Gregory's ServerPlease remember that Mastodon doesn't have a marketing team or budget. Whatever media coverage Mastodon gets is from inbound interest from journalists. The growth of the platform has been predominantly through word of mouth. If you want the fediverse to grow, tell your friends.
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@Gargron Also helps to be welcoming and helpful to new users. Mastodon has a reputation for really rancid vibes/scolding. @ryanroberts @Gargron last time I tried mastodon about a year or so ago, established users LOVED to tell new users they were doing it wrong. Plus the feeds were full of posts giving the impression that new users were not welcome. That's cause people love to brag and show off in front of others. It's also the result of people overselling the advantages of Mastodon. As such, it's best to clarify upfront that decentralization limits the technical options any platform can develop in exchange for the empowerment of consumers and communities. In fact, it's best to focus growth outside of the US where culture doesn't care that much about privacy, oligopolies, consumer rights, hate speech, etc. @wrack @ryanroberts @Gargron I guess as a US user I should read that comment to mean I am not welcome here, ha Where did I imply that? If you're already so hostile, it may be you who's overstating Mastodon's bad reputation. The US market simply doesn't value what decentralized platforms build on as much so why not shift one's focus on other nations and languages. @wrack @Gargron @ryanroberts my observation is that Mastodon is full of people committed to Mastodon/Fediverse as a project. They tend to look down on more casual users without the kind of ideological motivation to the Fediverse project. Sure, I've seen that happen as well, but I can't quantify this to say "there's a reputation". On the other hand, I've seen a lot of casual users as well as news media treat fediverse platforms the same as for-profit social media, so they complain in a tone as if anyone owes them something. That obviously annoys established users. @Gargron @wrack @ryanroberts a user that’s been driven away or put off won’t bother explaining why to the people that drove them away…but will relay their experience to potential users. That said maybe the growth of the user base beyond the initial True Believers has made things better lately.   @Gargron I would love it to grow, and I think the Fediverse is a very important ecosystem. But to achieve that, Mastodon also needs to grow up with much better user safety tools. Especially things that some other platforms have, such as controlling who can reply or answer. I realise that's not necessarily that easy to implement, but I think that without it, a lot of people will no longer find this a safe (and fun) enough place. @ilijastuden @Gargron Your (any mine) experience isn't everyone else's. Listening how other people experience things here is mega important if you don't want to push people away.  @derickr @ilijastuden @Gargron I am curious because I’ve watched this happen a few times - the person being harassed doesn’t want to be harassed and doesn’t feel like they need to be taking actions to prevent it. For a person like this, who by design, is trying to establish a community, is it likely that they would be satisfied with a feature to restrict who can reply, or would we continue to see the same situation play out even with that feature in place?  @jerry @derickr @ilijastuden @Gargron There might be technical and user experience improvements we can implement to improve the situation, but the only way to fix this for good is to fix the culture. I have a modest following here (I had many more on Twitter), and I never see this kind of behavior directed at me. It’s unacceptable that anyone should be subjected to this, thick-skinned or not. We have to work together to make it socially unacceptable. @ramsey @jerry @ilijastuden @Gargron And provide the moderation and functionality tools to make this easier to do.  @ramsey @jerry @derickr @ilijastuden @Gargron At the moment we mostly can't even see it happening, due to the ways the current form of Mastodon is designed. It's also ridiculous to say that instead of implementing the feature(s) that have been requested *by the targets of Mastodon harassment* is not the right thing to do, but rather, we should change the soul of man. So much easier than implementing a feature or updating the protocol implementation for greater agency to good-faith users.   @Gargron That’s one side of the deal. The other is to listen to the needs of the full diversity of users. If you want us all to be your marketing team, you need to accept everyone on your product team too.
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 we try so hard. @Gargron  @Gargron  @Gargron add safety tools to address harassing posts from people who are new to the recipient @ionizedgirl Harassment is a complex multi-faceted issue that we're addressing on multiple ends, but filtering notifications from specific sources is something that's been live for a couple months on mastodon.social and in the nightlies. @Gargron it seems like harassment from accounts and servers that are previously unknown to the reciepient or the recipient's moderators is driving people away @ionizedgirl @Gargron recent changes to mastodon allows us to filter out notifications from new accounts (and by proxy, new instances). I find that it works really well. Hi again Can you please log in through a web browser and look for the setting to filter out notification from users younger than 30 days. Try it out please.  I don't have any complaints (I love it here), but I beg you to check out some recent posts by @vkc, as they highlight patterns of abuse that most people aren't aware of -- and because she has done everything reasonable and possible to block the abusers, but still gets targeted. Takes a bit of scrolling down but she clearly talks about the harassement she's getting. Utterly shameful on Mastodon's part, I had no idea harassment here could get so bad. Edit: and thank you for bringing attention to this @Synapsidont @RL_Dane @Gargron can you help me understand the “utterly shameful on mastodon’s part”? What would you like to see changed? To summarize the conversation, moderation tools / filters / and blocks are insufficient to curb targeted abuse attacks from people who constantly hop instances to target individuals. It seems there are some new features in development to optionally block new accounts that should help. @RL_Dane I think you are proposing something that is more centralized? @Synapsidont @Gargron 1/3 No, I definitely don't want that, and to be clear, these aren't my ideas or complaints, for that matter. I have have the privilege of not being targeted for harassment (and I do understand it as such). ... 2/3 ... The idea that made the most sense to me (and which I believe is already being developed) is to give each user the option to automatically ignore comments coming from new accounts (and/or instances?) to curb the tide of people instance-hopping to continue abusive behaviors once blocked. I'm not pushing for centralization or more algorithmic meddling. I treasure the #fediverse for its lack of those elements. ... 3/3 ... Except (*cough*), the 500-char limit still feels bloody silly to me. 144 chars is a creative constraint. 500 is just silly. Sorry, </soapbox> ;)  @RL_Dane I have. They believe in the 500. 😓 I love everything else about the instance, so I'm not looking very hard at moving, even though I've halfway moved to alpha.polymaths.social already (Still waiting for #GotoSocial to get edits XD ) @jerry @RL_Dane @Synapsidont @Gargron Be careful that you don't turn a discussion about what sort of rules and systems work for the greatest number of people into a witchhunt for "centralized" stuff. The fact they're "centralized" is not what makes the silos bad. It's that they are controlled by people with shareholders who have to make money, and that bad people have all the money to pay them. Anarchy will not save us. Solidarity will. The Fedi has a future - Mastodon might not. @Gargron safety is a top priority to make good on your nonprofit mission. @ionizedgirl  Tell my friends what? That I want the fediverse to grow? "I'd like the fediverse to grow" Great hook.
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@Gargron I still worry that Mastodon is effectively invisible to website owners because of `noreferrer` on outbound links. I know the community has spoken, but I'm not sure about the trade-off. https://anderegg.ca/2024/05/19/whats-up-with-mastodon-and-referer-headers     
@Gargron: and do not propose through your official app (since it is predominantly used by newcomers) to sign up on just one server. Just tell your designers to make the better UX when selecting an instance. Use less technical language – e.g. “communities” instead of “instances” and, most importantly, revert the change centralising the most of the Fediverse in just one place. Thank you.   @Gargron interesting question. Do I want fedi to grow? Will it be better if it grows? Will I like it more if it grows? I don’t sell things on here. My ideas are fringe at best. I guess it could grow and it would be fine. It’s just that in my life things that get popular tend to degrade.  @arrrg @gargron It will grow: 40 % of websites run Wordpress. They only have to install the ActivityPub plugin. Automattic is moving Tumblr to a Wordpress base. I bet it will also work with AP. Flipboard is bringing in 145 mio users. Threads in bringing in 190 mio users. Flickrs might join in. Every service with a userbase smaller than X, Insta or Facebook would benefit from coming to the social web.  @Gargron I am not sure if I want the Fediverse to grow. I never felt welcome. The cancel culture is worse than on Twitter before Elon, and the post deletion mechanisms are not compatible with a #constitutional #democracy. I wish social media not to fail, but Mastodon has a long way to go before it contributes to a solution for our current problems. @markuswerle @Gargron if it doesn’t work for you, why do you stay? @jerry @markuswerle @Gargron One of the things I'd like is a way to *dis*like a toot (a.k.a *un*favourite).  @leberschnitzel Six people harassing you for not putting a text description under every picture you post. A post deleted based on arbitrary rules that go beyond what is allowed according to the law.   @Gargron In lieu of financial support, which I'm not prepared to offer right now, I'm happy to consult a few hours on strategic communications, media training, etc.    @Gargron maybe you should consider gathering a small group of people that could help you with PR, marketing and so on. We can (and we do) talk to our friends, but with PR and mkt muscle, even small, would be better because you could reach a wider audience from different areas. Also PR people knows how to reach journalists and several events, and have the contacts to do it. Think about it, at least :) Thank you for your work  @Gargron trying this, promoting mastodon on twitter, feel free to like… https://mastodon.social/@sargontrek/113064601839426017 I no longer promote Mastodon to anyone. The harassment problem needs to be solved before I would do so, because while I am as replete with white privilege as can be, the vast majority of people I consider friends are highly marginalized in one way or another. I am here strictly because it has no monetization being attempted, but I am already scanning the horizon for what else is being developed. My guess is it will talk to Mastodon, in a limited way, if things continue as they have.
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 @Gargron and tell your politicians. If the politicians come, the journalists will follow  Chiming in here just to say Mastodon is great and thank you. It must feel oppressive. Everytime you post something, people take the opportunity to catalog their issues and complaints. In large measure it's because people love Mastodon and just want it to get even better, but it must be hard. Folks, here's a person who's devoted his young life to creating something very special, not to get rich, but to make the world better. So, thank you Eugen, and yes we'll keep spreading the word.  @Gargron I like Mastodon. It is my preferred social network. I love being able to selectively disable person-boots — a feature unique to Mastodon. I have seen what hot buttons to avoid; I can’t recall any troublesome interactions in 2y. It is also too technically complex and peculiar for a mass audience. It reminds me of 1994 Usenet. This is not a bad thing. Thank you for the work you have done to build Mastodon. It is excellent work.   I mean with all the antisemitism baked into the fediverse from it's eastern european origins, and not dealt with in any serious way on purpose, with jewish voices overwhelmed, abused, and regularly and systematically silenced in defending ourselves, I really can't suggest Mastodon or any of the other Fediverse social media to anyone. I'm glad it was available when I left Twitter, but I can't recommend it @Gargron If you want software developers work on open source software, tell your friends about them.  @Gargron I hope I will convince some new friends for the fediverse with @bjoernsta at #ScoopCamp! https://www.thenewsocial.de/das-fediverse-in-guter-gesellschaft/  |
@Gargron ,Always