I don't really understand the attacks on the mastodon app. There are many apps out there. Nobody is forcing you to use their app or to use mastodon.social. The fediverse is bigger than any one instance or app. Let's build a bigger fediverse and not fall into the trap of infighting, OK? #UnpopularOpinion
(really reminds me of the Linux Distro Wars that drove many, many willing new users away. No matter which distro or desktop environment they liked, there was always someone telling them they were doing it completely wrong and should instead use a different distro or desktop environment. This was NEVER helpful, IMHO)
What it does show however (IMHO) is that the next iteration of the fediverse should really focus on empowering the individual user and not on focusing power at the instance admin/owner. Federation is a step towards more decentralisation, but really only a step. More steps to follow!
@jwildeboer
The thing you’d have to overcome is the difficulty/work involved in setting up an individual instance plus the effort required to maintain various filters and block lists over time. Maybe there is a way. I’m happy to have an inn keeper for that but I understand not everyone feels that way.
Making it even easier to move instances seems a good first step (not that it is that hard now). Glad there’s new things coming.
@jwildeboer I think the difference is b/w attacking the user of the app (or Linux distro user) vs. the decision of Mastodon GmbH to default to mastodon.social. I think the latter should be heavily criticized w/i scolding users and of course welcoming them.
But a lot of issues even right now simply stem from people expecting the "default" instance to give some kind of "especially good" experience and are annoyed when things like brands.town are blocked. mastodon.social is a fallback instance that tries to fit everyone... a bit, and obviously won't really make anyone totally happy.
People then complain about issues that aren't actually Fediverse related but instance specific. We need to look for a better way to onboard people than simply a default instance.
@jwildeboer From a technical perspective I totally agree, but what people perceive is unfortunately different. They don't know about ActivityPub, the Fediverse but only this "Mastodon". And the brand is quite strong.
@jwildeboer The challenge I've encountered is that the fediverse is a foreign concept to those who only experience the walled gardens of Google/Alphabet, Apple, Facebook/Meta, and most relatable in this case, Twitter. Email is the closer pattern—I can send emails to others in another domain.
@jwildeboer Well put. People love the noncommercial ambitions of the fediverse, but seem conflicted. They like the philosophy of it all, but still seem to want and expect product vendors to respond as if they had were offering a commercial product and have the resources to offer similar levels of support and responsiveness to user feedback. Most do the best they can.
@shoq@jwildeboer I agree with the sentiment, but one should also consider that most people go with defaults. This means:
most people on Android, if they ever decide to try Mastodon, will go with the official app
again because of defaults, most people will end up on m.s, and this is problematic.
In some sense, the fact that most people go with defaults means that the defaults should be kept to a higher standard than the others.
@jwildeboer the issue is, it's not 2010 anymore, people aren't used to have this level of alternative clients for a service and at least the playstore is very strongly promoting "the one" app over alternative clients.
So you end up with an obvious choice with non obvious alternatives, combined with the fact, that, at least on Android the official app obviously isn't the best app out there.
@jwildeboer if we want to be serious about this federation thing, having those dominating defaults is automatically bad for the balance of the ecosystem
@jwildeboer that's not what I want to make of it and I am not as passionate about this as it might seem, but I think making the choices obvious to people instead of hiding them, would be good for the feediverse in the long run
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