There is a lot of criticism on the #Fediverse for people who won't leave Twitter/X. And, indeed, there are plenty of good reasons for leaving that platform, or for any other commercialized social media platform for that matter.
However, we need to remember that while these platforms are not safe for marginalized people, neither is #Mastodon and the #Fediverse by default. The user base is still overwhelmingly white and European and North American.
And, all other things being equal, this user base tends to be wealthier than other demographic groups, and has more free time as well.
This is important, as running and moderating Mastodon instances is a non-trivial investment in money and time - things that marginalized people are more likely to lack. And given how they are more likely to be subject to discrimination, marginalized people need even more and better moderation - and they likely have to do it themselves, as others are unlikely to even recognize many forms of harassment.
So, stick to Twitter/X and experience lots of harassment... or move to the Fediverse where you will also experience a lot of harassment unless you spend lots of time and resources on moderation? Time and resources you might not have in the first place?
When put that way, it's not such an easy choice to make. Especially if the vast majority of your community is still on Twitter/X, and is unlikely to move to Mastodon without a clear demonstration that the Fediverse is better for their community.
I don't have a solution for this dilemma. But we can't find a solution without recognizing the problem in the first place.
Serious question for those that this is relevant to: if you don't understand how ActivityPub works, even a little bit, why do you feel the need to have opinions on how it should work?
Isn't this backwards as hell? Shouldn't you try to understand how something works, then ask why it is that way and if it's intentional?
Too many people here have this strange opinion that they have some sort of privacy, even if their profile/posts are set to "public".
This is just simply not true. We're on the internet. There's over 20,000 Fedi instances and there's just no way to manually parse them to make sure there's no "bad actors" using your "public" posts for whatever the hell they want.
We already see this happening with things like NewsMast which is aiming to be a "news" app where their users don't have to login or register to a Fediverse server, yet they will see posts by Fediverse users from bigger instances based on "categories".
Maybe do some research about how the protocol works and how it's VERY opt-out to the core, before you have opinions on it. Just saying....
Dear #Fediverse app devs (including the #mastodon web interface itself): PLEASE stop autocorrecting my #CamelCase'd hashtags into all-lower-case.
That's just silly. You should be autocorrecting lower case to camel case instead! Grab the list of all hashtags with the same letters without regard to case, and if there's a plurality of them with the same capitalization (not counting all-lower-case), suggest that. Duh! ;)
#FediBlock snarfed.org and brid.gy for bridging fediverse folks to Bluesky against their will (and in likely contravention of GDPR in the EU) with typical Silicon Valley techbro sense of entitlement:
“[O]pt in results in far fewer users, and users are critical for a bridge to be useful.”¹
I'm really tired of the holier-than-you people on the Fediverse!
No, Threads is not full of trolls and evil people just because Meta is evil. Threads is full of people who are not terminally online like we are. This is idiotic to want to block Threads by default. If anything let's show them there is another way.
No, the big Mastodon instances are not full of trolls and evil people just because they're the big instances. They're full of people who are into the Fediverse but for reasons that are theirs have no time, energy, or interest to join smaller instances. This is idiotic to want to block such instances. If anything let's teach them about smaller instances.
And right now, I see people building bridges with BlueSKy and I see very negative reactions from some people about that. Well... No, BlueSky is not full of trolls and evil people.
I'm so fucking annoyed with this bullshit attitude.
Honestly, if your response is "don't federate" every single fucking time, have you thought for a second that maybe, just maybe, you are in the wrong place? Fedi fucking verse. It's in the name.
If you don't want to communicate with people who are different from you, you're honestly no different from the people you are calling names. Please go to your instance that's defederated from everyone else, or even better, go on a closed Discord or something.
Fuck, I barely finished my second coffee and I'm already annoyed.
So the results from yesterday's poll made it clear: people on the #fediverse do not want to try #Bluesky! 😆
82% of people said they will not be using Bluesky now that it's open to the public for registration. I have to say I approve of this high percentage. 😄
Who can see my posts? I am super curious as to how far this #activitypub can travel? Learning the #fediverse is interesting but a tad confusing for the laypeople like me. If anyone has an analogy do share. Visualizations help. #mastodon#server#instances
The flagship instance of Fire Fish is now OFFLINE.
The significance of this event is many of the Fire Fish Developers have previously come forward claiming the lead developer vanished. Unfortunately, the lead developer treated their project as a centralized project, meaning that they were the sole person making decisions, giving no access to accounts or code changes or even donations, despite having a team behind them.
@tetra This sucks, but security vulnerabilities can happen to literally any project. Coincidentally, Mastodon also just released a fix for a critical security vulnerability.
They disclosed the vulnerability and released both a workaround and a fix for it nearly immediately after it was reported, which I think says a lot more about the trustworthiness of the project than the fact that a vulnerability existed.
I'm trying to convince the last friends I have left on Facebook, X, Threads, or BlueSky to join the Fediverse. Some have tried but felt a sense of loneliness. Nowadays, many people are so used to doing what algorithms suggest that they can no longer make independent choices.
My timeline here, on the other hand, is beautiful.
I see what I want, I follow people who post what I like, and no one tells me what I should do. Freedom may come with a "cost," but whatever it is, it's worth the effort. Always. #Fediverse#Mastodon#SocialNetworks
@me Pretty much had the same problem, some people I've told about it have tried it and given up saying there's too much crap to figure out, what's an instance, how do I pick one, how do I find people to follow etc. I started the process of learning Mastodon in case any of my students wanted to try it, ended up liking it pretty well myself though agree I do miss following writers and companies and so on who aren't on here.
It’s funny to me that some people on Threads are saying Mastodon (mistakenly thinking it’s a one service) will always be ”small” and ”closed”. Well, soon we’ll be in the same crowd with the Threads people, perhaps with others like Tumblr too.
The Fediverse can expand unlike the other truly closed social networks. This is exactly like talking about the Internet in the 80s, ”it will be a small thing for the nerds, and always will be so”.
Does anyone else think that the Fediverse needs its own URL prefix?
Hear me out. There is a “mailto” prefix standard. Email addresses are identified with such a prefix. Each of my devices is individually configured how to handle it. I’ve configured my mobile device to launch a certain app. My desktop device launches my web browser and goes to a certain site. Email apps and sites know how to set this configuration and will usually prompt you at some point.
We should be able to do the same for Fediverse profiles and posts. If I click on a link to a Fediverse profile or post, the local device will know how to launch an app or browser, and in the browser case, know your “default” Fediverse instance. This can provide the same seamless experience as clicking on an email address. (If a person does not have anything configured it could default to a web browser visiting the profile/post instance just as it works today.)
"Despite the hurdles, our migration to Mastodon was more than successful and, in retrospect, the right thing to do. Not everyone, but a few of our loyal customers moved over with us - something I will forever be thankful for. Moreover, people’s reception on Mastodon turned out to be warmer than I anticipated. […] That motivated us to keep going."