@maegul@hachyderm.io
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

maegul

@maegul@hachyderm.io

A little bit of computing and a little bit of neuroscience.

he/him/they

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maegul, (edited ) to fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

So, reading @anildash on the existence of cultural barriers to broader growth in Mastodon (link below) got me thinking.

There's clearly a spectrum here along a safety - virality/growth axis) (or vulnerable-privileged?).

Given possible upcoming changes to , eg QTs, and maybe search, is Mastodon heading to an effective software forking moment of some sort?

Feels like culturally it's already happened but could yet easily manifest at the software lvl.

https://me.dm/@anildash/110252376733242467

@fedidevs

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

There could be forks made of Mastodon with a number of current mastodon instances simply running with the preferred flavour.

Alternative platforms could gain traction, though I'm not sure how many cater to those who require "safety" features.

There are many possibilities here, but in a demonstration of how much the instances/admins matter, none of it matters unless someone is happily running a large enough instance with the desired software/masto-fork.

anildash, to random
@anildash@me.dm avatar

Been playing around with Bluesky a bit & it’s pretty interesting. They have an easier consumer experience (signup/discovery/UI works like Twitter) and it all feels very snappy. I like how they use domain names (or subdomains) instead of what look like funky email addresses. By far the biggest problem Jay & co face is that Jack Dorsey has effectively poisoned the well on everything from people assuming it’s a crypto platform (it’s not) to assuming (understandably) that be bad at trust & safety.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@anildash
You don't think the (allegedly) better "nomadic" identity (or account mobility) built into AT Protocol is worth making a new protocol over?

Do you think the same functionality could be added to ActivityPub despite the ATProtocol claims?

maegul, to random
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

I love following someone like @WizardOfDocs … I did it immediately upon seeing their profile banner!

edendestroyer, to random

How did britta evolve from being a considerate, empathetic person to the kind that the AltRight project as the feminists archetypes to be like within a single season? Did they britta..britta?

Like she genuinely made the best political points in the group and that used to be the whole point of her character. She was supposed to be the considerate, nuanced one.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@edendestroyer I’ve seen the creator speak about this. They said that the initial character was obviously a male creation of a perfect woman that was just a “mannequin” of a character. So they shifted toward what they thought was a more realistic down to earth character with obvious flaws like the others.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@edendestroyer not saying it’s justified, just sharing Harmon’s statement.

That being said, your description of S1 britta may still be the obviously perfect woman in many people’s eyes.

I for one accepted the argument because it was immediately obvious to me that I had found the character extremely hot/attractive in S1 and less so as it went (though not unattractive or less funny). Seemed obvious that S1 Britta was for the male gaze.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@edendestroyer I understand, but personally don’t quite share your perspective. I’m just not in fear of the alt-right (I’m not in the US fwiw), and find the satire of a soft lefty as an affectation both funny and with a kernel of truth.

In defence of the show, I’d point to Jeff and Pierce being pretty clear parodies of mainstream US culture and capitalism.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@edendestroyer yea, Troy’s arc is easy to forget and prob the most heart-warming of the show.

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

So, one thing that's tricky about moving accounts between servers on Mastodon is that your old stuff doesn't get copied over.

One way to do this is to have the new account re-share all the old account's activities. Very noisy for followers!

Another way that would be cool is if, when you move, the new account creates a collection of the old activities that's navigable from the new account. This would just be a single Create activity, so not very noisy at all.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@gub @evan @Troll I think that can simply come down to federation. I’d two servers federate, then their users’ content is mutually hostable.

Otherwise, any future issues can have a variety of solutions:

  • server imposed CW on all of the archive
  • archive removed if archived content problems not resolved
  • user removed if problems not resolved
Green_Footballs, to random
@Green_Footballs@mastodon.social avatar

There’s a lot of talk about the harm social media does to society, but I’d argue that mainstream media is a FAR larger problem.

Fox News may be the biggest example, but there’s a rot in the entire news media complex and as usual it comes down to money. Journalism has increasingly been replaced with “narratives” and both-sides rhetoric, chasing after clicks and views and advertising dollars.

This is how fascism takes root in the 21st century, through late stage capitalism.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Green_Footballs same argument happened ~20yrs ago (around take off of YouTube) and was true then too.

Bottom line was/is that the internet and social media prompt people to be active and to engage. TV and mainstream media prompt people to consume from a central source.

If the former goes awry, you get dynamics with built in potential for self correction/buffering.

The latter going awry risks the collapse of the society and its civilisation, or at least its corruption.

lothcat, to random
@lothcat@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @lothcat same! Except I’m not entirely enamoured with the whole thing being inherited and Jack being “special”. I think Q+Seven would be a cool dynamic and make some sense as she’s a unique kind of human not unlike JL Picard.

    maegul, to internet
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    Scrolled through the for you timeline. First time since 2022. Quickly compared to my home timeline here.

    Honestly, it wasn’t any worse than Masto and in some ways more interesting.

    Thoughts comparing to here:

    Less talk about blue check marks than here (weird). Less talk about Twitter in general (ironic but still weird).

    🧵->

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    Slightly better bite sized popular non-fiction content honestly. More punchy and to the point? I’ve often wondered if 500 chars was mostly an awkward middle ground between short and substantial writing.

    The algorithm works. The feed felt more polished. Mastodon feed felt more random and eventually off putting. I’ve stopped using lists recently and I think it’s killing mastodon for me.

    🧵->

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    There’s plenty of interesting stuff/people still there.

    The algorithm “works”. There’s no personal stories or problems. Mostly good social media content creators. Things are personal here. This is both a plus and negative.

    Twitter feels like a finished product. It’s as good as it’s going to get (+/- Musk) and everyone knows what it is. Here is more raw, which is both exciting and agitating. There things feel settled/comfortable.

    🧵->

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    Overall, I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed my visit.

    A lot of this depends on whose been followed in either platform, but I think that only adds weight to my surprise: my Twitter follows are older and less representative of me now, and yet their posts were compelling & I miss them here.

    I’m now less judgmental of people who leave here and more suspicious of those on here who trash the UX quality of Twitter.

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    And to be clear, I’m not advocating for anyone to leave here for Twitter or anything like that. I’m here and on the fediverse out of principle and that means tolerating issues but also being honest and critical.

    thomasfuchs, to random
    @thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io avatar

    By the by, many people on BlueSky are mentioning how Mastodon didn’t feel welcoming and was very confusing.

    Especially people from marginalized communities like Black Twitter.

    maegul, (edited )
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @thomasfuchs agreed! And said it before myself. Starting fresh and feeling like you’re building something new was taken away from Twitter migrants to masto. And while mastodon people shouldn’t have been required to hand over the keys, a truly thriving federation should have found a way to give the migrants their own space to grow. Now competitors can provide this fresh experience and fracture the field and eat some fediverse lunch.

    https://hachyderm.io/@maegul/110190113971755146

    maegul, (edited )
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @affekt @thomasfuchs so much this! Will the fediverse be the Linux desktop of social media? Is this the year?

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @ChrisCPS @thomasfuchs beta I believe with access by invite only. Also only one server at the moment.

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Beenthere @ChrisCPS @thomasfuchs I’ve heard basically the opposite. Jack is there but not the CEO, whom I’ve seen someone on here praise.

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @torb @emmah @thomasfuchs so I’m curious (as a majority cis-straight etc) as to what extent this is true. Like, for example, are there trans or queer communities out there made up of non-techie people that just don’t see the point of the fediverse or see the dynamic you state here and happily don’t care about it?

    Please feel free to rebuff me if the question is onerous or or annoying in anyway. It’s just that you imply an interesting division for the fediverse.

    MarkLaCroix, to random

    👇👇👇👇👇

    RT @ryantriddle
    Laris is missed.
    https://twitter.com/ryantriddle/status/1649637206011834374

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @MarkLaCroix IMO the whole show, S1-3 needed more laris. In S1, the role of Raffi should have been folded into Laris’s character.

    FediThing, (edited ) to random

    (sigh)

    Just spent evening going through posts claiming that only nerds care about federation.

    These are not nerdy issues, these are societal issues. I am not a developer, I joined the Fediverse because I was worried about the behaviour of Facebook, Twitter etc.

    I get that centralised networks are easier to sign up on, but they are harder to leave. You're giving them control over your online social life.

    It's like that XKCD cartoon about infrastructures, it's sometimes difficult to get across to people that it's not about technical standards per se, but the shift in power that tech standards represent.

    That's why centralised tech companies put so much effort into controlling tech standards, not because they're nerds but because they are power-hungry and greedy.

    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @FediThing

    “Only nerds care about federation”

    Ooof. If that’s the mainstream perspective the “fediverse” is in trouble to be honest.

    More subtly, the recent growth in users is not growth of the fediverse, but specifically of mastodon.

    Growing on the back of Twitter migration was always a double edged sword for the fediverse.

    Now it’s at the point where mastodon can be judged in whether it’s a good fediverse citizen, which would require supporting other platforms.

    btaroli, to random
    @btaroli@federate.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @btaroli not alone, but for me it seemed plausible enough to allow it to fly … just.

    jeff, (edited ) to fediverse
    @jeff@newsie.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    maegul,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @jeff right. Still quite cheap (if everyone donates)!

    Also, your figure seems at odds with what I’ve seen for hachyderm.io?

    https://hachyderm.io/@esk/110232905857173830

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