So, I'm part of a corner of Twitter that migrated super hard to Mastodon. Within less than a week, ecologists and evolutionary biologists got their own instance, everyone started putting their Mastodon handles in their Twitter profiles, the hashtags #TwitterMigration and #TwitterExodus started popping up everywhere, someone told us about Debirdify, and everyone's Mastodon feeds filled up with helpful technical and etiquette guides. It feels like the community both materialized overnight AND got way more wholesome and pleasant and chill.
I don't know how typical this experience is, but there seem to be a lot of other academics doing this too (https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon), and I keep getting stuff from journalists through the Fediverse. I don't know if it'll stick / work, but certainly academics seem to be early adopters - perhaps especially those of us in more quant fields because we're likely to be interested in open-source software.
Anyway, hope this is useful meat for a future article, and thank you again for all you do! My partner and I really appreciate Garbage Day as a source of media-studies journalism.
I think the way to explain Mastodon is to explain that it’s kind of like email… a thing which is difficult to use, which everyone hates, which is almost impossible to understand, and which most people nonetheless still use.
As for all the Twitter alternatives… half of the big-name ones are just heavily branded Mastodon instances. So perhaps the way to explain Mastodon is instead to explain that it’s the thing that lets you log into the Kim Kardashian app using your account from the Jeremy Renner app. (I know these are not actual Mastodon instances… yet. Give them time.)
Mastodon is actually basically the same as Twitter. You create an account, follow people, their posts show in your feed, retweet and fave posts. This is why people are betting on it being able to reach a critical mass of migrating tweeters. I agree that people will go where everyone else goes, but I don't think celebrities are the biggest draw, and like with twitter, celebrities will likely be the last to join whatever comes next.
The problem is that it's mainly tech nerds promoting it, and they're focusing on decentralized! federation! and like, no one needs to care about that yet. It's just twitter. Which server should they sign up for? It doesn't matter, you can change it later. Why'd you pick Gmail over Hotmail? Sign up for whichever one the person telling you to join is on. Follow the people you know. Post. Let people discover the federation features as they go instead of trying to infodump it on them at the start.
I think Mastodon is probably too similar to Twitter to replace it, but on the other hand it's been bubbling under for a while and does have a decent chunk of active users already, which is usually true of past successors
I find myself still drawn to twitter and unlikely to leave for the time being because of what you pointed out with musk seemingly doing stuff on the fly everyday. It's like watching a slow motion car crash at this point except its happening to a dude who is trying to keep jp Morgan from owning a chunk of tesla. Your point that even tiktok isn't trying to get people to pay is something that no one around musk has even considered. I will be disappointed if twitter just ends up the same as it was afterwards, cuz I kinda want to see it burn, but I have to admit that seems as likely as anything else.
Thanks for the primer on mastadon, I remember hearing about it the first time when tumblr instituted its p-rn ban. And the Mr beast update was just so useful, just because I imagined him so rich to begin with I didn't think he was making all his money on youtube (and related ventures), it's kinda eye opening that he does. Good stuff here.
I'm surprised Twitter lasted this long. I thought it would go the way of MSN Chatrooms and Groups after 5 years or so... I've moved to Mastodon and it isn't Twitter, never will be Twitter. But I'd be happy to remove "microblogging" as a caregory altogether.
I agree there's a paradigm shift right in the corner... there are already big losers. Institutions and companies are in a bad spot (aren't they?) and I don't see that changing in the near future.... It's going to be harder and harder to hear from them in this new environment. Unless you are Netflix with tons of cash...
So if you can see only the most extreme discourse.... how the moderates can exist?
"This attention to all cost" quest will lead to on actor breaking the game and for good. Like in Ready Player One, the entire society searching for the keys of the Oasis...and nothing else exist.
Email listervs have been increasingly supplanted by Discourse (not to be confused with Discord), which can approximate many of the same features while allowing individual users a lot more control:
Oh. You got me again with an old link in your 'Some Stray Links' section. I'm such a goober for clicking on it again. Please add some indication if this is an old story or something of the current zeitgeist.
Elon Musk is more Funko Pop than man
Hi! Love Garbage Day!
So, I'm part of a corner of Twitter that migrated super hard to Mastodon. Within less than a week, ecologists and evolutionary biologists got their own instance, everyone started putting their Mastodon handles in their Twitter profiles, the hashtags #TwitterMigration and #TwitterExodus started popping up everywhere, someone told us about Debirdify, and everyone's Mastodon feeds filled up with helpful technical and etiquette guides. It feels like the community both materialized overnight AND got way more wholesome and pleasant and chill.
I don't know how typical this experience is, but there seem to be a lot of other academics doing this too (https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon), and I keep getting stuff from journalists through the Fediverse. I don't know if it'll stick / work, but certainly academics seem to be early adopters - perhaps especially those of us in more quant fields because we're likely to be interested in open-source software.
Anyway, hope this is useful meat for a future article, and thank you again for all you do! My partner and I really appreciate Garbage Day as a source of media-studies journalism.
I think the way to explain Mastodon is to explain that it’s kind of like email… a thing which is difficult to use, which everyone hates, which is almost impossible to understand, and which most people nonetheless still use.
As for all the Twitter alternatives… half of the big-name ones are just heavily branded Mastodon instances. So perhaps the way to explain Mastodon is instead to explain that it’s the thing that lets you log into the Kim Kardashian app using your account from the Jeremy Renner app. (I know these are not actual Mastodon instances… yet. Give them time.)
Honestly, if that checkmark paywall is actually implemented, I'm going back to making phone calls and going outside for all my social needs
Mastodon is actually basically the same as Twitter. You create an account, follow people, their posts show in your feed, retweet and fave posts. This is why people are betting on it being able to reach a critical mass of migrating tweeters. I agree that people will go where everyone else goes, but I don't think celebrities are the biggest draw, and like with twitter, celebrities will likely be the last to join whatever comes next.
The problem is that it's mainly tech nerds promoting it, and they're focusing on decentralized! federation! and like, no one needs to care about that yet. It's just twitter. Which server should they sign up for? It doesn't matter, you can change it later. Why'd you pick Gmail over Hotmail? Sign up for whichever one the person telling you to join is on. Follow the people you know. Post. Let people discover the federation features as they go instead of trying to infodump it on them at the start.
I think Mastodon is probably too similar to Twitter to replace it, but on the other hand it's been bubbling under for a while and does have a decent chunk of active users already, which is usually true of past successors
Okay, I'm a little sorry I called you a coward
I find myself still drawn to twitter and unlikely to leave for the time being because of what you pointed out with musk seemingly doing stuff on the fly everyday. It's like watching a slow motion car crash at this point except its happening to a dude who is trying to keep jp Morgan from owning a chunk of tesla. Your point that even tiktok isn't trying to get people to pay is something that no one around musk has even considered. I will be disappointed if twitter just ends up the same as it was afterwards, cuz I kinda want to see it burn, but I have to admit that seems as likely as anything else.
Thanks for the primer on mastadon, I remember hearing about it the first time when tumblr instituted its p-rn ban. And the Mr beast update was just so useful, just because I imagined him so rich to begin with I didn't think he was making all his money on youtube (and related ventures), it's kinda eye opening that he does. Good stuff here.
I'm surprised Twitter lasted this long. I thought it would go the way of MSN Chatrooms and Groups after 5 years or so... I've moved to Mastodon and it isn't Twitter, never will be Twitter. But I'd be happy to remove "microblogging" as a caregory altogether.
Hey, uh, what the fuck is wrong with English beer?
I agree there's a paradigm shift right in the corner... there are already big losers. Institutions and companies are in a bad spot (aren't they?) and I don't see that changing in the near future.... It's going to be harder and harder to hear from them in this new environment. Unless you are Netflix with tons of cash...
So if you can see only the most extreme discourse.... how the moderates can exist?
"This attention to all cost" quest will lead to on actor breaking the game and for good. Like in Ready Player One, the entire society searching for the keys of the Oasis...and nothing else exist.
Hull represent!!!
If you’re curious, this is the email server I use:
https://mailinabox.email/
Email listervs have been increasingly supplanted by Discourse (not to be confused with Discord), which can approximate many of the same features while allowing individual users a lot more control:
https://www.discourse.org/
i enjoyed this edition of garbage day
Oh. You got me again with an old link in your 'Some Stray Links' section. I'm such a goober for clicking on it again. Please add some indication if this is an old story or something of the current zeitgeist.