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I’m trying it now. I have ALWAYS used Twitter through the 3rd party TweetBot app. That basically is Twitter for me. Unless someone sends me a link to a tweet,

by MBCook 4y ago

I’m trying it now. I have ALWAYS used Twitter through the 3rd party TweetBot app. That basically is Twitter for me. Unless someone sends me a link to a tweet, I don’t use the web. The Mastodon app is no comparison. It has hitches while scrolling my (tiny) timeline. I can’t figure out some of the buttons or why they’re highlighted. There are no gestures at all that I’ve found. I don’t expect the level of one of the best Twitter apps of all time, but it feels more like what a web developer would think an app is. Also, I did join Mastodon.social. And it’s currently dead from load (I assume). So my experience is going great. Normal people just don’t care about federation. They seem to actively dislike it, and I don’t blame them. The only federated thing most people will ever use is email, and that’s a relic from the 1980s. And centralizing on gmail/outlook/a few others. I can’t think of a single thing normal people use. Most people don’t make their own site anymore, and so many that do are really just on one of the big hosts. They view content from web sites, but that seems different somehow. I just have a hard time seeing Mastodon succeed. Between federation (yes, I know the benefits), resource issues, and simple UX issues I can’t imagine it taking off. The UX and apps can be fixed, but by then its one chance may have passed and it may be too late.

Cyberdog 4y ago
There are many different Fediverse apps you can try; you don't have to stick with the official Mastodon one. But I personally just use the web interface of my instance myself, the rare times I view it on mobile.
squarefoot 4y ago
> I just have a hard time seeing Mastodon succeed. Very different numbers and contexts, but nobody could also predict Libera.chat would completely take over Freenode. All it needs is pissing off users, and it seems Twitter could be on the right track to do that, at least for a generous part of them.
- catach 4y ago
  People being annoyed enough to leave twitter is not synonymous with them also joining Mastodon.
  - MBCook 4y ago
    Right. Also Freenode and Libra.chat are 1:1 equivalents. They’re both IRC right? Same features, same clients, same experience. That’s not the case with Twitter and Mastodon.
danuker 4y ago
> I can’t think of a single thing normal people use. The Internet is federated. You can become the customer of any number of ISPs, and each can take you to any website with an IP address, in a distributed fashion, by just asking routers along the way. ISPs all over the world are collaborating for a global network of networks.
midoridensha 4y ago
>Normal people just don’t care about federation. They seem to actively dislike it, and I don’t blame them. Normal people don't like any kind of freedom of choice really: they want everyone to own the exact same iPhone they have, they actively discourage everyone they know from getting anything other than an iPhone (even going so far as to refuse to communicate with them because their messages show up with a different-color dot), and then they have the audacity to whine and complain when Apple exercises its monopoly power and makes iPhones absurdly expensive and forces software updates on them which make their older iPhones slower. But they absolutely refuse to even consider trying anything besides an iPhone, no matter how much they feel screwed over by Apple. It's not just Apple and iPhones; I see this mentality all the time with many other things. We'll probably see the same thing with Twitter. Many people will whine and complain about the price increases, about Musk's new rules or who or what he allows on the platform, etc., but a large group of them will simply never leave Twitter no matter what, unless it finally goes the way of MySpace. >Between federation (yes, I know the benefits), resource issues, and simple UX issues I can’t imagine it taking off. >The UX and apps can be fixed, but by then its one chance may have passed and it may be too late. I haven't looked at Mastodon so I'm just taking your word for it, but federation would only be useful if it were mostly transparent and not a hassle as others have described here, and the other issues will probably prevent anyone from switching, just like desktop Linux basically missed its chances to get really big over the years because of too many small issues that drove people back to Windows/Mac. First-mover advantage is a huge thing and it's really hard to unseat an incumbent.

by MBCook 4y ago

Cyberdog 4y ago

There are many different Fediverse apps you can try; you don't have to stick with the official Mastodon one. But I personally just use the web interface of my instance myself, the rare times I view it on mobile.

squarefoot 4y ago

> I just have a hard time seeing Mastodon succeed. Very different numbers and contexts, but nobody could also predict Libera.chat would completely take over Freenode. All it needs is pissing off users, and it seems Twitter could be on the right track to do that, at least for a generous part of them.

catach 4y ago
People being annoyed enough to leave twitter is not synonymous with them also joining Mastodon.
- MBCook 4y ago
  Right. Also Freenode and Libra.chat are 1:1 equivalents. They’re both IRC right? Same features, same clients, same experience. That’s not the case with Twitter and Mastodon.

danuker 4y ago

> I can’t think of a single thing normal people use. The Internet is federated. You can become the customer of any number of ISPs, and each can take you to any website with an IP address, in a distributed fashion, by just asking routers along the way. ISPs all over the world are collaborating for a global network of networks.

midoridensha 4y ago

>Normal people just don’t care about federation. They seem to actively dislike it, and I don’t blame them. Normal people don't like any kind of freedom of choice really: they want everyone to own the exact same iPhone they have, they actively discourage everyone they know from getting anything other than an iPhone (even going so far as to refuse to communicate with them because their messages show up with a different-color dot), and then they have the audacity to whine and complain when Apple exercises its monopoly power and makes iPhones absurdly expensive and forces software updates on them which make their older iPhones slower. But they absolutely refuse to even consider trying anything besides an iPhone, no matter how much they feel screwed over by Apple. It's not just Apple and iPhones; I see this mentality all the time with many other things. We'll probably see the same thing with Twitter. Many people will whine and complain about the price increases, about Musk's new rules or who or what he allows on the platform, etc., but a large group of them will simply never leave Twitter no matter what, unless it finally goes the way of MySpace. >Between federation (yes, I know the benefits), resource issues, and simple UX issues I can’t imagine it taking off. >The UX and apps can be fixed, but by then its one chance may have passed and it may be too late. I haven't looked at Mastodon so I'm just taking your word for it, but federation would only be useful if it were mostly transparent and not a hassle as others have described here, and the other issues will probably prevent anyone from switching, just like desktop Linux basically missed its chances to get really big over the years because of too many small issues that drove people back to Windows/Mac. First-mover advantage is a huge thing and it's really hard to unseat an incumbent.