Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦
@osma@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp last week

Great writeup of the Original Sina, Tim! And behind these ones on the list is a long list of the Thousand Papercuts, from misplacing mentions at start of the reply body text (when a perfectly good mention field exists in the protocol) to inability to remember the readers' position in their (reverse chron and random) timeline. The papercuts could be solved by the client, but increase friction all the same.
@tchambers
Mike Fraser :Jets: :flag:
@mike@thecanadian.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers @mastodonmigration @laurenshof @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson @zeldman Mastodon was always sold to the end user as the community when its actually just the software that can run a community. The term join Mastodon is fundamentally flawed, it's like saying join the world wide web instead of saying go to my web site. The emphasis should be building great communities that just happen to interooerate with each other. That shift in perception addressees a few of the great sins (def not all)
Scott Jenson
@scottjenson@social.coop  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers
I'm a little more hopeful, there are hard and easy problems on your list. All with fixes on our roadmap.

The "can't see all replies" is a deeply hard federation problem but we have an incoming fix for that!

On the other side, Improving DMs is something that requires no change to the API and can be easily done in the client. I'm working on that right now.

I see significant improvement in your "sins" over the next year.
Mike Fraser :Jets: :flag:
@mike@thecanadian.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers @mastodonmigration @laurenshof @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson @zeldman Hence the qualifying sentence at the end. There's a lot of work to be done on the actual software but there's also a lot of work to be done on instances creating communities that can stand on their own two feet. Unfortunately that work goes beyond the nuts and bolts of software development.
LFpete
@LFpete@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers

I see what you mean: I couldn't access the full thread of comments from the reply that you boosted.

About Sin No. 1, picking an instance in 2022 was quite puzzling, as I didn't want to intrude anywhere or step on anyone's toes. At that time, there was still quite a strong attitude of "we don't want intruders." Maybe that general attitude has changed now?
Jef Poskanzer
@jef@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers @mastodonmigration @laurenshof @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson @zeldman "What about Mastodon Search?" - I'm ok with search being opt-in only because 99% of my searches are on my own toots. Unfortunately, even that doesn't work very well. For instance, a search for "from:me meatball" ought to bring up dozens of my meatball sandwich lunch photos. Instead it brings up: four.
Gregory
@grishka@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers @mastodonmigration @laurenshof @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson @zeldman

Smithereen fixes the DM UX thing by actually treating direct messages as something entirely separate from posts. Different UIs, dedicated inbox and outbox pages, a button in each profile to send a message, addressing in a separate field like in an email client instead of mentions. I don't even allow setting per-post visibility on my side (but I do store and enforce it for incoming posts/comments)
Dale Price
@dale_price@mastodon.online  ·  activity timestamp last week
@renchap @tchambers I don’t think there’s one answer, but a big step would be to stop sending web users to unfamiliar servers in the first place. When I’m using my own server’s web interface, links to content on other servers need to be handled in the web interface I’m already using instead of linking directly to the other server.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/22673

Maybe there’s some difficulty I’m not aware of, but somehow most native app clients manage to do this better than the masto web interface.
Dale Price
@dale_price@mastodon.online  ·  activity timestamp last week
@renchap @tchambers The other suggestion I have, which some might not agree with, would be to embrace native apps in this remote interaction dialog. Instead of/in addition to the free form text field, have buttons to “favorite using Mastodon", "favorite using Ivory” and so on. People are more likely to recognize the app they use than type the exact address of their server.

Podcasts & blogs do this with buttons to follow in popular podcast clients & RSS readers and it seems to work fine
My camera shoots fascists
@Mikal@sfba.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers

I look forward to part 2. In the meantime, I have two comments that someone might find useful.

First is that I was part of the November 2022 fuck Elon migration. That was before ExTwitter locked down their API, so someone had written a little bot that would search your follows there for anyone who had a fediverse handle in their profile (the odd double-@ format, I'm guessing). You could download that as a .CSV and upload it to Mastodon and have an instant large group of familiar people to follow.

Very different than starting from scratch or trying to guess what someone's handle might be and finding them here, even if you know they are in fact here.

I think that's huge for many people because unless you join a very active location-based or interest-based server, it'll feel really lonely for quite a while.
My camera shoots fascists
@Mikal@sfba.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers

The way I explain the fediverse is to compare it to virtually any non-prepackaged social relationship.

Want to try a worker-owned business? A communal household? Co-housing community? Nonmonogamy or other non-traditional romance or relationship forms? CSA or other direct farm-to-consumer food production? Any organization or group that runs by consensus?

Virtually all of my lefty friends have some experience with one or more of these things, so they understand that any time you step outside of the frictionless, pre-made capitalist box to create the life you want, it will be more difficult and often awkward, time consuming and confusing. And probably require a bunch of meetings. But maybe worth it in the end.

That's how I explain the fediverse. Because it's been built by and for users and not fashy billionaires, it requires more direct participation, more tolerance for all the rough edges, longer to make changes and improvements. They usually get that, even if they ultimately decide, "nah."
Mastodon Migration
@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers @zedaardv @laurenshof @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson @zeldman

Looking forward to your ideas on how to improve things. Have you considered taking a page from role playing computer games. When you start a game you arrive on "newbie island" when you walk through a few simple tasks that familiarize you with the UI and your various options. But pretty soon you have to (get to!) move off into the real game equipt with some knowledge, the choices you've made, and a modicum of skill.
Guitarsophist
@jredlund@social.linux.pizza  ·  activity timestamp last week
@tchambers @mastodonmigration @laurenshof @fediversenews @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson I joined Mastodon in late 2022, I think it was when Elon bought Twitter. I found a list of servers, some of which were closed to new users because of the mass migration. I ended up applying to social.linux.pizza because I was running Linux Mint and it was open. I was accepted, then I started figuring out how to work it. After a while, I started using Phanpy.

Some of the things you say are defects or omissions might actually be features. I have been using computers for a long time, though I am not professionally involved with them. My first online experiences were on the GEnie BBS. I also don't use any of the typical social media. I had a Twitter account (no longer), but I only used it to follow the Ukraine war. I didn't mind having to figure out Mastodon. It meant that the users had to have a certain level of commitment and curiosity. I think it cuts down on the trolling and blathering. The necessary information is out there, if you look for it.
Tim Chambers
@tchambers@indieweb.social  ·  activity timestamp last week
@jredlund @mastodonmigration @laurenshof @fediversenews @cheeaun @rolle @scottjenson

I'd say some friction can be a positive thing to a sytem. It SHOULD be hard to do bad things, or to spread potentially spam or toxic content, etc. Intentional friction or "circuit breakers" at those points may solve problems or prevent problems for users.

What I don't think helps anyone is things that become needless UX friction to helping good things happen that delight and bring benifits to users.