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> Yes, Mastodon is more difficult to use than whatever social media platforms you are on now. What about Mastodon is more difficult to use? Isn't it just choos

by distcs 4y ago

> Yes, Mastodon is more difficult to use than whatever social media platforms you are on now. What about Mastodon is more difficult to use? Isn't it just choosing a server, typing its URL, signing up for a new account and then you are ready to post? The UX does not look any more difficult than Twitter either. Both support search, hashtags, following people, creating lists, retweets (called boost in Mastodon), commenting. The UX looks and behaves similarly too. So why do people say that Mastodon is more difficult to use?

jacooper 4y ago
Choosing a server is incredibly confusing for the average joe
- distcs 4y ago
  The average joe can just sign up for https://mastodon.social/ https://mastodon.social/ can't they? How is it really more difficult than signing up for Twitter or Facebook?
  - dymk 4y ago
    If you can figure out that’s the “main” server to go sign up on, sure. With Facebook and Twitter there is no question where to go sign up. That’s less clear with Mastodon. Simply knowing one has a choice of servers will turn some away.
    - distcs 4y ago
      Ok! Granted there is some effort to figure out which server to choose. Isn't everything as easy as Twitter after that? Arguably, it is even easier than Twitter because what really happens on Twitter these days is you sign up for an account, follow a few people, make a few posts and then suddenly find yourself to be blocked due to suspicious behavior. Mastodon is free of this nonsense so arguably Mastodon is easier to use?
      - dymk 4y ago
        It's still harder to use even once you're signed up. I'm not able to click on a user's profile and see their posts, unless I go directly to the server that their account is on. That's presumably a setting configured on my particular instance, but it's just weird.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
  - jacooper 4y ago
    No, not currently. Official mastodon servers are filled to the brim.
- shanebellone 4y ago
  My name isn't Joe, but it all looks sketchy to me.
  - jacooper 4y ago
    The easiest way to understand it is to just think of mastodon/fediverse like E-Mail. An email address is a user name @ server Activitypub is the same.
    - shanebellone 4y ago
      I do understand the technology and paradigm. It just appears gimmicky. The shift in approach does not tangibly benefit me. It benefits Mastodon, the servers, and probably (if not now, eventually) advertisers.
- allenbrunson 4y ago
  i agree with that! i solved it the way you're supposed to deal with new technology, i think: i lurked for awhile. read accounts from other mastodon users, to get a feel for things.
allenbrunson 4y ago
argh, if only it were that easy. if you try to follow someone who is not on your instance, there is a whole rigamarole you have to go through. likewise, if you try to interact with a post, but you're viewing it on somebody else's server, rather than your own. this is a price i am more than willing to pay, for the first-ever social media phenomenon i feel good about participating in.
- distcs 4y ago
  > if you try to follow someone who is not on your instance, there is a whole rigamarole you have to go through. Can you be more specific? What rigmarole did you have to do ? For me, I just hit the follow button on anyone I like and it just works, even if they are on different instance than mine. Their posts now show up on the page my instance serves me. Same for commenting or boosting posts of other people on other instances. I just hit the boost button and it just works. Commenting also just works. What did you have to do to follow someone on a different instance?
  - allenbrunson 4y ago
    are you using one of the apps? if so, then yes, it's as easy as that. but if you are using a web browser, then that's where all the rigmarole comes from.
    - distcs 4y ago
      No, I am just using the https://mastodon.social/ https://mastodon.social/ website on browser. > but if you are using a web browser, then that's where all the rigmarole comes from. Requesting again. Can you be more specific? What rigmarole do you have to do? Does hitting the "follow" button of a user on another instance from your instance not work for you? Do you get an error? Some other issue? Details please!
      - allenbrunson 4y ago
        if you look at a user or post who is on your server, i.e., the domain displayed in the url bar is your server, then you're fine. if you're viewing a post or user on their own server, i.e., it is their domain in the url bar, instead of yours, that's where things get ugly.
turmeric_root 4y ago
> So why do people say that Mastodon is more difficult to use? - the contents of a thread differ depending on which instance you are viewing it from. replies from users that your instance is not subscribed to are not shown, so you need to view the thread on its origin instance in order to see the full thread context. on my instance lots of federated posts appear to have no replies, while on their origin instance the posts have dozens or hundreds of replies. - - side note: this is why i don't recommend asking a tech support question if you're on a large mastodon server, you'll get flooded with identical replies for days from helpful people who think no one else has answered your question. - search results also differ depending on which instance you're using. hashtag search only applies to the federated timeline, so if I tell you to check out #coolthing we may have completely different results, or you may not even see any results. - poll results, post favourite/boost counts aren't replicated in real-time between instances, so they vary between servers. when a poll ends you'll get a notification from the origin server with the final results but until then you'll just see votes that come from your instance. - pinned posts for users from other instances don't always federate, so again you need to view user profiles on their source instance to be sure that you're seeing pinned posts. - mastodon 4.0 introduced post editing, but replication lag across fedi can range from hours to days. it's not uncommon for someone to edit a post and get confusing replies because the edit hasn't been propagated to other instances. - if you get linked to a mastodon post in the wild, you need to copy-paste it into your instance's search bar to interact with it. - post deletion takes a while to propagate, and certain server implementations ignore deletion requests. this can be confusing when both you and a person on another server are discussing someone's profile. imo mastodon makes more sense if you see it as a distributed system that achieves eventual consistency with an SLA of a few days. that is understandably confusing for most people.

by distcs 4y ago

jacooper 4y ago

Choosing a server is incredibly confusing for the average joe

distcs 4y ago
The average joe can just sign up for https://mastodon.social/ https://mastodon.social/ can't they? How is it really more difficult than signing up for Twitter or Facebook?
- dymk 4y ago
  If you can figure out that’s the “main” server to go sign up on, sure. With Facebook and Twitter there is no question where to go sign up. That’s less clear with Mastodon. Simply knowing one has a choice of servers will turn some away.
  - distcs 4y ago
    Ok! Granted there is some effort to figure out which server to choose. Isn't everything as easy as Twitter after that? Arguably, it is even easier than Twitter because what really happens on Twitter these days is you sign up for an account, follow a few people, make a few posts and then suddenly find yourself to be blocked due to suspicious behavior. Mastodon is free of this nonsense so arguably Mastodon is easier to use?
    - dymk 4y ago
      It's still harder to use even once you're signed up. I'm not able to click on a user's profile and see their posts, unless I go directly to the server that their account is on. That's presumably a setting configured on my particular instance, but it's just weird.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- jacooper 4y ago
  No, not currently. Official mastodon servers are filled to the brim.
shanebellone 4y ago
My name isn't Joe, but it all looks sketchy to me.
- jacooper 4y ago
  The easiest way to understand it is to just think of mastodon/fediverse like E-Mail. An email address is a user name @ server Activitypub is the same.
  - shanebellone 4y ago
    I do understand the technology and paradigm. It just appears gimmicky. The shift in approach does not tangibly benefit me. It benefits Mastodon, the servers, and probably (if not now, eventually) advertisers.
allenbrunson 4y ago
i agree with that! i solved it the way you're supposed to deal with new technology, i think: i lurked for awhile. read accounts from other mastodon users, to get a feel for things.

allenbrunson 4y ago

argh, if only it were that easy. if you try to follow someone who is not on your instance, there is a whole rigamarole you have to go through. likewise, if you try to interact with a post, but you're viewing it on somebody else's server, rather than your own. this is a price i am more than willing to pay, for the first-ever social media phenomenon i feel good about participating in.

distcs 4y ago
> if you try to follow someone who is not on your instance, there is a whole rigamarole you have to go through. Can you be more specific? What rigmarole did you have to do ? For me, I just hit the follow button on anyone I like and it just works, even if they are on different instance than mine. Their posts now show up on the page my instance serves me. Same for commenting or boosting posts of other people on other instances. I just hit the boost button and it just works. Commenting also just works. What did you have to do to follow someone on a different instance?
- allenbrunson 4y ago
  are you using one of the apps? if so, then yes, it's as easy as that. but if you are using a web browser, then that's where all the rigmarole comes from.
  - distcs 4y ago
    No, I am just using the https://mastodon.social/ https://mastodon.social/ website on browser. > but if you are using a web browser, then that's where all the rigmarole comes from. Requesting again. Can you be more specific? What rigmarole do you have to do? Does hitting the "follow" button of a user on another instance from your instance not work for you? Do you get an error? Some other issue? Details please!
    - allenbrunson 4y ago
      if you look at a user or post who is on your server, i.e., the domain displayed in the url bar is your server, then you're fine. if you're viewing a post or user on their own server, i.e., it is their domain in the url bar, instead of yours, that's where things get ugly.

turmeric_root 4y ago

> So why do people say that Mastodon is more difficult to use? - the contents of a thread differ depending on which instance you are viewing it from. replies from users that your instance is not subscribed to are not shown, so you need to view the thread on its origin instance in order to see the full thread context. on my instance lots of federated posts appear to have no replies, while on their origin instance the posts have dozens or hundreds of replies. - - side note: this is why i don't recommend asking a tech support question if you're on a large mastodon server, you'll get flooded with identical replies for days from helpful people who think no one else has answered your question. - search results also differ depending on which instance you're using. hashtag search only applies to the federated timeline, so if I tell you to check out #coolthing we may have completely different results, or you may not even see any results. - poll results, post favourite/boost counts aren't replicated in real-time between instances, so they vary between servers. when a poll ends you'll get a notification from the origin server with the final results but until then you'll just see votes that come from your instance. - pinned posts for users from other instances don't always federate, so again you need to view user profiles on their source instance to be sure that you're seeing pinned posts. - mastodon 4.0 introduced post editing, but replication lag across fedi can range from hours to days. it's not uncommon for someone to edit a post and get confusing replies because the edit hasn't been propagated to other instances. - if you get linked to a mastodon post in the wild, you need to copy-paste it into your instance's search bar to interact with it. - post deletion takes a while to propagate, and certain server implementations ignore deletion requests. this can be confusing when both you and a person on another server are discussing someone's profile. imo mastodon makes more sense if you see it as a distributed system that achieves eventual consistency with an SLA of a few days. that is understandably confusing for most people.