Mastodon (Not the Band) Classic or Dud

What was that social network site that I think was more of a Facebook replacement? It was all black in there too.

Diaspora? Ello?

No, if you click on the link to (for example) Ned's profile *on his server* (it's very easy - try it!) you can see who all of his followers are and who he's following. That's how I connected with you.

But if you try to click on one of them to follow and they're on a different server you have to then reload your own server and search their specific name and follow that, rather than just click 'FOLLOW'.

The mastodon mobile app is a much more pleasant experience than the web.

Am also on this thing now, I guess. https://journa.host/@rozlatiff

xpost Yes, even though I've gotten used to the desktop version, the official app is pretty slick, and I've seen reports that other third party apps might be even better.

Diaspora? Ello?

Yes.

I forgot about Diaspora, I think that was initially a livejournal replacement wannit?

one side-effect from reactivating my 2018 mastodon acct is that i'm also suddenly reconnecting with foax from an oldschool messageboard i always liked but did kinda desert round the time i was doing my book (mainly earnest timesink avoidance, never intended as a flounce) = unfogged

more to the point maybe they're reconnecting with me, im guessing this means im more visible there than i was on twitter?

https://mastodon.lol/@nathan/109301335584873764

Continuous server upgrades etc. They are v committed and trying their best.

lol

trie to sign up, currently waiting confirmation email.
has been over 30 mins, so suspect its not happening.
i guess i try a different server ?

I'm not following this at all. I wanted to join mastodon.social because it seemed like the largest and most important server? But I couldn't find it when I searched for servers so I just joined another server. But how do I now switch to mastodon.social? I have the app but the search screen just lets me search for posts, hashtags etc. and not servers. How do you get a full list of servers from within the app?

i don't know if there's a way to see other servers/instance *within the app* (and i'm absolutely certain there isn't a way to see *all* of them, some servers hide theemselves by design) but if you already *know* the server you want to join, then go to settings then account then "move to a different account" and the account you move to will be yrs except with the new server switched in

however i'm not certain if mastodon social is currently letting more ppl in, its influx is currently huge (it is the largest but i don't know what "most important" really means in this context: yes its chief mod is also basically site founder but he's also kinda busy at the moment)

tbh i would wait a while and see how things are, or else look around *outside the app* for other suggested servers / instances

Thanks, that's very helpful.

do I get Negronis if I join y/n

absolutely not

here's me for now

https://ravenation.club/@Moodles

I've been able to follow a few people, but I can't see most users on other servers. There were a bunch of you that I tried to add but couldn't find in the lookup. I'd like to be able to look at who other people follow regardless of server. Is there a way to do this or do I have to hop around from server to server looking for people?

this feels a bit like Quantum Leap where you leap from century to century

it's perplexing to me because 3/4 of the people I'm following are on different servers, so clearly that is possible, but then I can't add or see certain other people, so there appears to be some limits.

ok, seems to work better when I include someone's server in the search, although search is just generally working better on the android app than in the browser. One big problem seems to be that a lot of people are on @mastodon.online, and that particular server seems to be fucked, I just can't access it at all

moodles try clicking e.g. on my profile and look thru my follows and followers -- some i expect will be hidden since some servers are delinked from others but others u shd just be able to follow there and then via the + sign? anyway u will recognise some ppl there

mastodon online is probably experiencing a surge r/n

Yeah I can't see anyone you are following lol.

try "browse more on the original profile" (it updates quicker but doesn't have a + sign so you have to click thru to each one)

I found this works best in a browser, on my PC in Chrome I right-click their user name and select open in new tab. Doesn't work so well to follow the link in the main tab.

it has real caractacus potts breakfast-making machine vibes, all gimcrack machinery clicking whirring and stiffly and jerkily undertaking its tasks in the background

eventually the boiled egg rolls down onto yr plate or the floor

So here's a tip -- if you install this app on Twitter to review your account:

https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/

You can check who you're following and see if they have a Mastodon account based on their own settings. Was able to find a slew of people that way. (I grant you might be leery of third-party apps on Twitter at this point but this seemed like the easiest blunt force method and I'll likely uninstall it now that I've used it.)

this is very helpful!

This entire thread should be posted to the backward tech innovations thread.

I'm so confused.

I seem to have signed up for something Irish? mastodon.ie?

Talk to me like I'm a child: Is there one of these servers where everyone is going so that it can be a free-for-all like Twitter and not everyone grouped into chosen silos? Or is it actually *good* to have to choose a silo for a reason I don't understand?

Also, can I change servers if I want to? And keep my username?

Every "let me explain Mastodon" tweet just leaves me more confused and less interested in trying it out.

it turns out it does not matter which server you use to sign up.

discoverability of other accounts is hard though if you are not on a bigger server, I guess. you basically need to know the name of an account you want to follow.

Every "let me explain Mastodon" tweet just leaves me more confused and less interested in trying it out.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0),

what if Ezra Klein wrote an explainer

xp

my workaround for this is looking at who other people are following

It's easy to get lost in the whole decentralized/fediverse rhetoric and there are certain unavoidable elements that do result from that but from dipping my toes in the water on Friday at this point I have a slew of familiar names in my feed and because it's not an overwhelming crush of posts and reblogs (yet, obv.) I can treat it as less of a firehose, and the basic functionality is that of Twitter. *shrug* Works for me? My FB presence is private and I can have more general rambly discussions there, same with IG in terms of the low key use I have for it, so this addresses that aspect of things and allows me to post shorter public thoughts instead of in the venue I was using up until now.

Searching for hashtags and things seems to not work , or there really are not many people using this

I do find I can locate people now if I have their full address.
Hard to knwo what is a shortcoming of mastodon and what is just broken at the moment

lol this thread is more siloed than mastodon

yeah, there are degrees of social media experiences:

ilxor/message boards- for like-minded enthusiasts to enthuse and fight

Facebook-- place to post photos and explain your jokes to your relatives

Twitter-- place to watch a bunch of famous and non-famous people embarrass themselves in front of millions

Mastodon-- who knows? Seems somewhere between message board and Facebook at this point, but in the future could be cool kid twitter or cool kid Parler

maybe mastodon will just be something to add and keep the rest until our cup runneth over with social media

mastodon is where we can practice playing nice so we get the respite to be more horrible everywhere else

Very pro this kind of thing on principle as the original reason I had for checking out of twitter a few years ago was visceral disgust over whatever tiny role I'd played as a longtime user (since the SMS days!) in building up the heft of this thing to the point where it was an appealing lever for people looking to (for example) commit securities fraud or incite a nuclear conflict. Granted, that's just a particularly absurd synecdoche for the broader gnarl of modernity but at least in this case I felt like I could make a choice to opt out.

In practice I'd be really surprised if mastodon represents a stable/viable paradigm. I'm getting the vibe that it's stuck in an awkward middle ground between the goal of delivering something that looks/feels/acts like a familiar web 2.0 platform and the logistical realities of a ton of different people maintaining infrastructure on an ad hoc basis.

But it's worth a good faith effort and we'll have some laughs regardless of how it shakes out: https://mastodon.sdf.org@catniptwinz

Btw was never on sdf but was delighted to see that they had a mastodon instance.

The reason I never used twitter was because it was a "here have all the posts in the world mauahahaha" sort of firehose as Ned says. It was just too bloody much, and I have less than 100 followers/following. But they all retweet endlessly, so I see everything except the people I actually hear from?

But then I realise that, unlike 10 years or more ago, I Do Not Care to blather on about my life to an unseen online audience anymore. So I dunno what the point of any of this is now uuuughhhh *drowns self*.

Well you could create an account, construct a feed of those you want to read and not post otherwise. No reason it can't be used that way!

followed ya moodles

there's kind of a giddy excitement that's not unrelated to how drab the experience is at first. oh how cool! I'm seeing posts from one person I know, and literally nobody else! ~no static at all~