Item — HN Reader

> doesn't solve any of the problems Twitter now has > you have 2000 poorly managed, even more understaffed systems with 2000 different approaches

It is not about short-term problem solving. It is about long-term investment in more decentralized social networks. 2000 different approaches is exactly what is needed for "natural selection" to do it job.

> are first and foremost human, business, management and social problems, not something you can throw some network protocols and technology at and declare it solved.

Agreed. But the protocols should by designed to adress and resolve those problems the best they can. This will take a lot of iterations. The more (and sooner) people jump ship, the better chance we have to test and iterate.

1 comments

>2000 different approaches is exactly what is needed for "natural selection" to do it job… The more (and sooner) people jump ship, the better chance we have to test and iterate.

I don’t think users are going to participate in these sorts of experiments long term. People are signing up now out of fear and anger and hope but Mastodon still lacks the user base — people for you to follow and people to amplify your posts. (Partly because it’s still a fraction as popular as Twitter and partly because the hosts all seem to be blocking a different half of the other hosts so even if two people are both on Mastodon they may not be able to connect.)

If, on top of all that, people are expected to tolerate “a lot of iterations” before things work right I see them leaving. Let’s not forget that the Twitter/Mastodon mode of interaction can be pretty toxic so there needs to be a big carrot for people. Mastodon doesn’t have it. Twitter barely did tbh.

> but Mastodon still lacks the user base

There are nearly 3M users across the fediverse. I can't keep up with my timeline. This genuinely sounds like the words of someone who hasn't actually looked at mastodon in the last month.

> people are expected to tolerate “a lot of iterations” before things work right I see them leaving

This is literally what Elon just said they're gonna do with Twitter.

Look, don't get me wrong, I think it's very likely mastodon remains a bit niche. But not for these reasons. I'm much more concerned about issues of search/discoverability, general usability, and the downsides of a purely chronological timeline than I am about either of the issues you just focused on.

> I don’t think users are going to participate in these sorts of experiments long term

You are right, not in the mainstream. What I'm talking about is what is already happening in the underground (and also hoping for some right people to join in). This is enough for that "natural selection" work. Don’t you feel the pace of those decentralized new projects every week on HN?

> if people are expected to tolerate.... I see them leaving

Maybe you're right? I said I'm "hoping". Deep inside, I believe this crisis is just a steppingstone (may be an important one ?). At the very least we have sown some seeds in mainstream social networks (like Tumblr's move to federate) and mainstream media (all the mastodon talk). We need more underground work to sort all the stuff you and others are complaining about. The next crisis we will be more ready.