Almost everyone who says "Mastodon didn't work for me" on Bluesky seems to have posted only "me me me" stuff for months (if that) on Mastodon, followed about 10-20 people, never replied to anyone and then gave up because "nobody there, it didn't fly".
It seems there is a big misunderstanding how this free and healthy social media works. We are not here for the easy wins, likes, shares and dopamine spikes. We are here because we accept the fact we are not part of the commercial hype machine. We choose natural engagement over spoiling algorithms, we choose conversation and meaning in our social media. At least that is how I see it.
@rolle I’ve been wondering about Bluesky vs mastodon. Wondering about the different populations it draws and what each are for. I have an account on both, but find myself drawn to mastodon. Been wondering what draws other ppl to Bluesky over mastodon.
@Catiearms I tend to find Bluesky is popular with people who want to read more than post, snark about current events, and pay some attention to “the discourse” or politics. It also seems popular with people who build larger audiences, like podcasters or popular authors.
I say all of that without snark, because it’s a just a preference. Mastodon seems to support smaller groups with more interaction between them
@bomkatt@Catiearms ”I tend to find Bluesky is popular with people who want to read more than post, snark about current events, and pay some attention to “the discourse” or politics.”
This applies more to Fediverse in my world rather than Bluesky. Bluesky is very small in the topics and scene I follow. Not a lot of Finnish people there either.
@Catiearms@rolle i've been told pp are attracted to BS (you couldn't make this up) because it is a similar monolithic centralised service as T-X. Old habits die hard thing.
@Catiearms@rolle I have been on Bluesky for a while now. For me at the moment, it feels a little like a ghost town, but perhaps I just need more friends on there?
@rolle Yeah, this is why I've come to say that Bluesky is exceptionally... Vapid. Even more so than the likes of Twitter, which itself was already a haven for it.
@rolle and this is why Linux is in the same boat as Mastodon. The users think that your computing wrong. In this case your social mediaing wrong. Well I'm not totally disagreeing with you. Telling people you're doing it wrong isn't going to convert anyone to this platform. Social media has thrived because of interactions. For good or bad. People like those clicks...... It gives them a bit of dopamine.
@polyote@KellicTiger Servers, phones, based on operating systems, you name it… you too are probably using Linux in a sense right now if your instance runs on it. Most websites rely on it. Android is based on it. This is how I see it. Why does it even need to be runlevel 5, as in desktop mode? Isn’t the success defined by adoptation alone? For me it is.
@rolle If someone comes here and treats it like Facebook or Instagram, I understand why it doesn't 'work for them.' I treat Mastodon like I did when I was on Twitter (back before it went downhill), and for me it has been an oasis and refuge. My only regret is that I did not start an account earlier. This is a great place to be.
@rolle
Non
C'est aussi parce que c'est difficile de trouver des gens, plus qu'ailleurs et que c'est VÉRITABLEMENT COMPLIQUÉ ET DIFFICILE D'ACCES
Il va falloir que vous le reconnaissiez aussi
Surtout que vous écoutez pas les retour des utilisateur, c'est toujours comme ça dans le logiciel libre depuis 20ans que je le cotoie
Faut arrêter de se croire tjrs plus différent que les autres
Vous vivez dans le même monde que les autres et d'horribles capitalistes adorent utiliser les logiciel libre comme nous.
La distinction "nous dans le logiciel libre versus les autres qui savent pas" c'est une distinction qui n'a pas lieu d'être. G pas envie d'etre dans le même groupe qu'un fan de Debian qui soit aussi un fasciste.
Faites d'abord le ménage dans vos communauté plutôt que essayer de vous défendre mal comme vous le faite.
Quand j'étais activiste dans le libre, on degageait les fafs et on allait vers les utilisateurs les plus exclus
On passait pas notre temps a nous défendre en mode "les gens comprennent pas, je me sens abonandee"
Les gens qui maîtrisent ces outils et y travaillent sont des privilégiés 🤷
@rolle
I think, mastodon does not work for them because nobody found a way to measure how it works.
Counting hits, followers, boosts, favorites - it all fails here.
For me, it is successful. I mostly follow hashtags, use the search a lot to get updates about events or locations. After some time I unsubscribe from these topics and pick new ones.
The few people I do follow just spice up my mostly themed timeline.
It works. But how would I measure it? I don't even want it to be measured.
@rolle another thing is I haven't seen any of the kind of infamy I associate with social media take hold here.
Like none of the hate following or dog piling or relentless quote tooting of cringe content. And probably as a result, a lot less posting of purposefully provocative content just for attention.
I'm not saying we're 100% positive here, but the general community character is just different from what I was swimming in just a couple of years ago. It's better.
@bezorp@rolle yes exactly this! People who thrive in a kinder environment will do better here than people who want attention even at the cost of being kind.
@rolle I said when I arrived that this place had the vibe of a village coffee shop. I think people that can't stand that says more about them than they'll ever realize.
The word vapid comes to mind.
@discojesus Yes, humans need dopamine to enjoy themselves. This feels contradictionary to what I just posted about, but I'm not saying it's fully a bad thing, but only that it's not the number one motivator like it too easily is on the other social media sites.
@rolle hey I get chemically rewarded from conversations on here. I just had to quit the other places before I actually felt anything. Feels like a cleaner hit somehow. Like I don't feel so bad after scrolling on masto
@rolle
discoverability on mastodon is not great at all > lashing out against people who left mastodon because of its less-than-okayish search function only underscores that leaving that platform might be advisable: things must improve on the fedi
@rolle yeah, they look for engagement while mastodon (and the fedivers) is about interaction!
But I think it is also because they aren't told those differences, and just think that every social media work the same and have the same goal in mind :ablobcat_happypaws:
@rolle Mastodon has become my preferred and main platform for a while now, I use other social media as well, but Bluesky never worked for me.
For what I need from a platform the Fediverse is by far the most promising. That said, I feel that the wording of this post is overgeneralizing, specifically saying "almost everyone" seems to either ignore or dismiss the very valid points of Black people, women, and other marginalized groups who have had negative first experiences upon joining.
Mastodon is a platform of hundreds of thousands of active users, you cannot by any logic vouch for such a large number of strangers and dismiss everyone who has found that the platform wasn't for them as egocentric people who are not willing to adapt.
Yes there is a much healthier community here overall, but there is sexism, there are reply guys, there are tech bros who will pop up with condescending points. Generally wherever a large number of humans exist you will find a variety of behaviours, not all of them positive.
Painting an almost utopic picture of a platform by accusing almost everyone who couldn't find their place here for being an obnoxious clout chaser who feeds the machine, not only dismisses the real experiences of marginalized people, alienating folks who had a bad first experience even more, but it also denies Mastodon as a community the opportunity for self reflection that will help it grow further and become more welcoming.
@fringemagnet It is meant to say "Almost everyone I personally have seen". I thought it goes without saying that this is MY personal experience. Who am I to say EVERYONE explicitly are like that.
@rolle the funny thing is, this is also true in reverse - a lot of people sign up to Bluesky, only check in occasionally, don't interact with anyone and then say "nobody there, it didn't work for me"… That's the thing with new social networks - since there's no "Trending" or "For you" that pushes some random content at you, you have to put in some work before the new place starts "working" for you. Same here and there.
@rolle Well said. I find I get much better interaction to posts on Mastodon than I did on Twitter. I follow lots of people here, reply to posts, and boost plenty of posts. If you make an effort, it works well.
@marshalla99 I do not and I’m not talking about that. In fact, the Fediverse doesn’t have to ”win” anything. We are not part of the race. That is more of the thing of those commercial social medias.
@rolle I love Mastodon. It's my favorite social platform.
But this kind of toot ignores the reality that there are legitimate (and rather large) UX issues that make Mastodon wildly unusable for a good chunk of people.
If the goal is to have more people here and less on, say, X or Bluesky, than it needs to be more approachable for folks who frankly don't give a shit about "reinventing the internet" and just want a cool place to chat with friends.
Some day we’ll get there. Feature-wise Mastodon is already far ahead from others.
However, I am not really sure what the end goal is here about should we have the most people here or not, I personally think people should give a shit about ethics. The best possible future is that we can both exist, if the commercial social media connects to the Fediverse (Threads, Bridgyfed/Bluesky, Tumblr), we can have a choice.
@rolle Can I ask what method you used to assess this?
Like, did you collect statements about this elsewhere and then follow them back to Mastodon accounts, which you then evaluated for content and follows?
@kissane Not very thorough assesment or any concerete research behind it, just my observation based on some dozens of accounts. I first read the statement on Bluesky (”Mastodon didn’t work for me” or similar) and then check their Mastodon account and see the state of it.
@rolle so many folks seem to have forgotten that the key part in social media is the bit where it's social. They all want to act like internet celebrities and quit as soon as they aren't showered with attention.
@rolle America has turned into a "Me, My, I " society. Yes, me ... me ... me. We have turned into greedy, spoiled little children wanting only what we want as individuals and NOT considering the bigger, world wide picture that we need to consider. From voting INTELLIGENTLY to global warming, we need to get our heads out of our ass !!
@rolle A toot being boosted around recently had someone summarizing the social media sites and concluding that while he liked mastodon best "it seems a pretty quiet." Checking his account he was following nine people!
I guess the msg isn't getting across to some that there's no algorithmic feed-stuffing here – it's who you follow and that's it.
I suppose for me my birdsite use had only ever been with chronological mode, so I had no other expectation here. Shifting over was seamless.
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