Mastodon has a lot going for it, but I worry the UX still has too much friction for normies.
@mperham Mastodon vs. corporate social media has always felt like Mac vs Linux to me. Linux has a lot going for it too, but most people don't want to use it if they can use a Mac instead.
@wood For the mobile I'd generally just suggest using the web interface instead. The site's already so mobile friendly, it just doesn't need an app.
@trinsec that's true and I might even be OK with that, but I'm not the target audience if you want to federation to go mainstream.
@wood Yeah, maybe the target audience we talk about needs to be educated about this. It's kind of silly how everything starts to be app-driven when it's not necessary. Everybody already got browsers, and some websites are already fantastic as is.
@trinsec the best of both worlds might be if Twitter and other corporate platforms supported ActivityPub.
@wood That'd be the worst as almost everybody except the rightwing instances will start blocking the big tech sites. AND there would be even less incentive of people looking outside the corporate bubble in the mistaken belief that 'they're already in contact with the outside world anyway'.
@trinsec perhaps, my thinking on this isn't fully formed. This Mac vs. desktop Linux example is relevant, though. Linux is successful despite the fact that most people don't want to use it day-to-day. People who stick with Mac are paying for the UX, support, and integration. https://qoto.org/web/statuses/109269726202092831
@wood I think more along the lines of the browser wars.
Microsoft kicked out Netscape with their Internet Explorer. Implemented their own standards to compete with Firefox.. you got websites with wildly different layouts depending on which browser you used.
Don't believe for a thing that big corporations are going to play nice.
@trinsec Google still owns the most popular browser today, and yet many compatibility issues have been resolved by adopting standards. I can build a website and be relatively confident that it will be the same experience on Chrome and Firefox.
@wood Yes, -now-.
Twitter isn't going to be THAT nice.
Or do you really want an insane millionnaire having a say in this?
@trinsec I'd rather not. 😁 Bill Gates was also pretty hated in the 90s. Not defending either of them, it's just a pattern I've noticed—billionaires do shitty things and then use their money to rehabilitate their image later.
@trinsec I do think education is great btw. The world can always use more education!
Soapbox is a lot better looking.
@wood So did Twitter 2007. The only question is whether the org can scale with Eugen doing a huge amount of the work himself.