I have never really been a social media fan. But this seems interesting.

Any of you guys using it or Singletrack World Mag ?

https://joinmastodon.org/
https://mastodon.social/explore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software)

My handle I suppose…

@redthunder@toot.community

No, Mastodon is (even more) stupid. I don’t want to have a choose a server (or instance, or whatever else you might decide to call it) that might really important, or not very important at all, I don’t want to have to choose my interests (or in fact, reveal them) I don’t want to toot at people (I’m not 8, yes I’m aware of tweeting being equally infantilising)  I don’t want a local or federalised feed, or any of that horseshit

It seems designed to be confusing and badly thought out, in so much as the folks that think it’s major selling point ( the separate-ness of it) is in fact the most off putting thing.

Surely the best alternative to Twitter is no Twitter?

myspace is the future. In 2008.

It does seem weird/short sighted, people jumping ship from Twitter to Mastadon, a platform which they know nothing about, if it’s secure (apparently it’s not), know nothing about the people you’re handing data over to0.

Surely, if you’re annoyed at Elon and Twitter, just leave. It’s not that compelling anyway!

I can see benefits here. You don’t go ‘to Mastodon’ you go ‘to a Mastodon server’. So there will be servers for everything and it’ll end up like web forums. Servers will become popular for a while, until the moderation starts to struggle or gets fed up then they’ll move on. There’ll be sponsored servers run by organisation but of course they’ll be associated with that organisation. Journalists may gravitate to one to share their thoughts outside of MSM but the left and right will be at each other’s throats so they’ll separate. The point about Twitter was that there was only one Twitter.

It’s not that compelling anyway!

It’s become a very important channel for journalists and even politicians to do their work. They’ll need something else.

Surely, if you’re annoyed at Elon and Twitter, just leave.

That’s exactly what I’ve done.
There’s an interesting insight into the mind of Musk on The Rest is Politics episode dated 3rd of November, particularly the discussion on the Bots and how the algorithms are (allegedly) crafted to enhance division and disharmony. Good listen on a dog walk.
I anticipate people leaving in their droves – I think there’s a falling out of love with Social Media platforms generally, and a growing suspicion of the intentions of Mr Musk.

There seems to be a mix of virtue signalling and FOMO going on at the moment. Personally I don’t really care who owns Twitter. There are folk I follow and that’s it. If they all decide to stop using Twitter then so be it. I’ll not be switching to another platform, I’ll just reduce my overall social media interactions.

What @NewRetroTom said. I am weaning myself off.

I’ll just reduce my overall social media interactions

That’s my goal! I use them all, and it’s a massive waste of time.

I know STW is kind of social, but it’s infinitely more useful (to me).

No, Mastodon is (even more) stupid. I don’t want to have a choose a server (or instance, or whatever else you might decide to call it) that might really important, or not very important at all, I don’t want to have to choose my interests (or in fact, reveal them) I don’t want to toot at people (I’m not 8, yes I’m aware of tweeting being equally infantilising) I don’t want a local or federalised feed, or any of that horseshit

Yes, I saw a Twitter thread from a blue check who was leaving Twitter for Mastodon and posted a thread about how to sign up. I got to the “choose a server” part and gave up.

Mastodon looks too siloed to be of interest to me. Seeing politicians, journalists, academics, legal experts etc. interact with people is what I like about Twitter.

And tbh Musk is a plank, but I don’t see that Twitter’s got any worse since he turned up. There’d been some appallingly lax modding going back a long time.

Not following the news, but thought it might be these guys lol

Seeing politicians, journalists, academics, legal experts etc. interact with people is what I like about Twitter.

This is what I’ve always liked about Twitter, that on my screen on a given day I can see a post about 90’s football, one about politics, a friend ranting about his kids and a chef showing their new menu. The variety of stuff is what keeps it interesting, anything siloed doesn’t appeal.

So, are any of you using Mastodon at the moment ?

For myself, Twitter got used about twice in all the time I had an account. Instagram and Facefook are not Social Media (whatever that may be) IMO but just advertising platforms.

Whilst playing around with Mastodon, its does seem siloed so to speak.

But a MountainBIke server would be nice 😉

Probably get bored as with all the others and just go for a ride in the woods instead 🙂 and just stay with Imgur.

I just saw all the Server names (I think that’s what I saw) social.indieweb; socel.net; toot.site… alt.rec.gaming… newsgroups are back! 😆

alt.binaries

I signed up the other day knowing very little about it. Felt more like the new IRC than the new Twitter. Can’t see it being adopted by the wider public.

Masterdon seems, from what I’ve briefly read, to be already where Elon wants Twitter to go – seems strange to dump Twitter on the grounds that you don’t like the direction it’s going in for something that is already there?

You have to sign up for a server, that server controls your data (Inc passwords), each server has its own rules ad who ever operates the server controls the rules. Sounds like Elon could have saved some cash and just opened a Masterdon server for free and had freedom of speech to himself.

Surely the best alternative to Twitter is no Twitter?

Just this – if your unhappy, delete the app 🤷‍♂️

I don’t want to toot at people

I miss the heady days where you could poke someone on Facebook.

Bring back Google+ 😝

Sounds like another non-starter nice platform like Diaspora and a bunch of others.

Sign-up and faffing with servers is complex, so average idiot won’t sign up. Though if it gets rid of the average idiot then maybe that isn’t so bad.

I could do with ditching twitter though. It’s too toxic and under Elon’s Bond Villain like reign it will only get worse.

On the plus side, the Mastadon servers I have looked at are run under German law. Which means it’s quite difficult to post nazi nonsense.

But don’t seem to work? I’ve been on a German server (I chose randomly) and it pretty much just consistently fails to load on my phone, fails to find anyone that I’d like to follow – despite them being things like the BBC or the Washington Post. I’d change servers, but it won’t load the settings page…

At least it cuts down my screen time I guess. 🤷‍♀️

Its not social media if you can’t slap someone around a bit with a large trout.

Replying to @kerley’s query about toot visibility on the now locked thread

This is how visibilty works between different instamces

I’ve just… well, if not jumped then at least stuck a toe in. @Cougar@infosec.exchange if anyone cares.

This is useful for finding former Twitter friends: pruvisto.org/debirdify/

if it’s secure (apparently it’s not),

Direct messages aren’t encrypted, so a server admin (and maybe others) could read them if they so wanted.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ditching-twitter-how-to-get-started-with-mastodon/

@Cougar, just followed you.

I’m on there, followed a few people I follow on Twitter (mainly political stuff)

@parkes@mastodonapp.uk

Yes, mastodon is working fine. It seems that the “oooh it’s too complicated” nonsense has had the benefit of scaring off most of the idiots and it’s left with the 10-20% of useful contributors.

Meanwhile, twatter is awash with people laughing at/impersonating Musk and not a lot else, from what I see. Which is fun, but a bit pointless.

That Yaxley-Lennon thug has been allowed back on to Twitter by his supreme eminence Musk. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to ditch the bird site. There are still interesting people on there, but at this point I think I’m enabling a fascist.

Wow. Is it really two months since the weekend that Twitter was to die?

Wow. Is it really two months since the weekend that Twitter was to die?

It’s dead, though not stopped moving yet!

Mastodon is literally designed to be a self-selecting echo-chamber (just like this place 😉). Yeah, you can join a server where people don’t post things you don’t like – it doesn’t mean those people don’t exist though, or you’ve solved the worlds problems, it’s just burying your head in the sand! (which is fine, if that’s what you want I guess)

What’s to stop alt-right baddies setting up their own masterdon servers? Nothing it seems https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb8y3x/the-nazi-free-alternative-to-twitter-is-now-home-to-the-biggest-far-right-social-network

In fact the de-centralised nature of Mastodon probably makes it more difficult to keep tabs on these kind of people, and allows them to flourish “under the radar”. The double-edged sword of open technologies… 🤔

Interestingly it would appear Mr Musk has not paid his AWS bill and not renewed the Google contract either. Some detail here:

Wow. Is it really two five months since the weekend that Twitter was to die?

FTFMe

mstdn social for me for a while @RusBak@mstdn.social

Twitter has made Musk a millionaire

It does seem that the limits have been put in place due to their limited compute

See my other post on the Musk thread for the financial mess Twitter is rapidly entering.

@scotroutes I did say it was dead but hadn’t stopped moving yet.

The internet was fine before twitter and facebook.

It will survive after twitter and facebook.

Tbf nothing beats twitter for up to date news from anywhere in the world

Especially since the BBC city all their foreign reporters