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A lot of things. Whether they are good or bad things is another question. For now, Twitter scales better. There's no such thing as an instance, a slow instance
by fleddr 4y ago
A lot of things. Whether they are good or bad things is another question.
For now, Twitter scales better. There's no such thing as an instance, a slow instance, or registration simply being closed.
Twitter preserves content. Yes, I know it's currently debatable, but in general it does. On Mastodon, any instance can go the way of the dodo, and this regularly happens. Further, it's standard policy to wipe out all media attached to your toots. I think this point is a big deal. Your content simply isn't safe on Mastodon.
Mastodon has poor on-boarding. You need to pick an instance which a normie doesn't understand. Further, it has no (good) algorithms for recommended content, followers, finding people you already know. You have to bolt and stitch things together. This too is a massive issue in the age of Tiktok, where even the effort of lifting a finger is too much. I think organically building up your feed is actually great, but you have to understand that the HN audience is not the same as the masses.
Mastodon has no consistent moderation. Yes, you could argue neither has Twitter, but it's still consistent-enough compared to Mastodon, where you're at the helm of whichever volunteer runs the instance. Not necessarily an issue for middle-of-the-road conversations, but still a difference.
Lastly, and this is perhaps the most twisted point: Mastodon isn't designed for drama. Twitter is hyper optimized for it. It's quite the culture shock for some.
- OkayPhysicist 4y agoI feel like you give too little credit to the "normies". My 92 year-old grandmother figured out how to join plenty of forums for her birdwatching and knitting and whatnot hobbies (classic phpBB style things). Choosing an instance is no more complicated than that, but you get the added bonus of being able to interact with the other forums, too.
- fleddr 4y agoI suspect we disagree on what a normie is. I do a lot of tech support for the elderly in my family and they don't grasp concepts a hundred times simpler than a server/instance, and they're in their 70s. It's not an age thing, it's an education thing. The vast majority of the world is lowly educated. Besides tech skills, the additional issue is that some people are entitled. They reject any service that adds friction, since they're used to zero friction. The Tiktok effect.
- colinsane 4y ago> Twitter preserves content. Yes, I know it's currently debatable, but in general it does. On Mastodon, any instance can go the way of the dodo, and this regularly happens. it's super debatable. i take it most of your Twitter experience is through the website/app, rather than following links posted in chats/elsewhere. i run a Pleroma server. anything from anyone i follow by default gets replicated locally. if/when those servers go offline, accounts get suspended, etc: the content is still viewable to me. > Mastodon has poor on-boarding. Twitter has poor on-boarding. post something as a new user? nobody will ever see it. on Mastodon? any instance < 1k users will have a decent chunk browsing the local timeline and you'll get a few interactions. and a lot of instance admins will "boost" first-time posters specifically to help them with onboarding. in general though, yes: growing any social circle takes time: in person, or online. there's no real way to speedrun that. > Lastly, and this is perhaps the most twisted point: Mastodon isn't designed for drama. at this point it's clear you're playing the "shoot down the new tech" angle, rather than honestly evaluating the two on equal footing.