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What I don't get is how everyone here seems to fail so spectacularly at understanding the needs of the average internet user. Don't ya'll work in tech? Users ar

What I don't get is how everyone here seems to fail so spectacularly at understanding the needs of the average internet user. Don't ya'll work in tech? Users are not like you and I, and anything other than the standard sign up process is going to devastate the new user funnel. Which is fine if they don't want to become a household name! But it is absolutely not fine for those who desirer Mastodon to function as a legitimate Twitter replacement.

rakoo 4y ago
> But it is absolutely not fine for those who desirer Mastodon to function as a legitimate Twitter replacement. You know who wants to see Mastodon as a Twitter replacement ? Not Mastodon users, and not fediverse inhabitants. It's all the Twitter serfs who want to find a new place where they will be taken care of. Except that place doesn't exist in the Fediverse. For some reason people keep complaining about Mastodon not being easy enough, but it's the same people who believe they are expert enough to speak in the name of non-experts. It gets tiring to hear them.
pwinnski 4y ago
You're going to be frustrated trying to make this banana act like an orange. It just won't work. If by "Twitter replacement" you mean "a place for microblogging," then sure, almost any mastodon server should do. But if you mean "replicating the entire Twitter experience," that just isn't going to happen with mastodon, ever. So instead of telling people "sign up for mastodon," if it make you feel better, tell them to "sign up for X" where X is one of the ten servers I mentioned in my mastodon explainer post[0], none of which are aimed specifically at tech-savvy people. 0. https://qoto.org/@pwinn/109315562185308969 https://qoto.org/@pwinn/109315562185308969
VikingCoder 4y ago
I legitimately think you have no memory of what it used to be like to get on the Internet. "Average internet users" went through all of that. They learned the incantations, and they performed them on a daily basis, to get at something new. There are people who do not know how to read any written language, at all, who use Smartphones on a daily basis. They learn how to navigate the icons, without any ability to read. I think you have no memory of what it used to be like to put an app on your iPhone. Over-The-Air installs and updates didn't happen at first. People had to use iTunes on a Desktop, with a cord plugged in, to do stuff. My 90 year old grandmother knew how to get into the App Store, install apps, and set up accounts. I think you're vastly underestimating the number of steps users will go through to get at something good. So, please, think about that for a moment. But more importantly, if I send you an invite to the same Mastodon server I'm on, you literally skip the one and only one new step ("pick a server") that you've spent all of this time and energy complaining about. Yup. The thing you've been bemoaning this entire time isn't even an issue, if you get an invite link. And frankly, that's probably how the majority of eventual Mastodon users will actually get there - by following a link a friend sends them. Have a great weekend.

rakoo 4y ago

> But it is absolutely not fine for those who desirer Mastodon to function as a legitimate Twitter replacement. You know who wants to see Mastodon as a Twitter replacement ? Not Mastodon users, and not fediverse inhabitants. It's all the Twitter serfs who want to find a new place where they will be taken care of. Except that place doesn't exist in the Fediverse. For some reason people keep complaining about Mastodon not being easy enough, but it's the same people who believe they are expert enough to speak in the name of non-experts. It gets tiring to hear them.

pwinnski 4y ago

You're going to be frustrated trying to make this banana act like an orange. It just won't work. If by "Twitter replacement" you mean "a place for microblogging," then sure, almost any mastodon server should do. But if you mean "replicating the entire Twitter experience," that just isn't going to happen with mastodon, ever. So instead of telling people "sign up for mastodon," if it make you feel better, tell them to "sign up for X" where X is one of the ten servers I mentioned in my mastodon explainer post[0], none of which are aimed specifically at tech-savvy people. 0. https://qoto.org/@pwinn/109315562185308969 https://qoto.org/@pwinn/109315562185308969

VikingCoder 4y ago

I legitimately think you have no memory of what it used to be like to get on the Internet. "Average internet users" went through all of that. They learned the incantations, and they performed them on a daily basis, to get at something new. There are people who do not know how to read any written language, at all, who use Smartphones on a daily basis. They learn how to navigate the icons, without any ability to read. I think you have no memory of what it used to be like to put an app on your iPhone. Over-The-Air installs and updates didn't happen at first. People had to use iTunes on a Desktop, with a cord plugged in, to do stuff. My 90 year old grandmother knew how to get into the App Store, install apps, and set up accounts. I think you're vastly underestimating the number of steps users will go through to get at something good. So, please, think about that for a moment. But more importantly, if I send you an invite to the same Mastodon server I'm on, you literally skip the one and only one new step ("pick a server") that you've spent all of this time and energy complaining about. Yup. The thing you've been bemoaning this entire time isn't even an issue, if you get an invite link. And frankly, that's probably how the majority of eventual Mastodon users will actually get there - by following a link a friend sends them. Have a great weekend.