3 ms·

Maybe making everything a URL isn't a great idea, particularly when a lot of people on Mastodon have privacy concerns and don't want to be found? If you want p

Maybe making everything a URL isn't a great idea, particularly when a lot of people on Mastodon have privacy concerns and don't want to be found? If you want people find your articles via links from other websites and search engines, better to put it on a blog.

college_physics 4y ago
Posting on mastodon is called microblogging for a reason - cause its a public blog. One can host a single-person instance and quite literally have a mastodon based blog site. Some people seem to confuse it with private messaging. User confusion about what an application or service does or does not is not a good basis on which to base a technical design, though it obviously hints that the particular app was not exactly "self-documenting". One can only speculate about how the confusion came about, but privacy advocates posting... publicly on mastodon may have unwillingly contributed to a sense that this space is "different" and "better" in every possible way. Yes, the fediverse/mastodon is different and better but in specific ways: it doesnt use algorithmic timelines, it doesn't push ads, it doesnt use dark addiction patterns etc. (though all of those might be reversed for particular instances or new server types). Unbundling the different issues and educating the broad base of users about what is going on is not just healthy and honest towards users, it may also contribute to having more well defined and stable user requirements about different types of online platforms.
Zak 4y ago
I'm a bit confused by people using a protocol that pushes their content to a large number of other people's computers if they don't want to be found. ActivityPub is inherently very public, even more so than publishing content to a website.
Dalewyn 4y ago
>people on Mastodon have privacy concerns and don't want to be found? Maybe don't use social media or the internet? Especially with your real name and mugshot?
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  I used to think this. But it turns out some people have an enormously more pleasant experience if they're slightly harder to harass. Lots of harassers turn out to be lazy.
  - cxr 4y ago
    In that case, we should eliminate social media profiles entirely. I've been an advocate of this for a long time.* It should work like mailing lists, where someone's message is just there, and there isn't any way to click their name and look at a reverse chronological feed of all their posts. This also maps to real life. There's no bubble floating above people's heads that lets you track down and pore over what a random stranger you see at the grocery store said at their friend's dinnerparty the night before. * It's beyond annoying that GitHub only just now got the ability to turn off how it broadcasts your activity on your profile page whether you wanted it to or not

college_physics 4y ago

Posting on mastodon is called microblogging for a reason - cause its a public blog. One can host a single-person instance and quite literally have a mastodon based blog site. Some people seem to confuse it with private messaging. User confusion about what an application or service does or does not is not a good basis on which to base a technical design, though it obviously hints that the particular app was not exactly "self-documenting". One can only speculate about how the confusion came about, but privacy advocates posting... publicly on mastodon may have unwillingly contributed to a sense that this space is "different" and "better" in every possible way. Yes, the fediverse/mastodon is different and better but in specific ways: it doesnt use algorithmic timelines, it doesn't push ads, it doesnt use dark addiction patterns etc. (though all of those might be reversed for particular instances or new server types). Unbundling the different issues and educating the broad base of users about what is going on is not just healthy and honest towards users, it may also contribute to having more well defined and stable user requirements about different types of online platforms.

Zak 4y ago

I'm a bit confused by people using a protocol that pushes their content to a large number of other people's computers if they don't want to be found. ActivityPub is inherently very public, even more so than publishing content to a website.

Dalewyn 4y ago

>people on Mastodon have privacy concerns and don't want to be found? Maybe don't use social media or the internet? Especially with your real name and mugshot?

iudqnolq 4y ago
I used to think this. But it turns out some people have an enormously more pleasant experience if they're slightly harder to harass. Lots of harassers turn out to be lazy.
- cxr 4y ago
  In that case, we should eliminate social media profiles entirely. I've been an advocate of this for a long time.* It should work like mailing lists, where someone's message is just there, and there isn't any way to click their name and look at a reverse chronological feed of all their posts. This also maps to real life. There's no bubble floating above people's heads that lets you track down and pore over what a random stranger you see at the grocery store said at their friend's dinnerparty the night before. * It's beyond annoying that GitHub only just now got the ability to turn off how it broadcasts your activity on your profile page whether you wanted it to or not