Lifeboat ranking so far:
1. Substack - Not the same thing, but a potential return to the glory days of blogging. Writing is good! Needs much more cross pollination.
2. Post - Simple and intuitive, and different. Needs several key features.
3. Mastodon - What server am I on?
@tomwatson Tom, the server stuff is not so hard; that's a trope. https://medium.com/whither-news/on-joining-mastodon-d539eed5e41a
@jeffjarvis @tomwatson I wish more journalists would be open to giving Mastodon a try, many are already dismissing it for a social media company that doesn't even have a finished product. Yes, Mastodon has some issues but it also has amazing potential. #Fediverse
@NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson Probably we're better off without having to deal with the kind of journalist who can't tell the difference between Mastodon and a company
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
I don't align with the reasoning that excludes someone because they find a solution unintuitive. Rather onboard what is blocking them.
There are many things I find overwhelming but I still eat home-prepared food, have a button sewn on when it comes loose and have a nail hammered into a wall.
I thank those who worked with me to get a checkmark here based on my blogger.com and GitHub portals. That is the type of attitude we want.
@chribonn @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson I don't align with the reasoning that excludes someone because they find a solution unintuitive either!
But mistaking Mastodon for a company is not finding a solution unintuitive. Is more like trivializing other people's efforts - in Lynne's example, trivializing them in order to dismiss them.
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
(...cont)
My reasoning is that people interested in sharing their Thanksgiving shenanigans, activists taking part in protests in Iran and journalists sharing photos of mass graves in Ukraine might not care about the underlying technology. For these people, one should aim to bring down the barriers to entry.
(cont ...)
@chribonn @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson Your analogy is wrong.
You don't need to understand PAL-M to watch TV usefully, but you do need to understand that different TV channels are operated by different companies, which are granted government monopolies on transmitting on those channels, and that they're heavily regulated and mostly ad-funded.
If you're sharing photos of mass graves in Ukraine or taking part in protests in Iran, you probably need to know if your instance is run by the Russian, Ukrainian, or Iranian government. You definitely need to understand that it's a possibility, and that the instance owner can read your DMs, trace your IP address, and take over your account.
Keeping activists, journalists, and their sources safe is more important than being appealing to the masses.
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
I don't think we can converge.
My point remains that:
1. Mastodon is a solution in its own right. It must not be something else.
2. Some very intelligent people are not tech-savvy. If a technological barrier blocks them then they use something else.
Mastodon is one of many products that are out to fill the void created by Twitter. Who will take its place?
🤴 The king is dead, long live the king.
Facebook, Twitter
@chribonn @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson Confusing Mastodon with a company isn't about being "tech-savvy" or not "tech-savvy". It's about treating a community of people as a community of people and not as a vendor or a machine.
Similarly, when you are using Facebook, it is to your benefit to understand that Facebook is also operated by human beings who can invade your privacy. Hiding those human beings behind a "smooth GUI", as you are advocating, obscures the power relations in the situation and prevents vulnerable people from protecting themselves.
Facebook, Twitter
Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it.
🍗 🎃 🍠 🥮
I would ask you to post some left overs but the shipping costs and delays probably mean its better to buy my own 🤢
Facebook, Twitter
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
I can't relate how the discussion of lowering barriers to entry relates to "treating a community of people as a community of people and not as a vendor or a machine."
I just wished Happy Thanksgiving and have an ongoing exchange with you. Yesterday I posted a photo of my last batch of chilly peppers. If I couldn't log into the Mastodon because I found it too difficult these events would have never taken place.
(cont ...)
Facebook, Twitter
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
(...cont)
The truth of the matter is that if @leo of TWIT had not harped on the topic sufficiently to get me interested I might not have created my Mastodon account (on twit.social).
Facebook, Twitter
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
Ask the Nutty Professor character (👴 I'm old ) if he is able to tell you the background information of Mastodon or Facebook. I interact with scores of people who are like the Nutty Professor. I have friends and family who think the internet is Facebook. People post sensitive information about themselves. Have a coffee with a couple of lawyers to understand how they use social media.
Facebook, Twitter
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
👨⚖️Some might reason that it is the user's fault because they didn't research, read and inform themselves👩⚖️ . Very true
My take on it is to evolve systems to assist persons from harming themselves. And this reasoning is not directed at Mastodon specifically -- recall when social media posts were being fact checked?
Some might say "they should yada yada". I'm happy cars have safety features rather than blame drivers and do nothing.
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
↖️
Our realities are different
↘️
Where I come from people do not perform deep dive diligence assessments to decide whether to watch a program. If the content aligns with their viewing preferences they watch otherwise they change the channel.
(continue ...)
@radehi @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson
The examples I gave relate to identical content shared on Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. Some of the TV stations I mentioned used this content for their productions. No one used Mastodon.
I could not understand the relevance of your comments related to security. Have you read about account suspensions on other platforms? Have you followed the story in which Facebook passed on to law enforcement a private chat between a daughter and her mum?
@chribonn @NorCal_Lynne @jeffjarvis @tomwatson Moreover, to use intelligently the Fediverse, you need to understand that nobody can be banned from the Fediverse or even Mastodon. You need to understand that, like Twitter users, many instance admins are hobbyists, volunteers who run their instances because they like to do it. You need to understand that your company can set up its own instance. Because these are facts that underlie the social interactions that happen here.
Putting a GUI over a computer system that makes it easy to use is laudable, because using computers is in itself morally neutral and often useful.
It is evil to put a "GUI" over a volunteer community that makes it easy to use, because it forces you to use people like inanimate objects, and using people like inanimate objects is evil. To participate in a community, you should engage sincerely with that community, seeking to create mutually beneficial interactions with them.
And the first step in doing that is treating that community as a community you are joining, not a company you are buying services from or a tool you are using.