
Reasons to Quit Twitter and Facebook and Switch to Mastodon - yogthos
https://finertech.com/2019/03/21/reasons-to-quit-twitter-and-facebook-and-switch-to-mastodon/
======
nextlevelwizard
>They are quickly banned from most instances (think of them like
interconnected communities, or servers). The few instances that allow them are
blocked by all the others. Toxic actors are effectively ostracized from the
greater community.

Is banning and ostracizing for wrong think really the way we want to go? It
works as long as you are on the politically correct side.

~~~
chartier
Nazis. We’re talking about Nazis. And white supremacists. And “provacateours”
or trolls or whatever they’re called this week.

There was a time when the world didn’t just ostracize people like this, the
entire planet went to war to stop them. So, yeah. Silencing them on a social
media site seems like a decent first step.

~~~
apostacy
Nazis don't exist. They used to, before most of us were born, but they don't
exist any more.

Of course those who want to censor will call their targets Nazis, and try to
scare people like you by saying that the world will end if we don't censor
them.

As far as I know, Facebook doesn't censor revolutionary Maoists or Khmir Rouge
sympathizers, and their ideas are easily as dangerous, if any ideas are
dangerous. No, we can work through this as a society.

Censoring everything is letting them win.

~~~
btreecat
> Nazis don't exist. They used to, before most of us were born, but they don't
> exist any more.

So what's the term for a bunch of white guys shouting "Jews will not replace
us" while holding swastika, iron cross, and Nazi eagle symbols?

~~~
apostacy
The term I would use is: 4chan users engaged in Live Action Role Playing. They
were trying to spook you, and they did, apparently. The most they could muster
from the entire world is < 200.

I remember when the media tried telling us about how "Anonymous" were "hackers
on steroids" who treated things like a "real life video game".[1]

Yes, there are some creeps out there. But they are not a serious threat.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128IR21ZQa0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128IR21ZQa0)

~~~
btreecat
>The term I would use is: 4chan users engaged in Live Action Role Playing.

Role playing Nazis, by choice. And this wasn't a historical reenactment, or
even a skit/play. This was an attempt at showing fear through symbology and
crowd size.

You seem to sympathize with them in a very odd manor.

>They were trying to spook you, and they did, apparently.

LOL I see what you pathetically tried to do there.

Please explain, what's so friendly and cuddly about people who's ideology
involves extermination of other humans.

>The most they could muster from the entire world is < 200

Not sure what you mean, feel free to clarify.

>I remember when the media tried telling us about how "Anonymous" were
"hackers on steroids" who treated things like a "real life video game"

So because one news outlet was wrong one time, we should now disregard all
reporting from any outlet till the end of time. Got it.

>Yes, there are some creeps out there. But they are not a serious threat.

You are an expert on what defines a serious threat now too! So in your clearly
expert opinion (/s) what is the definition of a "serious threat?"

------
shoover
I set up a private Mastodon server for my family several weeks ago and we're
loving it. It's a mighty impressive Rails/React app, very well designed and
implemented. I have a few minor UI quibbles based on experience with twitter,
but the design is really good, responsive, and snappy.

The kids run Fedilab on hand-me-down, wifi-only Android phones and just go to
town with emojis, gifs, and photos. The parents share more of their days with
the kids rather than only texting each other.

The setup guide is great--I followed it on a 1GB Vultr VPS and was up and
running easily, except for one maddening hurdle, which is that on 1GB server
you do need a swap file to successfully precompile JS assets. See [1] for the
workaround. I guess this is just normal in 2019. Otherwise all the services
run fine with 1GB once compiled.

I wish it supported locking down public posts at the admin level, but that's
just my use case. The login system blocks most access, and public posts can be
blocked with nginx authentication and tweaking the list of streams flagged
public in the streaming service.

[1]
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/5836#issuecomme...](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/5836#issuecomment-352225419)

~~~
shoover
Ah, they have a card in progress for a one-click Digital Ocean install [1].
Fantastic! This is an incredible open source project to watch, not your
typical library or system service, but a real, polished app.

Polls functionality is in master, just waiting for release. My kids are going
to love this.

[1] -
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/projects/8#card-185452...](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/projects/8#card-18545229)

------
Yizahi
THe problem with Mastodon is a) discoverability and b) Twitter-like UI. Both
of which I find hard enough to not bother with it at all. (disclaimer - I
never used Twitter due to what I think is a horrible UI) I registered in
Mastodon long time ago, when first articles appeared, followed some random
maybe interesting people, tried writing a few posts and just dropped. I still
have client installed on my phone but last time I opened it was half a year
ago. And I use other social networks daily.

Instead of writing Twitter clone they should have done a LiveJournal of
Facebook clone, with better interface, different approach to privacy and
discoverability etc. But being Twitter-like it is simply not that interesting.

~~~
artichokeheart
Mastodon is only a client to the ActivityPub protocol. There are other clients
that look more like Facebook.

But yes discoverability is an issue because it's hard in a federated
environment.

~~~
artichokeheart
Actually StatusNet had a good solution for discoverability groups. An
equivalent is an outstanding issue for ActtivityPub
[https://github.com/w3c/activitypub/issues/328](https://github.com/w3c/activitypub/issues/328)

------
imagetic
Admittedly, I spent next to no real time investigating, but I did sign up and
attempt to use it after some friends recommended it. There is no way any
normal non-tech savvy person is going to go through that many hoops. I also
couldn't figure out how to search other servers with any success. So unless I
bring people I want to connect with into a server, I'm not grasping what good
it's going to do as a social tool.

~~~
lukewrites
+1 to this, searching & browsing across instances is a major pain point. To
me, joining a Mastodon instance has felt way more like joining a forum than
getting on a federated social network.

I still like the instance I joined, though. Really nice people. Check out
fosstodon.org if you're interested :)

------
zach43
one of the coolest things about mastodon and pleroma is that you can just
start your own instance and immediately federate with the rest of the network.

this means that if youre unhappy with the moderation in a community, if you
want to own your own data/privacy, or if you want to use self-hosted software,
you can just do that with mastodon.

a few weeks back i went through a pleroma guide and set up my own pleroma
instance. it only took a few hours, and it has been running for over a month
on a $5 Linode (1 GB RAM). i migrated from mastodon.social, and it carried
over everyone i was following seamlessly.

i get that the whole decentralized thing has been blown out of proportion in
the past, but in the fediverse (mastodon, pleroma, GNU social, etc) it is
working quite well.

------
h3ckr
Never heard about Mastodon, it’d have been nice if the article explained what
it is. Is this yet another startup promising they won’t become a merciless
corporation? Great value prop, lol

~~~
MrEldritch
Technical answer:

Mastodon isn't a startup - it's not even a company. It's a _framework_ , like
phpBB forums were (are, I guess). Basically, it's a way that _anyone_ with a
web server can set up a Twitter-clone site, but - thanks to the ActivityPub
protocol - all those twitter-clones can _talk to each other_ , making the
whole universe of Mastodon instances functionally one giant social network.

Mastodon:Twitter::IRC:Facebook Messenger

Practical answer:

Mastodon is a Twitter clone that's currently pretty nice and enjoyable by
virtue of being small. It's also decentralized, which is a cool buzzword, but
also in practice means that it's nicely broken up into a bunch of small
specialized communities in each Mastodon instance that can feel pretty cozy
and friendly, way less overwhelming than Twitter.

The _really_ unique thing about it is that it's a weirdo open-source-y
alternative social network that actually _doesn 't_ appear to be dying off
like Diaspora or Voat or Steemit or whatever did - it seems to have reached a
sort of social critical mass where people are sticking around because they
genuinely enjoy the company and interactions with other users, and is growing
at a sustainable rate.

~~~
chrisco255
Would enjoy an article that goes into more of these details. They have a
pretty good video on it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=IPSbNdBmWKE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=IPSbNdBmWKE)
[https://joinmastodon.org/](https://joinmastodon.org/)

------
axor
Will take a look, I’m in the alpha of Openbook.social ATM

