Alright #CalcKey junkies, I'm a Mastodon instance admin and I'm an engineering group lead at Automattic (think the company of WordPress' founder) who is leading the work to add Mastodon as a supported service for our Jetpack Social product.
That said, what's the sell to get me to spend more time here?
I understand where @AbandonedAmerica is coming from, and it's something I heavily struggled with before migrating from mastodon.social to calckey.social.
So I mean this from the bottom of my heart: we should not be defederating mastodon.social.
In fact, we should stop using Fediblock as the answer to all the Fediverse's problems. Been there, done that. Not something I want to do again.
Instead, we need to make it as easy as possible for people on mastodon.social to migrate elsewhere should they choose.
We should make the penalties from migrating be as trivial as possible. This is one reason #Calckey isn't just allowing users to migrate to a Calckey server from a #Mastodon server, but also why importing posts from a Mastodon account to Calckey is so critical too.
In other words, let's help people leave mastodon.social when they're ready to make the decision to leave.
Yes, Calckey is undergoing a full rebranding!! But it's more than that. We've worked for MONTHS on this, and there's going to be a lot of changes and exciting things coming up. This includes:
Press releases?!?!
A super sick trailer video
A full roadmap for the next couple YEARS
A new flagship server that will be AUTOMATICALLY MIGRATED TO from calckey.social (a Fediverse first!)
A cute new mascot :calc_swear: <(I'm not cute?!)
A new code hosting service with better CI/CD
The stable release you've all been waiting for, but not as v14.0.0... as v1!!
Some people think #Bluesky is “fun”. However, I find it anxiety-inducing and stressful. I’m not the only one who thinks so. A few autistic people say the same thing.
#Calckey seems “fun” to me because I can make it be what I need it to be. For example, it’s nice that I can create antennas devoted to my special interests.
So, I tried installing #Threads to check it out, but I ended up uninstalling it pretty quickly. Here's the deal: it's just another Twitter clone that's all about algorithms.
I get it, that's what most people are into. I understand that influencers, media, and celebrities attract a lot of attention. But that's just not my thing.
I might sound a bit "weird," but I actually prefer my reverse chronological feed where I have complete control over what and who I see. If I want to discover more stuff, I'll just use #Calckey's search feature, which may not be the best but works well enough for me.
Oh, and I deleted my Meta accounts for a good reason. Whenever I'm there, I feel this weird sense of discomfort, like I need a good shower afterwards.
I know I'm not your typical user. I've been part of the Fediverse since 2018 and have genuinely enjoyed it, even when it was just a small community of a few thousand people. We have a nice little community going on over here, and I don't need all the fancy stuff that Threads is offering right now.
I'm not trying to bash Threads or judge anyone who uses it. It's just not the right fit for me, plain and simple.
Like #Friendica, /kbin can ban trolls from participating in groups.
Unlike Friendica, you can remove posts local to where the group is hosted.
Unfortunately, the offending comments still appears in user timelines because other Fediverse servers do not delete after comments are removed locally.
Another alternative could be #Calckey which supports groups through "Channels". However these do NOT federate.
10 days ago I put down in writing my (low) expectations for Mastodon supporting QTs <https://sociale.network/@oblomov/110295026893193313>. With the recent growth of interest in #CalcKey, a platform that supports the feature, I'm already seeing my prediction come true, with high-profile accounts engaging in #UselessUseOfQT instead of plain old boosting or more in-depth out-of-band commentary. And that's still from a relatively small platform. When this his the larger Mastodon servers it'll be a shitshow.
So, after reading a post from @atomicpoet I moved over to #Calckey from #Mastodon a few days ago to give it a whirl.
Clearly I'm a expert now, so thought I'd share a few thoughts.
Lets get the elephant in the room dealt with first; Mastodon is ugly.
There, I said it.
I know a lot of people appreciate the simplicity of it but from a design aesthetic, well, there isn't any.
Calckey really is the diametric opposite from a UI perspective.
Migrating
Super simple, set up an alias, hit the move button and your followers will, well, follow you.
Import/Export
Simple to Import your list of who you follow.
Notably, you can Export your Posts, so that they can be Imported if you migrate again. This bit is kinda key as I don't think a lot of people realise you can do this.
Posting
It's the difference between sending an email in plain text to sending one in rich text.
3000 character limit
Markdown, well, MFM anyway
Quoting
Customisation
Custom Layouts
Installed and Custom Themes
Wallpapers
Drive
Really useful, a place to store files so you are not scrabbling around looking for that image / document you wanted to post.
Widgets
All sorts of stuff like Calendars, Clock and some stuff I'll never use like Server Info.
Stuff To Try
Actually there are too many things to list but a couple are:
CustomCSS
Channels and Groups
Niggles
Antennas sometimes produce an error page.
Sometimes the Timeline goes a bit wonky and 'splits', I dunno a better way to describe it.
Will I Stay?
I dunno but I'm glad I tried a different instance out, and if I want to, I can move from here and take my Followers and Posts with me, the way the Protocol intended.
Is it for everyone
Nope, but I think people might like it if they tried it.
If you are the sort of person who likes tinkering with stuff, and has tried every Windows Manager and Desktop Enviroment under the sun I think you're going to like it.
So time to answer the burning question: why did I move from mastodon.social to calckey.social?
First, let's get the obvious out of the way.
I bought the calckey.social domain back in December. You see, I run a local Calckey server called vancity.social, and I noticed people were registering there just to try #Calckey. In the spirit of keeping vancity.social a local server, I felt that I needed a space to kick non-Vancouver residents so they can fool around with the software.
So the idea for calckey.social was born.
A month later, @kainoa asked if he could make it an "official" server for Calckey. It was originally supposed to be the junior server to calckey.cloud. But after awhile, he felt that there should be a place for casual folks to hang-out.
Well, once we got our ducks in a row, calckey.social shot off like fireworks.
We discovered there was lots of demand, and it was all so unpredictable. So now calckey.social is the flagship server, and it's grown by 1,200 accounts over the past 2 weeks.
Naturally, people asked why I'm on mastodon.social and not over here.
At first, it was because I didn't want to be the one to dominate the server. People who know me, realize how loud I can be.
But now that we're coming close to 1,500 accounts on calckey.social, that's no longer a big deal.
However, I still imagine that this account migration may change the very young culture here. Now that the migration is complete, I am the largest account on Calckey by follower count.
On the latest release candidate on calckey.social, I noticed that there’s an expand tweet button that will show a full tweet embed if someone sends you a Twitter link.
Don’t ask me for the full details on how this works—I don’t do the coding for #Calckey 😉
I’d like a genuinely honest response. For those of you that don’t believe in membership fees, ads, etc what is a sustainable model for keeping instances up and running? People can’t be forced to donate #mastodon#fediverse#calckey
MFM-enabled emoji animations have given me a "Eureka!" moment over the past few days -- and I think this might be the Fediverse's killer feature.
"But they seem so inconsequential!" some of you might protest.
Yes, but inconsequence often turns into consequence. 140 characters were once considered inconsquential. Ditto photo filters. The same is true for video loops on Vine and TikTok. And yet they all prove to be impactful.
But before I talk further, for those who aren't aware, what is MFM?
MFM stands for Misskey Flavored Markdown. It's a custom flavor of the Markdown syntax tailored specifically for the #Misskey social network platform, but has since been adopted on #Calckey and #Akkoma. And I have no doubt that other server software will plan their own compatibility soon.
MFM extends standard Markdown syntax with additional features and customizations to enhance the user experience. Here's some unique features:
Additional text formatting options, such as font size and color, allowing users to extend customization of text
Flexible syntax for links, quotes, code, and math
Custom emoji support, and animation thereof
It's this last feature that might be the Fediverse's killer feature. Why do I say that?
They are attention grabbing. When someone sees an animated emoji, they cause a post to stand out.
They're also incredibly expressive. More so than mere text-based communication, emojis by themselves convey so much in one character. When you add animation into the mix, they add motion and dynamism, which enables people to express themselves vividly and creatively.
MFM animations invite unique customizations allowing for unique expressions. This fosters a sense of belonging and identity amongst people who share this unique form of art, enabling opportunities for in-jokes and unique community symbols.
They are instantly shareable, which creates buzz and draws more people to the Fediverse.
In my own observations, MFM-enabled emoji animations draw more engagement and reactions which leads to more activity -- as has been the case with calckey.social.
They are novel. While emojis may be available on all platforms, MFM-enabled emojis provide a unique and fresh experience -- attracting even more people who are drawn to this innovative feature.
MFM-enabled emojis result in the decentralized nature of the Fediverse having a more cohesive community. Because they can be shared amongst multiple servers and multiple server software, this gives the Fediverse that's presently not duplicated on Big Social.
This may foster a sense of belonging, building close-knit communities empowered by this unique means of communication. Inevitably, this may attract more newcomers to try their hand at this niche-for-now feature. This will help the Fediverse differentiate itself from the mainstream social media platforms.
But of course, the biggest reason MFM-enabled emoji animations could be the Fediverse's killer feature is simply because of stuff like this:
Unfortunately, Mastodon does not display MFM-enabled emoji animations. But to really appreciate this demo, visit this link: https://calckey.social/notes/9eqm90uxjg
In 6 months of being on home.social, not once did I have the tech issues I've experienced on Calckey. Perhaps if I had, I wouldn't have had the patience to stay on/in the Fediverse, I don't know. I have had some help, I've also had some seek my acct out, ask specific questions, when I respond, I receive no reply, which I find odd. I like the idea of being on a smaller server, if simply to help the Fediverse as a whole, stay the way it is, but I suppose many are on the larger servers b/c, quite simply, they work well. Calckey continues to crash regularly & I've yet to be able to access my home page once this week (no matter what I try). So what's the answer? Stay, be patient? Move? With the Calckey name change in the works, will I be forced to migrate anyway? While I have become familiar w/ some of the features on CalcKey, it's simply not on the same level as my previous server. #calckey#frustration#serverissues#mastodon
I was messing with #calckey over the past few days. I really prefer the UI over there, but I don't want to leave this server or the people who follow me on Mastodon. I'm hoping #Mastodon borrows some of the great UI attention from Calckey.
I'm working on https://schizo.social again. There's still tons of basic client stuff I could work on, like logout, or rendering boosts, but my goal is to build a client for managing multiple #Fediverse accounts; things like syncing following/mutes/etc. Not really trying to build a client you'd use to read. I want to implement #Calckey login, but calckey.social is down. Maybe I should start with handling multiple #Mastodon accounts first? #schizoSocial