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I can't wait for Mastadon to eat Twitter's lunch. 800k users over 1200 federated instances and steadily growing by the day.

bdcravens 8y ago
Sounds like it'll break 0.25% of Twitter's user base in no time.
Dirlewanger 8y ago
Yeah I can't wait for a federated platform it to further reinforce everyone's online bubbles and increase polarization even more either.
- parliament32 8y ago
  Can you expand on that? How is a federated and decentralized network reinforcing bubbles and increasing polarization? Arguably the entire point of a platform like Mastadon is censorship resistance, with no single controlling entity deciding what's "allowed" and what isn't.
  - CharlesW 8y ago
    > How is a federated and decentralized network reinforcing bubbles and increasing polarization? Because users see completely different local and federated timelines depending on which instance they join.
lylecubed 8y ago
According to this article[0] that's unlikely. It looks like Mastodon is engaged in the same sort of blocking behavior Twitter is. I think it's more likely we'll see private, invite-only services take off instead. [0]: https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-water-888c10e8abb1 https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-water-888c10e...
- parliament32 8y ago
  That's a half-truth: Mastadon itself can't and won't block anything. In the Mastadon network, users live on instances which all talk to each other. Each instance can choose to block any other instance. If a user doesn't like their instance's policies, they can join another instance with less, different, or no blocks. Alternatively, a technical user can run their own instance and federate with other instances from there. Your linked article claims, "running and administering your own social server is friggin’ expensive". This isn't true: a $5/month VPS can easily host a Mastadon instance for a dozen users, and requires less than a few minutes of administration per month.

bdcravens 8y ago

Sounds like it'll break 0.25% of Twitter's user base in no time.

Dirlewanger 8y ago

Yeah I can't wait for a federated platform it to further reinforce everyone's online bubbles and increase polarization even more either.

parliament32 8y ago
Can you expand on that? How is a federated and decentralized network reinforcing bubbles and increasing polarization? Arguably the entire point of a platform like Mastadon is censorship resistance, with no single controlling entity deciding what's "allowed" and what isn't.
- CharlesW 8y ago
  > How is a federated and decentralized network reinforcing bubbles and increasing polarization? Because users see completely different local and federated timelines depending on which instance they join.

lylecubed 8y ago

According to this article[0] that's unlikely. It looks like Mastodon is engaged in the same sort of blocking behavior Twitter is. I think it's more likely we'll see private, invite-only services take off instead. [0]: https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-water-888c10e8abb1 https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-water-888c10e...

parliament32 8y ago
That's a half-truth: Mastadon itself can't and won't block anything. In the Mastadon network, users live on instances which all talk to each other. Each instance can choose to block any other instance. If a user doesn't like their instance's policies, they can join another instance with less, different, or no blocks. Alternatively, a technical user can run their own instance and federate with other instances from there. Your linked article claims, "running and administering your own social server is friggin’ expensive". This isn't true: a $5/month VPS can easily host a Mastadon instance for a dozen users, and requires less than a few minutes of administration per month.