5 ms·

Is having both a normal social media account & a federated version okay? I've seen a lot of people delete their Twitter and then hop on Mastodon because they're

Is having both a normal social media account & a federated version okay? I've seen a lot of people delete their Twitter and then hop on Mastodon because they're worried about Musk. Whether their concern about Musk is valid is another question. How do people see his acquisition of Twitter as a bad thing? If anything he will try to improve it no?

lynndotpy 4y ago
You can certainly have a normal and a federated social media. I do. You likely already have email, which is also kind of federated and kind of social media.
Ambolia 4y ago
Intra-elite competition between old media types and silicon valley types has being on for a while in different ways. Musk has been openly exposing some outsider narratives, so he is seen as an enemy to the old media types. I think this is most of it. The "billionaire" narrative doesn't make any sense. It's not like Twitter, or any other media companies, were owned by poor people until now.
- Barrin92 4y ago
  >It's not like Twitter, or any other media companies, were owned by poor people until now To an extent they were because they're a public company. A public company is accountable to its shareholders which in principle is open to everyone (generally represented by institutional investors in practice), whereas a private company is, in this case, only answering to one person, and only really serving one person. That basic democratic aspect of American capitalism where everyone can take a stake in the economy is undermined when people withdraw from public markets altogether. It looks more like another gilded age.
simonw 4y ago
This is the best commentary I've seen about the Twitter situation, from someone who worked there for four years at a senior level (but isn't there now so is free to share their thoughts): https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2022/04/anchors-away https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2022/04/anchors-away The short version: Twitter's challenges are not hard technology problems, they're hard social and community problems. These are not areas Elon has shown any interest in understanding or respecting.
hbn 4y ago
If these people are fleeing Twitter because they're terrified about a platform where everyone they don't like isn't banned, just wait until they realize there's no way to ban someone from the fediverse
- kevingadd 4y ago
  Is that a typo? This post doesn't make sense to me. The latter isn't true, because individual instances can ban you and instances that allow bad behavior will be defederated. Elon has indicated a desire to unban users, not ban them.
  - hbn 4y ago
    Yup, it was a typo (edited now). I meant that if they want everyone they don't like to be banned, the fediverse doesn't seem like the place for that. Getting banned from a fediverse instance isn't as impactful as being banned from twitter, and I think those people would want it to work like twitter. Not too sure about instances being defederated though, that's the first I've heard of that.
    - rapnie 4y ago
      You can watch "Decentralized networks vs. the Trolls" to get a sense of how it works. Good video. https://conf.tube/w/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966 https://conf.tube/w/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966
    - kevingadd 4y ago
      The biggest defederation example I know of (with the caveat that I haven't actually used Mastodon in years) is that when Pixiv launched their own instance it quickly grew to be something like the 1st or 2nd biggest instance in the network and was eventually defederated by many other instances because people were REALLY antsy about the fact that a lot of Japanese art on Pixiv is illegal in other countries.
      - DoItToMe81 4y ago
M2Ys4U 4y ago
>Is having both a normal social media account & a federated version okay? Of course it is. There will always be a small number of [insert thing here] purists, it's best to (mostly) ignore them when they moralise about only using [thing] (but don't completely ignore them, they're usually on to something, despite the hardline position).
gpm 4y ago
Twitter was a space with a set of rules, Elon has publicly indicated his intention to change those rules, and many of the people who came to it with the understanding that those rules existed don't really want to be there without those rules in place. Improve is subjective. Some people want to go to a coffee shop, others a Bar. Elon is buying the space and turning it from one into the other, of course there's going to be turnover in the patrons of the space.
drewzero1 4y ago
Yes, as a several-year fedi user I don't see anything wrong per se with having and using both. (I never got into twitter so I personally don't.) The most important thing to remember is that it is specifically not Twitter, and you'll be disappointed if you try to bring the exact same kind of interactions you might have had on Twitter. Every instance has its own themes and inside jokes that you can get to know and become part of. It's designed to be more about forming relationships and community than getting lots of likes and followers. It's possible to use a bot to crosspost your tweets onto a fedi account. Hardcore fedi fans tend to frown on it because it's a very arms-length way to interact with people on the platform, but a lot of people do it and I've even followed a few. If you're considering using a crosspost bot make sure your instance's rules allow them; different instances have different policies about that kind of thing. As far as Musk goes, I have no doubt he will try to improve Twitter according to his vision of improvement, which not every user will agree with. We've already seen similar situations with Tumblr's policy changes a few years back leading to a wave of new users across the fediverse. Eventually some people go back/elsewhere and some stick around and become a part of these communities. Welcome to the fediverse!
dotnet00 4y ago
I think it's fine, comes down to your reasons for trying the Fediverse. I'm not fully opposed to Twitter etc, a lot of people I'm interested in are there and I've managed to filter out the bad stuff to a reasonable extent. Similarly I find the Fediverse interesting technically and there's at least some content I enjoy, so I have that too. It's the same with Discord and Matrix. It's probably even better to have both accounts because then it isn't as much of a hurdle to move platforms if one thing doesn't go in the direction you'd like. As for people leaving Twitter over Musk, I expect most of the big ones to quietly come back once they find an excuse, after all, most of them are mainly addicted to the attention, which isn't as easy to earn in the Fediverse due to a lack of a recommender system with perverse incentives to manipulate.

lynndotpy 4y ago

You can certainly have a normal and a federated social media. I do. You likely already have email, which is also kind of federated and kind of social media.

Ambolia 4y ago

Intra-elite competition between old media types and silicon valley types has being on for a while in different ways. Musk has been openly exposing some outsider narratives, so he is seen as an enemy to the old media types. I think this is most of it. The "billionaire" narrative doesn't make any sense. It's not like Twitter, or any other media companies, were owned by poor people until now.

Barrin92 4y ago
>It's not like Twitter, or any other media companies, were owned by poor people until now To an extent they were because they're a public company. A public company is accountable to its shareholders which in principle is open to everyone (generally represented by institutional investors in practice), whereas a private company is, in this case, only answering to one person, and only really serving one person. That basic democratic aspect of American capitalism where everyone can take a stake in the economy is undermined when people withdraw from public markets altogether. It looks more like another gilded age.

simonw 4y ago

This is the best commentary I've seen about the Twitter situation, from someone who worked there for four years at a senior level (but isn't there now so is free to share their thoughts): https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2022/04/anchors-away https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2022/04/anchors-away The short version: Twitter's challenges are not hard technology problems, they're hard social and community problems. These are not areas Elon has shown any interest in understanding or respecting.

hbn 4y ago

If these people are fleeing Twitter because they're terrified about a platform where everyone they don't like isn't banned, just wait until they realize there's no way to ban someone from the fediverse

kevingadd 4y ago
Is that a typo? This post doesn't make sense to me. The latter isn't true, because individual instances can ban you and instances that allow bad behavior will be defederated. Elon has indicated a desire to unban users, not ban them.
- hbn 4y ago
  Yup, it was a typo (edited now). I meant that if they want everyone they don't like to be banned, the fediverse doesn't seem like the place for that. Getting banned from a fediverse instance isn't as impactful as being banned from twitter, and I think those people would want it to work like twitter. Not too sure about instances being defederated though, that's the first I've heard of that.
  - rapnie 4y ago
    You can watch "Decentralized networks vs. the Trolls" to get a sense of how it works. Good video. https://conf.tube/w/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966 https://conf.tube/w/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966
  - kevingadd 4y ago
    The biggest defederation example I know of (with the caveat that I haven't actually used Mastodon in years) is that when Pixiv launched their own instance it quickly grew to be something like the 1st or 2nd biggest instance in the network and was eventually defederated by many other instances because people were REALLY antsy about the fact that a lot of Japanese art on Pixiv is illegal in other countries.
    - DoItToMe81 4y ago

M2Ys4U 4y ago

>Is having both a normal social media account & a federated version okay? Of course it is. There will always be a small number of [insert thing here] purists, it's best to (mostly) ignore them when they moralise about only using [thing] (but don't completely ignore them, they're usually on to something, despite the hardline position).

gpm 4y ago

Twitter was a space with a set of rules, Elon has publicly indicated his intention to change those rules, and many of the people who came to it with the understanding that those rules existed don't really want to be there without those rules in place. Improve is subjective. Some people want to go to a coffee shop, others a Bar. Elon is buying the space and turning it from one into the other, of course there's going to be turnover in the patrons of the space.

drewzero1 4y ago

Yes, as a several-year fedi user I don't see anything wrong per se with having and using both. (I never got into twitter so I personally don't.) The most important thing to remember is that it is specifically not Twitter, and you'll be disappointed if you try to bring the exact same kind of interactions you might have had on Twitter. Every instance has its own themes and inside jokes that you can get to know and become part of. It's designed to be more about forming relationships and community than getting lots of likes and followers. It's possible to use a bot to crosspost your tweets onto a fedi account. Hardcore fedi fans tend to frown on it because it's a very arms-length way to interact with people on the platform, but a lot of people do it and I've even followed a few. If you're considering using a crosspost bot make sure your instance's rules allow them; different instances have different policies about that kind of thing. As far as Musk goes, I have no doubt he will try to improve Twitter according to his vision of improvement, which not every user will agree with. We've already seen similar situations with Tumblr's policy changes a few years back leading to a wave of new users across the fediverse. Eventually some people go back/elsewhere and some stick around and become a part of these communities. Welcome to the fediverse!

dotnet00 4y ago

I think it's fine, comes down to your reasons for trying the Fediverse. I'm not fully opposed to Twitter etc, a lot of people I'm interested in are there and I've managed to filter out the bad stuff to a reasonable extent. Similarly I find the Fediverse interesting technically and there's at least some content I enjoy, so I have that too. It's the same with Discord and Matrix. It's probably even better to have both accounts because then it isn't as much of a hurdle to move platforms if one thing doesn't go in the direction you'd like. As for people leaving Twitter over Musk, I expect most of the big ones to quietly come back once they find an excuse, after all, most of them are mainly addicted to the attention, which isn't as easy to earn in the Fediverse due to a lack of a recommender system with perverse incentives to manipulate.