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It’s the “signing up elsewhere or using your own instance” that’s the problem. You’re joining a Mastodon server and if you want to go to another server you have

It’s the “signing up elsewhere or using your own instance” that’s the problem. You’re joining a Mastodon server and if you want to go to another server you have to actually move things. It takes actual effort. It seems like the Mastodon developers look at email and think “if it works for email it’ll work here” and don’t understand that people deal with email because they have to, not because they want to. I don’t want to have to change my email address when I switch providers and I don’t want to have to move all my stuff if my favorite Mastodon server decides to shut down. That’s not a solution that’s just another problem. It’s bad user experience.

zozbot234 6y ago
> and if you want to go to another server you have to actually move things. It takes actual effort. Not sure how that's worse than something like Facebook, where you literally don't get that option. If you want your asserted identity to be reasonably secure and easy to assess for other users, you have to find a trusted host or do your own hosting; that's no different from any other service.
- freehunter 6y ago
  This is what I’m talking about with developers not understanding users. I even said “users don’t care what’s behind the scenes”. Any normal user who is looking to leave Facebook wants Facebook The Product but not Facebook The Company. They don’t care about hosting or asserting identity. They don’t want options, they want a product.
  - mrmonkeyman 6y ago
    Yes, we heard you. But how is leaving Facebook easy? How is it easier than switching Mastodon instances?
allarm 6y ago
People use email because it’s the best communication system existing. If someone doesn’t want to change his address he creates his own self-hosted mail server. Or just use his own domain name when using email service with thord party email providers. Email system is amazing, the issues with ux are in fact minimal, almost non-existent.
- wombatpm 6y ago
  Ok so make mastodon as easy as gmail. I can use Gmail.com or my own domain. Let me have same flexibility with my internet identity. I wish the USPS had gotten into the official Internet identity game. One place to receive legal emails, store my private keys, public keys etc. protected by law.
- freehunter 6y ago
  Is your dad, aunt, or grandma going to create a self hosted mail server? Seriously this is exactly what I’m talking about. This is a textbook example of what I’m talking about. No end user hosts their own email service.
  - wolco 6y ago
    Sadly no one has made this easy and possible.
    - ziml77 6y ago
      Even if self-hosted email was easy, I don't find it to be a great idea. I ran my own for a while using mail-in-a-box but ended up moving to fastmail because I didn't trust myself to maintain the setup. I need my email system to just work and that's likely the same for the majority of people. (I validated that lack of trust in myself even with fastmail by not realizing for almost 3 days that I let my domain expire, thus causing emails to bounce with no way of me knowing that was happening)
- petre 6y ago
  Too bad spammers and big corps broke that one as well. Maybe if it worked as a publush subscribe system (MQTT) instead where the sender was responsible for storing and distributing content, then the spam problem would be somewhat fixed?

zozbot234 6y ago

> and if you want to go to another server you have to actually move things. It takes actual effort. Not sure how that's worse than something like Facebook, where you literally don't get that option. If you want your asserted identity to be reasonably secure and easy to assess for other users, you have to find a trusted host or do your own hosting; that's no different from any other service.

freehunter 6y ago
This is what I’m talking about with developers not understanding users. I even said “users don’t care what’s behind the scenes”. Any normal user who is looking to leave Facebook wants Facebook The Product but not Facebook The Company. They don’t care about hosting or asserting identity. They don’t want options, they want a product.
- mrmonkeyman 6y ago
  Yes, we heard you. But how is leaving Facebook easy? How is it easier than switching Mastodon instances?

allarm 6y ago

People use email because it’s the best communication system existing. If someone doesn’t want to change his address he creates his own self-hosted mail server. Or just use his own domain name when using email service with thord party email providers. Email system is amazing, the issues with ux are in fact minimal, almost non-existent.

wombatpm 6y ago
Ok so make mastodon as easy as gmail. I can use Gmail.com or my own domain. Let me have same flexibility with my internet identity. I wish the USPS had gotten into the official Internet identity game. One place to receive legal emails, store my private keys, public keys etc. protected by law.
freehunter 6y ago
Is your dad, aunt, or grandma going to create a self hosted mail server? Seriously this is exactly what I’m talking about. This is a textbook example of what I’m talking about. No end user hosts their own email service.
- wolco 6y ago
  Sadly no one has made this easy and possible.
  - ziml77 6y ago
    Even if self-hosted email was easy, I don't find it to be a great idea. I ran my own for a while using mail-in-a-box but ended up moving to fastmail because I didn't trust myself to maintain the setup. I need my email system to just work and that's likely the same for the majority of people. (I validated that lack of trust in myself even with fastmail by not realizing for almost 3 days that I let my domain expire, thus causing emails to bounce with no way of me knowing that was happening)
petre 6y ago
Too bad spammers and big corps broke that one as well. Maybe if it worked as a publush subscribe system (MQTT) instead where the sender was responsible for storing and distributing content, then the spam problem would be somewhat fixed?