a replacement for imageboards. Most of the server topics are eith

by baxuz 9y ago

Honestly, it's a barren wasteland, worse than Google+. As far as I've seen it's mainly used as a replacement for imageboards. Most of the server topics are either a variant of /b/, or a gathering place for SJWs, furries and lolicons.

glenstein 9y ago
You are describing a completely different platform from the one I visit and post to every day. For one, it's not barren; it's quite active. One of the distinguishing features of mastodon compared to other decentralized platforms is that people use it. In fact one of the complaints about the federated feed is that it updates so fast it's hard to keep up with. As for the people there, the people I talk to are interested in games, philosophy, linux, vaporwave, memes, and meta talk about mastodon and decentralized platforms. There are a lot of trans and and furries and people interested in politics. The vast majority have been unfailingly nice. The granular privacy options allow one to mute those who are overbearing. And the biggest difference between it and /b/ is that conversations tend to be two-way a lot more. People aren't purposely posting to try and anger you. In fact, here's a post I see on my feed right now: >someone should write a paper on mastodon as a model of a therapeutic community If what you're saying is you just don't like platforms that have lots of people you disagree with politically, that's one thing. But the behavior and subject matter and culture are significantly different from /b/ and in no way a wasteland.
- yogthos 9y ago
  That mirrors my experience as well. I also find that the 500 char limit makes for much more interesting conversations than Twitter. I've discussed books, games, and programming on Mastodon, and I wouldn't have bothered having these discussions trying to fit my thoughts into 140 chars.
  - sprokolopolis 9y ago
    I totally agree that the higher character limit contributes to better and deeper conversations. This was one thing excited my about Google+ when it first came out. People could write essays, explain long processes and they didn't have to worry about a character limit.
    - yogthos 9y ago
      I also like how you can make part of the post hidden by default, so you can have a summary and then people click to expand if they're interested. I see that used a lot in my timeline. It's kind of best of both worlds where everybody isn't posting walls of text.
- aqsalose 9y ago
  Because of the federated nature of mastodon, experience on one instance might be quite different than another. If the instances that are not "barren wasteland" are difficult to find, it's a problem.
  - yogthos 9y ago
    Finding instances is very easy because there's a registry and a helpful wizard linked off the main site https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started You can specify what the minimum number of users you want on an instance, what topics you care about, and so on. I actually think this is superior to Twitter model, because you can find an instance that fits your interests closely and not have to deal with the noise you don't care about.
    - glenstein 9y ago
      Right. Fortunately, the offshoot instances are easy to find. But even if they weren't, the extremely active main instances are enough to show the platform isn't a barren wasteland. And the difficulty of finding offshoot instances with lower amounts of participation is a different category of problem, however real, from the platform itself not having people.
    - aqsalose 9y ago
      Semi-related: is there any easy way to follow local timelines of multiple instances with a single client? My current main instance has only handful of active people, so I've been wondering if I should look at somewhere else. However, I'd rather not leave my current instance altogether; on the other hand, registering n accounts on n instances and then opening n web browser clients to "see it all" seems like an unnecessary hassle.
      - yogthos 9y ago
        I think the easiest way to get views into other instances is to follow people from there. You'll start getting whatever they boost in your feed that way. Being able to follow timelines from other instances would be handy though.
yogthos 9y ago
That's completely opposite of my experience using it for the past 3 months.
api 9y ago
What no Nazis? Can't have an imageboard without Nazis. Then you have the Nazi furries...
marchenko 9y ago
I'm really enjoying Mastodon. It feels like it's geared more toward conversation than counting coup. I have asked several tech and programming questions, and gotten fast and comprehensive responses. For those interested in science, tech, privacy, history and philosophy of software development, and econ, and willing to tolerate t h e a e s t h e t i c and Tuxedo Mask memes, it's a cool spot.

by baxuz 9y ago

glenstein 9y ago

You are describing a completely different platform from the one I visit and post to every day. For one, it's not barren; it's quite active. One of the distinguishing features of mastodon compared to other decentralized platforms is that people use it. In fact one of the complaints about the federated feed is that it updates so fast it's hard to keep up with. As for the people there, the people I talk to are interested in games, philosophy, linux, vaporwave, memes, and meta talk about mastodon and decentralized platforms. There are a lot of trans and and furries and people interested in politics. The vast majority have been unfailingly nice. The granular privacy options allow one to mute those who are overbearing. And the biggest difference between it and /b/ is that conversations tend to be two-way a lot more. People aren't purposely posting to try and anger you. In fact, here's a post I see on my feed right now: >someone should write a paper on mastodon as a model of a therapeutic community If what you're saying is you just don't like platforms that have lots of people you disagree with politically, that's one thing. But the behavior and subject matter and culture are significantly different from /b/ and in no way a wasteland.

yogthos 9y ago
That mirrors my experience as well. I also find that the 500 char limit makes for much more interesting conversations than Twitter. I've discussed books, games, and programming on Mastodon, and I wouldn't have bothered having these discussions trying to fit my thoughts into 140 chars.
- sprokolopolis 9y ago
  I totally agree that the higher character limit contributes to better and deeper conversations. This was one thing excited my about Google+ when it first came out. People could write essays, explain long processes and they didn't have to worry about a character limit.
  - yogthos 9y ago
    I also like how you can make part of the post hidden by default, so you can have a summary and then people click to expand if they're interested. I see that used a lot in my timeline. It's kind of best of both worlds where everybody isn't posting walls of text.
aqsalose 9y ago
Because of the federated nature of mastodon, experience on one instance might be quite different than another. If the instances that are not "barren wasteland" are difficult to find, it's a problem.
- yogthos 9y ago
  Finding instances is very easy because there's a registry and a helpful wizard linked off the main site https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started https://joinmastodon.org/#getting-started You can specify what the minimum number of users you want on an instance, what topics you care about, and so on. I actually think this is superior to Twitter model, because you can find an instance that fits your interests closely and not have to deal with the noise you don't care about.
  - glenstein 9y ago
    Right. Fortunately, the offshoot instances are easy to find. But even if they weren't, the extremely active main instances are enough to show the platform isn't a barren wasteland. And the difficulty of finding offshoot instances with lower amounts of participation is a different category of problem, however real, from the platform itself not having people.
  - aqsalose 9y ago
    Semi-related: is there any easy way to follow local timelines of multiple instances with a single client? My current main instance has only handful of active people, so I've been wondering if I should look at somewhere else. However, I'd rather not leave my current instance altogether; on the other hand, registering n accounts on n instances and then opening n web browser clients to "see it all" seems like an unnecessary hassle.
    - yogthos 9y ago
      I think the easiest way to get views into other instances is to follow people from there. You'll start getting whatever they boost in your feed that way. Being able to follow timelines from other instances would be handy though.

yogthos 9y ago

That's completely opposite of my experience using it for the past 3 months.

api 9y ago

What no Nazis? Can't have an imageboard without Nazis. Then you have the Nazi furries...

marchenko 9y ago

I'm really enjoying Mastodon. It feels like it's geared more toward conversation than counting coup. I have asked several tech and programming questions, and gotten fast and comprehensive responses. For those interested in science, tech, privacy, history and philosophy of software development, and econ, and willing to tolerate t h e a e s t h e t i c and Tuxedo Mask memes, it's a cool spot.