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> Do people miss the Google of old, or the Web of old? Yeah, I wish I knew how to get back to it, but I think that's impossible without a big enough movement.

> Do people miss the Google of old, or the Web of old? Yeah, I wish I knew how to get back to it, but I think that's impossible without a big enough movement. Yes, I know about tildeverse and some other things but the countervailing network effect is just too big for it to be sustaining right now. The closest is Mastadon but it's not really that great.

Zak 4y ago
What would make Mastodon more appealing for you or the hypothetical user for whom you think it's not that great? The main thing that comes to mind for me would be more people I know in person using it.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  I think I agree with that but also I think it needs something like groups like Facebook has. I only want to see gardening stuff today, for example. I do like the whole mood though... it's not the battlefield that Twitter is.
  - Zak 4y ago
    It seems to me that use case is better served by forums, but it would be nice if I could use my Mastodon (or Diaspora, Frendica, Pixelfed, etc...) account as my identity on multiple forums. I don't think it's necessarily desirable for one piece of software to try to do everything, but it's great when different services can talk to each other.
    - guerrilla 4y ago
      Yeah, that would work too but it's kind of hard to find forums since reddit dominates all search results... I've been trying to train myself to look for them specifically though.
      - Zak 4y ago
        I can imagine paths to improvement that don't rely on Google improving its behavior or something displacing it as a search engine. For example, what if forum software spoke Activitypub so people could follow threads and boost insightful comments from Mastodon?
- blippage 4y ago
  Many moons ago, someone on Reddit said "Facebook requires registration in order to view content, which tells you all you need to know." I never forgot that remark. So that's a thing that I'd recommend to Mastadon: make it viewable by anyone, even if they don't have an account. Nothing smells quite like "you are the product" than requiring an account.
  - Zak 4y ago
    You do not need an account to view content on Mastodon. Posts can be set followers-only, but most people don't do that for most content. Here's the profile directory on the biggest instance, for example: https://mastodon.social/explore https://mastodon.social/explore
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- Yizahi 4y ago
  Nothing really. The core concept is let's say "wrong" (for my personal case). Mastodon is a stream of very short posts. Problem a - shortness, means no longform texts there, so they are posted in different sites, externally. Short posts aren't very informative usually. Problem b - stream. Currently almost all of the social media are structured like this and it is a bad format. It is not engaging, it is not possible to find something which flew by ten minutes ago. It's like a bad version of Facebook, if you didn't happen to see some post "in time" then it might as well don't exist. Problem c - engagement, discovery, popularity and other similar issues. This is a common problem for all media, but for Mastodon it is even worse because of the fragmentation. It's broken even at the registration stage, e.g. just where should I register to find what I want? Impossible to find. I've tried using it twice due to hype on HN, and abandoned it quickly.
  - Zak 4y ago
    A also bothers me. It isn't hard for an instance admin to change the character limit, and does seem like a way instances could stand out from each other, yet it's rarely done. Federated instances do seem to handle long posts gracefully (there's a "read more" expando link). B seems inherent to social media as we know it. What would be a better design for you? C is handled in part by relay servers synchronizing content between instances. Small instances often aren't well-connected though and I think both instance admins and relay operators could do better here.

Zak 4y ago

What would make Mastodon more appealing for you or the hypothetical user for whom you think it's not that great? The main thing that comes to mind for me would be more people I know in person using it.

guerrilla 4y ago
I think I agree with that but also I think it needs something like groups like Facebook has. I only want to see gardening stuff today, for example. I do like the whole mood though... it's not the battlefield that Twitter is.
- Zak 4y ago
  It seems to me that use case is better served by forums, but it would be nice if I could use my Mastodon (or Diaspora, Frendica, Pixelfed, etc...) account as my identity on multiple forums. I don't think it's necessarily desirable for one piece of software to try to do everything, but it's great when different services can talk to each other.
  - guerrilla 4y ago
    Yeah, that would work too but it's kind of hard to find forums since reddit dominates all search results... I've been trying to train myself to look for them specifically though.
    - Zak 4y ago
      I can imagine paths to improvement that don't rely on Google improving its behavior or something displacing it as a search engine. For example, what if forum software spoke Activitypub so people could follow threads and boost insightful comments from Mastodon?
blippage 4y ago
Many moons ago, someone on Reddit said "Facebook requires registration in order to view content, which tells you all you need to know." I never forgot that remark. So that's a thing that I'd recommend to Mastadon: make it viewable by anyone, even if they don't have an account. Nothing smells quite like "you are the product" than requiring an account.
- Zak 4y ago
  You do not need an account to view content on Mastodon. Posts can be set followers-only, but most people don't do that for most content. Here's the profile directory on the biggest instance, for example: https://mastodon.social/explore https://mastodon.social/explore
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Yizahi 4y ago
Nothing really. The core concept is let's say "wrong" (for my personal case). Mastodon is a stream of very short posts. Problem a - shortness, means no longform texts there, so they are posted in different sites, externally. Short posts aren't very informative usually. Problem b - stream. Currently almost all of the social media are structured like this and it is a bad format. It is not engaging, it is not possible to find something which flew by ten minutes ago. It's like a bad version of Facebook, if you didn't happen to see some post "in time" then it might as well don't exist. Problem c - engagement, discovery, popularity and other similar issues. This is a common problem for all media, but for Mastodon it is even worse because of the fragmentation. It's broken even at the registration stage, e.g. just where should I register to find what I want? Impossible to find. I've tried using it twice due to hype on HN, and abandoned it quickly.
- Zak 4y ago
  A also bothers me. It isn't hard for an instance admin to change the character limit, and does seem like a way instances could stand out from each other, yet it's rarely done. Federated instances do seem to handle long posts gracefully (there's a "read more" expando link). B seems inherent to social media as we know it. What would be a better design for you? C is handled in part by relay servers synchronizing content between instances. Small instances often aren't well-connected though and I think both instance admins and relay operators could do better here.