Atomic 🦌 @atomicbutterfly@awoo.space

@Gargron hugs

Installed activity pub on my work blog(so neglected, cos baby) and husbands website, but not able to find either on any instance? The only exception is I can find my blog on pixelfed.

🤔

@PRSBooks oh invite only sucks. Follow a few people and ask for an invite tho!

Hey #new people 👋🏼 if you’re not sure where to sign up or which server is best for you.

A few things I didn’t know:

1. There’s a tool to help you find a server with size, content & TOCs you agree to.
https://instances.social
2. You can redirect an account to a new account under profile. Followers are moved with you. No need to delete.
3. You can use apps like toot! On iOS to browse instances your not a part off and see if it’s where you belong.

@PRSBooks hey 👋🏼 are you saying you can’t sign up to that server? Because I have 3 accounts across 3 servers and none have blocked me.

A few things I didn’t know:

1. There’s a tool to help you find a server with size, content & TOCs you agree to.
https://instances.social
2. You can redirect an account to a new account under profile. Followers are moved with you. No need to delete.
3. You can use apps like toot! On iOS to browse instances your not a part off and see if it’s where you belong.

@atomicpoet I can’t imagine anything worse than government version of Twitter alternatives, when you factor in how some global govs work. (Even though google sells them our chrome data anyway)

@thomasfuchs feel better soon

@stevelord @atomicpoet also, and maybe this is me being that annoying design person, but why do bathrooms need to be gendered? Maybe we could fix *that* answer.

@thomasfuchs urgh. People who act like they are the highest authority of what “civilised” is = 🚩🚩🚩🚩

@thomasfuchs totally. We have terrible abilities to gauge risk caused by their actions vs risks posed by others. Masks vs terrorists.

@ussducky@mastodon.social what’s your experience on mastodon like, with regards to meeting people, admins and instances? Just for comparison? How did you pick this instance?

@ussducky@mastodon.social ah, yeah. That’s the thing tho.. I look for waaaay smaller discords. Around 50 people or under.

Discord is doing well because - among others things- it allows people to cluster and meet around interests or identities.
It functions like an online version of meetup.com

The servers that do well are heavily moderated and have admins and assistants sparking discussion, or hosting voice chats or watch parties at well publicised times. It’s work. Something I do not envy them for doing.

I wonder if that’s a way to make social media more human and less flamey.

Socialising is hard. Making friends is hard. Maintaining or creating a social group is hard. Community building is hard.

And we’re kind of like the people in wall-e for doing this online because we’ve gotten so used to recommendations and who to follow lists.

But I think that’s what will ultimately decide which platforms last and get the most users. And it might be down to having human mods here to make it better than the other hellsite.

The way apps have all been designed to be addictive has this effect where :
1. merely being functional as intended is annoying.

We expect to be surprised and delighted. And like all addictions, we then need more of the effect to even notice it - eg TikTok and 7 second videos.

2. Doing more effective, meaningful things are less rewarding that doing fast, less effective things. Eg duolingo is rewarding and addictive. But less effective than babble.

We bemoan services like insta, Spotify, twitter .. but it comes down to being able to discover new content that’s right for the user at just the right intervals. And that’s hard to do right without a lot of user data.

Even switching from Spotify to Apple Music, it’s the dopamine rush of the new playlist I find myself missing, despite understanding how much data it takes across 3-4 apps to make it appear so intuitive.