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mekka okereke :verified:

The thing I love about this post and all its replies, is the stark difference in replies in answer to Brent's very reasonable question.

Some folks:
* It's the starter packs / easier onboarding!

Other folks:
[I'll let you read those replies]

mastodon.online/@BrentToderian

If you think it's the starter packs / easier onboarding, then that leads you to want easier onboarding for Mastodon👍🏿

If you think it's a character flaw or moral failing in people that choose BlueSky, that leads to doing nothing🤷🏿‍♂️

6 comments
mekka okereke :verified:

I love BlueSky, mainly because it's now our best bet at Twitter not being as influential in the US midterm elections (that are coming up sooner than we think).

I like to brag and boast when I am right about a call, so it's only fair to admit when I'm wrong: I really thought Mastodon would get it together on the onboarding and trust and safety front.

In fairness, Mastodon is getting it together... but just far too slowly to matter. A slow "yes" is often the same outcome as a "no."🤷🏿‍♂️

Emelia 👸🏻

@mekkaokereke yeah, we're constantly fighting the fact that a lot of the trust & safety aspects in both Mastodon and ActivityPub in general were left languishing for so long.

Hopefully the new ActivityPub Trust & Safety Taskforce can make some forward improvements here through reports & recommendations.

Though funding for work is definitely also a factor here, it's obviously possible to do more faster with a budget of $30+ Million vs $600k/year

Bad Gardener

@thisismissem @mekkaokereke

Although, when people start seeing budgets of $30+ million, they often get more interested in the money than the principles.

I find it astonishing, as somebody who can barely use 5% of the functions on my doohickey gadgets, how Mastodon is held together by goodwill and string. The trade off from that is that we must accept what people can afford to do for us with their time and efforts.

mekka okereke :verified:

@Badgardener @thisismissem

Nope.

I refuse to accept that.

We will find a way to pay for Mastodon development. We should also be able to prioritize safety and user experience features.

An open source app I highlight is Inkscape. Yes, it's an open source app. But they *obsess* about user experience. Read the release notes for Inkscape 1.3. seriously. Read it.

wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Release

Fight giants. Even BlueSky is punching up at Twitter. $30MM vs $50B+. More than 2 orders of magnitude.

@Badgardener @thisismissem

Nope.

I refuse to accept that.

We will find a way to pay for Mastodon development. We should also be able to prioritize safety and user experience features.

An open source app I highlight is Inkscape. Yes, it's an open source app. But they *obsess* about user experience. Read the release notes for Inkscape 1.3. seriously. Read it.

Bad Gardener

@mekkaokereke @thisismissem

Refuse to accept what? That we should be grateful to those currently keeping Mastodon afloat?

If you have a way to prioritise and shortcut improvements to safety and onboarding, that's wonderful. Truly. Get going, and I'm in awe of your talents.

But for the vast majority of users, there are two gripes - what Mastodon *isn't* providing, and the ridiculous amount of gatekeeping within the system. Both are off-putting. For the former, most of us can't fix that.

mekka okereke :verified:

@Badgardener @thisismissem

Fair question!

So I'll answer it. I refuse to accept that people who work on Fediverse trust & safety full time should have to be inches from financial disaster all the time. As an industry we have to find other ways to pay for stuff. Some Fedi people are so anti-VC and anti-capitalist, that they become anti-commerce, and anti-paying people for their labor.

Paying people for their labor is not bad. It's good actually.

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