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Mastodon is growing on me. These big ol' VC driven social media giants are all overgrown and the cracks are showing. With mastodon, if one instance screws up, j

Mastodon is growing on me. These big ol' VC driven social media giants are all overgrown and the cracks are showing. With mastodon, if one instance screws up, just go to another and still contact friends. I can even choose an instance with the economic and decision making model of my choosing, or run one myself and just engage with the federation on my own terms.

TremendousJudge 8y ago
>just go to another and still contact friends the only problem is that you can only have friends of the type of people that use Mastodon
- egypturnash 8y ago
  are you sure this is not actually an advantage
  - notheguyouthink 8y ago
    It is and it isn't. I imagine your humor implies that technical people are using Mastadon, ie the same type that would be using HN, but the reality is that while that is true, Twitter "rejects" are also using Mastadon. Sometimes this means communities filled with very.. controversial people.
    - captainbland 8y ago
      Yeah again I guess this is the choice isn't it? Those communities spring up everywhere, but instances can still block one-another. I'd say it's better to have a choice of moderation style than one grand overseer.
    - naravara 8y ago
      >It is and it isn't. I imagine your humor implies that technical people are using Mastadon, ie the same type that would be using HN, but the reality is that while that is true, Twitter "rejects" are also using Mastadon. Sometimes this means communities filled with very.. controversial people. Mastodon being federated, though, means that while the controversial people may be using it, the rest of the Mastodon-Verse doesn't need to interact with them. The big trouble with Twitter is that if those people want to harass you, you as a user have very little choice but to sit there and take it.
- ct0 8y ago
  So my mom and aunt wont be on it? Sign me up
- Scoping_dindus 8y ago
  Yeah, exactly. Look at the content Facebook wants you to see. Would you rather consume that?
- captainbland 8y ago
  Have you met people on twitter?
  - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
    Have you met people?
- code_duck 8y ago
  Much like here, where I only talk to the kind of person who would sign up for Hacker News. Oh, wait... that’s a good thing.
chrisco255 8y ago
Thing is, I've seen performance issues on some of the instances out there. Also, the UI could use a lot of work before it goes mainstream.
- saudioger 8y ago
  That's like saying "I've seen performance issues on websites", of course someone can have poor resourcing on their own servers — I think the biggest barrier for Mastodon is understanding how instances aren't individual monoliths and your choice can directly impact everything you do.
- dredmorbius 8y ago
  Fail Whale on line three. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-story-behind-twitters-fail-whale/384313/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-s...
  - chrisco255 8y ago
    Yeah but Mastadon has to compete with Twitter, which already works pretty well. To go mainstream, they'll need to do better.
    - dredmorbius 8y ago
      Mastodon has no burn rate. It can improve incrementally and snipe valued users.
guiomie 8y ago
My impression when I looked into Mastodon was that it doesn't solve any of the issues with Twitter. It's just a bunched of servers owned by different entities, I doubt this will scale socially and technologically
- captainbland 8y ago
  Well it's choice. That's what it gives you. No more, no less, really.
Rjevski 8y ago
Mastodon will go nowhere unless they fix their branding and user experience first.
parliament32 8y ago
>just go to another Does Mastadon have a way to migrate your posts/followers/etc from one instance to another?
eahman08 8y ago
You can only contact friends from other instances if your instance hasn't blocked the other instance. Also most instances are everything but free speech friendly. I don't understand where the improvement over Twitter is. It's a Twitter clone with fewer users, a more complicated UX, and where you can get banned faster.

TremendousJudge 8y ago

>just go to another and still contact friends the only problem is that you can only have friends of the type of people that use Mastodon

egypturnash 8y ago
are you sure this is not actually an advantage
- notheguyouthink 8y ago
  It is and it isn't. I imagine your humor implies that technical people are using Mastadon, ie the same type that would be using HN, but the reality is that while that is true, Twitter "rejects" are also using Mastadon. Sometimes this means communities filled with very.. controversial people.
  - captainbland 8y ago
    Yeah again I guess this is the choice isn't it? Those communities spring up everywhere, but instances can still block one-another. I'd say it's better to have a choice of moderation style than one grand overseer.
  - naravara 8y ago
    >It is and it isn't. I imagine your humor implies that technical people are using Mastadon, ie the same type that would be using HN, but the reality is that while that is true, Twitter "rejects" are also using Mastadon. Sometimes this means communities filled with very.. controversial people. Mastodon being federated, though, means that while the controversial people may be using it, the rest of the Mastodon-Verse doesn't need to interact with them. The big trouble with Twitter is that if those people want to harass you, you as a user have very little choice but to sit there and take it.
ct0 8y ago
So my mom and aunt wont be on it? Sign me up
Scoping_dindus 8y ago
Yeah, exactly. Look at the content Facebook wants you to see. Would you rather consume that?
captainbland 8y ago
Have you met people on twitter?
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  Have you met people?
code_duck 8y ago
Much like here, where I only talk to the kind of person who would sign up for Hacker News. Oh, wait... that’s a good thing.

chrisco255 8y ago

Thing is, I've seen performance issues on some of the instances out there. Also, the UI could use a lot of work before it goes mainstream.

saudioger 8y ago
That's like saying "I've seen performance issues on websites", of course someone can have poor resourcing on their own servers — I think the biggest barrier for Mastodon is understanding how instances aren't individual monoliths and your choice can directly impact everything you do.
dredmorbius 8y ago
Fail Whale on line three. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-story-behind-twitters-fail-whale/384313/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-s...
- chrisco255 8y ago
  Yeah but Mastadon has to compete with Twitter, which already works pretty well. To go mainstream, they'll need to do better.
  - dredmorbius 8y ago
    Mastodon has no burn rate. It can improve incrementally and snipe valued users.

guiomie 8y ago

My impression when I looked into Mastodon was that it doesn't solve any of the issues with Twitter. It's just a bunched of servers owned by different entities, I doubt this will scale socially and technologically

captainbland 8y ago
Well it's choice. That's what it gives you. No more, no less, really.

Rjevski 8y ago

Mastodon will go nowhere unless they fix their branding and user experience first.

parliament32 8y ago

>just go to another Does Mastadon have a way to migrate your posts/followers/etc from one instance to another?

eahman08 8y ago

You can only contact friends from other instances if your instance hasn't blocked the other instance. Also most instances are everything but free speech friendly. I don't understand where the improvement over Twitter is. It's a Twitter clone with fewer users, a more complicated UX, and where you can get banned faster.