by allenbrunson on 12/21/22, 12:16 PM with 76 comments
by distcs on 12/21/22, 3:26 PM
Help me understand one thing about Mastodon. We choose a Mastodon server to create account. What is decentralized about it? Doesn't choosing a server make it effectively centralized? I choose mastodon.social. What is there to stop mastodon.social from a change of ownership that makes it fall in the hands of people who take user-hostile decisions?
I know we can create a new account on a new Mastodon server and move all the followers but that's about it. We can only move the followers. We cannot move our post history. So when I choose mastodon.social or any Mastodon server, am I not putting all my eggs in one basket again?
by riffic on 12/21/22, 2:16 PM
by gemmy on 12/21/22, 11:19 PM
I find Nostr much more exciting than federated sites, b/c it uses decentralized ids. You never have to worry about losing your social graph due to a federated server admin shutting down their server or banning you.
by carapace on 12/21/22, 4:44 PM
I think it's important to remind people that Mastodon isn't a "competitor" to proprietary social media, it's an alternative.
No one cares whether you use Mastodon or not-- I mean people do care, they like you and want to interact with you, that's not what I'm getting at. I mean that no one is getting paid or not if you do or don't use Mastodon. In other words, there's no stock ticker for it, there's no investors, no executives, no marketing dept., etc. It's just folks talking to each other, on their own terms, over the Internet.
It's a totally different thing than Twitter. They only superficially resemble each other in some of the UI.
by jacooper on 12/21/22, 3:20 PM
I mean its more like equity than real money they can directly spend.
Also most of their wealth is in companies that are no where near worth their marketcap, such as Tesla which isn't even close to VW in sales, yet somhow is worth more.
So once the hype dies down, or the founder sells enough stocks, the market cap is going to take a nose dive for sure.
And as rich as elon is, we have seen how he is putting Billions into twitter, so they can spend it, just not in normal lifetime stuff.
by distcs on 12/21/22, 3:19 PM
What about Mastodon is more difficult to use? Isn't it just choosing a server, typing its URL, signing up for a new account and then you are ready to post?
The UX does not look any more difficult than Twitter either. Both support search, hashtags, following people, creating lists, retweets (called boost in Mastodon), commenting. The UX looks and behaves similarly too. So why do people say that Mastodon is more difficult to use?
by agluszak on 12/21/22, 2:28 PM
That's exactly why capitalism must be regulated.
by TheMagicHorsey on 12/21/22, 2:58 PM
by gambler on 12/21/22, 2:40 PM
by allenbrunson on 12/21/22, 2:53 PM
by luuuzeta on 12/21/22, 2:36 PM
Oh my hyperbole, what would we do without you?!
>Then came the exodus from Twitter, due to the tyrannical new owner. Many of the voices that I have come to appreciate the most are leaving. In particular, the ones with the highest morals were the first to jump ship. As well they should! If you stay on Twitter, the way it is now, and continue to contribute your content to it, then you are saying that you approve of the tyrant-in-chief banning reporters for writing about things that make him look bad.
Oh my hyperbole! It's interesting to see the dichotomy between people who think Twitter was a safe haven and people who think it was a hellhole.
And you can both support that Elon Musk shouldn't have been so trigger happy banning reporters without a clear policy in place AND that doxxing should earn you an instantaneous and permanent ban.