6 ms·

proofInAToot

82 points by perihelions 4y ago

perihelions 4y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20221106190108/https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/proofInAToot https://web.archive.org/web/20221106190108/https://mathstodo...
groffee 4y ago
This is why Mastodon is garbage, 1, links at the bottom of an endless scroll so they can never actually be reached, and 2, the design is complete garbage, there's no ux/ui there at all. I'm sure the content is great but no-ones ever gonna see it.
- warent 4y ago
  also, 3: "toot"
- tunesmith 4y ago
  I'm not sure that's a valid proof.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rolenthedeep 4y ago
  Literally everyone I've seen who gave mastodon an honest try has said that they get remarkably more engagement with a fraction of the followers they had on Twitter. I've seen this said hundreds of times. It's said so often that it's become a running joke.
- berkes 4y ago
  Your dramatic hyperboles hide the fact that there is some truth in what you say. The page linked is not what people commonly see or use when interacting with "the mastodon network". It's a public view on a single instance of a single hashtag. It certainly should be designed better. But you've clearly not spent any time to look into "the UX of mastodon" because if you did, you've known that the page you are criticizing, is an exceptional and hardly used one. Also, please try to be civil and constructive. It gets your otherwise valid point across much better. Now you sound like a nitwit with a grudge, while the points you make do have some merit.
thot_experiment 4y ago
ngl, my least favorite part of mastodon is the fact that tweets called toots, i guess the name might become rote if it gets popular enough but i've ventured out into the fediverse a few times and it's always struck me as really awkward/silly is that just me?
- klyrs 4y ago
  It's even weirder in Canada, where "toot" means "fart" but also "toke" as in inhaling cannabis smoke from a joint / pipe / bong.
  - PainfullyNormal 4y ago
    > It's even weirder in Canada, where "toot" means "fart" but also "toke" as in inhaling cannabis smoke from a joint / pipe / bong. No, that makes it sound just about right.
    - klyrs 4y ago
      Fair point
  - itslennysfault 4y ago
    Means the same in the US afaik, but maybe it's regional. That's the first thing I thought when I heard it.
  - harpiaharpyja 4y ago
    IDK, I live in Canada (Ontario) and I've never heard of the word toot referring to flatulence until people started complaining about Mastodon on HN. For me toot always referred to the sound a horn makes.
- kixiQu 4y ago
  Eugen, the CEO, feels similarly to you. A good chunk of the userbase likes that it's silly. Conflict has ensued.
- TaylorAlexander 4y ago
superchroma 4y ago
I've seen a lot of anecdotes on twitter of people confused by the mastodon server thing. There seems to be a definite fear of missing out on good content due to picking the wrong one. Not sure how you tackle that issue.
- AlecSchueler 4y ago
  Isn't the idea that you publish on one but you subscribe to many?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I think so (no idea personally) and if you're afraid to miss good toots wouldn't not signing up at all be even worse?
- INTPenis 4y ago
  I know this isn't a solution but the fear of missing out is a psychological one. You should put those fears aside and just participate, live in the moment. It might work out.
  - appletrotter 4y ago
    If I’m living in the moment, I’m not using social media at all quite likely. And it doesn’t matter if the effect is “psychological,” it’s going to have an effect on product outcome.
GrumpyNl 4y ago
Shows me error 500.
chatterhead 4y ago
Toot is a term for doing a bump of coke. More Mastodon spamming.
perihelions 4y ago
(I edited the title half an hour after submitting, solely to remove the octothorpe (#). The reason is because Mastodon has HN bots which are retooting this thread, and the literal # is causing the retoots to be interpreted as hashtag-using and polluting the submitted page with spam). (Sorry!)
sdiacom 4y ago
robswc 4y ago
Someone more versed in social media could perhaps explain this to me... Are you able to "sign up once" and be able to log into every instance of Mastodon? Would having a "central profile" database break everything it stands for? I really like the idea. At the end of the day though, people usually follow the path of least resistance. Hence why reddit "wins" over forums (obv forums are much better for many things but you know). It seems like something I would be interested in. I have been, since before this twitter drama even started. Someone tried explaining it back then and it sorta made sense. Perhaps its changed in the mean time though?
- LeoPanthera 4y ago
  If you just want to read posts on Mastodon, you don't need to sign up at all. You only need to sign up (just once) if you want to follow people, or post yourself. You can read all (public) posts on all instances either way.
  - robswc 4y ago
    Interesting. So I swear this is not on purpose, but I went to try to see what thing I would be interested in. I searched "Mastodon Technology" and it leads me here: https://mastodon.technology/about https://mastodon.technology/about It says it's shutting down though? So they can just shut down and if you don't migrate your account in time, you're SoL ? I do understand a bit more now. I remember being interested in it around 2019 and it was a bit confusing then. Your comment clears it up quite a bit.
    - rolenthedeep 4y ago
      Yes, but if Twitter shut down, you wouldn't have any more options. That server got too big for its admin team to handle. The general sentiment around mastodon is that it's sad, but it isn't a bad thing. The admins did their best, but it's in everyone's best interest to shut it down gracefully rather than let it fester. All the users will migrate to new communities and continue on. Mastodon has a problem with scaling individual instances. It works best when there are a lot of relatively small instances. Once you get too many users, server resources get tight FAST. My instance has gone down three times for upgrades this week, and the admin has had to suspend new user registration because the server just can't keep up.
secondcoming 4y ago
This is the first time I’ve ever read something on Mastodon. Well played.
wcerfgba 4y ago
If Mastodon's search functionality isn't federated, how are you supposed to find out about cool hashtags like this without manually exploring dozens of instances on a regular basis?
- panic 4y ago
  Hashtag search works cross-instance, just not full text.
  - wcerfgba 4y ago
    Oh I didn't know that, cool!
jacelynsia 4y ago

82 points by perihelions 4y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20221106190108/https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/proofInAToot https://web.archive.org/web/20221106190108/https://mathstodo...

groffee 4y ago

This is why Mastodon is garbage, 1, links at the bottom of an endless scroll so they can never actually be reached, and 2, the design is complete garbage, there's no ux/ui there at all. I'm sure the content is great but no-ones ever gonna see it.

warent 4y ago
also, 3: "toot"
tunesmith 4y ago
I'm not sure that's a valid proof.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rolenthedeep 4y ago
Literally everyone I've seen who gave mastodon an honest try has said that they get remarkably more engagement with a fraction of the followers they had on Twitter. I've seen this said hundreds of times. It's said so often that it's become a running joke.
berkes 4y ago
Your dramatic hyperboles hide the fact that there is some truth in what you say. The page linked is not what people commonly see or use when interacting with "the mastodon network". It's a public view on a single instance of a single hashtag. It certainly should be designed better. But you've clearly not spent any time to look into "the UX of mastodon" because if you did, you've known that the page you are criticizing, is an exceptional and hardly used one. Also, please try to be civil and constructive. It gets your otherwise valid point across much better. Now you sound like a nitwit with a grudge, while the points you make do have some merit.

thot_experiment 4y ago

ngl, my least favorite part of mastodon is the fact that tweets called toots, i guess the name might become rote if it gets popular enough but i've ventured out into the fediverse a few times and it's always struck me as really awkward/silly is that just me?

klyrs 4y ago
It's even weirder in Canada, where "toot" means "fart" but also "toke" as in inhaling cannabis smoke from a joint / pipe / bong.
- PainfullyNormal 4y ago
  > It's even weirder in Canada, where "toot" means "fart" but also "toke" as in inhaling cannabis smoke from a joint / pipe / bong. No, that makes it sound just about right.
  - klyrs 4y ago
    Fair point
- itslennysfault 4y ago
  Means the same in the US afaik, but maybe it's regional. That's the first thing I thought when I heard it.
- harpiaharpyja 4y ago
  IDK, I live in Canada (Ontario) and I've never heard of the word toot referring to flatulence until people started complaining about Mastodon on HN. For me toot always referred to the sound a horn makes.
kixiQu 4y ago
Eugen, the CEO, feels similarly to you. A good chunk of the userbase likes that it's silly. Conflict has ensued.
TaylorAlexander 4y ago

superchroma 4y ago

I've seen a lot of anecdotes on twitter of people confused by the mastodon server thing. There seems to be a definite fear of missing out on good content due to picking the wrong one. Not sure how you tackle that issue.

AlecSchueler 4y ago
Isn't the idea that you publish on one but you subscribe to many?
- bombcar 4y ago
  I think so (no idea personally) and if you're afraid to miss good toots wouldn't not signing up at all be even worse?
INTPenis 4y ago
I know this isn't a solution but the fear of missing out is a psychological one. You should put those fears aside and just participate, live in the moment. It might work out.
- appletrotter 4y ago
  If I’m living in the moment, I’m not using social media at all quite likely. And it doesn’t matter if the effect is “psychological,” it’s going to have an effect on product outcome.

GrumpyNl 4y ago

Shows me error 500.

chatterhead 4y ago

Toot is a term for doing a bump of coke. More Mastodon spamming.

perihelions 4y ago

(I edited the title half an hour after submitting, solely to remove the octothorpe (#). The reason is because Mastodon has HN bots which are retooting this thread, and the literal # is causing the retoots to be interpreted as hashtag-using and polluting the submitted page with spam). (Sorry!)

sdiacom 4y ago

robswc 4y ago

Someone more versed in social media could perhaps explain this to me... Are you able to "sign up once" and be able to log into every instance of Mastodon? Would having a "central profile" database break everything it stands for? I really like the idea. At the end of the day though, people usually follow the path of least resistance. Hence why reddit "wins" over forums (obv forums are much better for many things but you know). It seems like something I would be interested in. I have been, since before this twitter drama even started. Someone tried explaining it back then and it sorta made sense. Perhaps its changed in the mean time though?

LeoPanthera 4y ago
If you just want to read posts on Mastodon, you don't need to sign up at all. You only need to sign up (just once) if you want to follow people, or post yourself. You can read all (public) posts on all instances either way.
- robswc 4y ago
  Interesting. So I swear this is not on purpose, but I went to try to see what thing I would be interested in. I searched "Mastodon Technology" and it leads me here: https://mastodon.technology/about https://mastodon.technology/about It says it's shutting down though? So they can just shut down and if you don't migrate your account in time, you're SoL ? I do understand a bit more now. I remember being interested in it around 2019 and it was a bit confusing then. Your comment clears it up quite a bit.
  - rolenthedeep 4y ago
    Yes, but if Twitter shut down, you wouldn't have any more options. That server got too big for its admin team to handle. The general sentiment around mastodon is that it's sad, but it isn't a bad thing. The admins did their best, but it's in everyone's best interest to shut it down gracefully rather than let it fester. All the users will migrate to new communities and continue on. Mastodon has a problem with scaling individual instances. It works best when there are a lot of relatively small instances. Once you get too many users, server resources get tight FAST. My instance has gone down three times for upgrades this week, and the admin has had to suspend new user registration because the server just can't keep up.

secondcoming 4y ago

This is the first time I’ve ever read something on Mastodon. Well played.

wcerfgba 4y ago

If Mastodon's search functionality isn't federated, how are you supposed to find out about cool hashtags like this without manually exploring dozens of instances on a regular basis?

panic 4y ago
Hashtag search works cross-instance, just not full text.
- wcerfgba 4y ago
  Oh I didn't know that, cool!

jacelynsia 4y ago