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AJ Sadauskas

The thing about Twitter is that it really lacks a lot of the features you'd expect from a true Mastodon replacement.

For example, there's no way to edit your toots (which they, confusingly call "tweets"—let's face it, it's a bit of a silly name that's difficult to take seriously).

"Tweets" can't be covered by a content warning. There's no way to let the poster know you like their tweet without also sharing it, and no bookmark feature.

There's no way to set up your own instance, and you're basically stuck on a single instance of Twitter. That means there's no community moderators you can reach out to to quickly resolve issues. Also, you can't de-federate instances with a lot of problematic content.

It also doesn't Integrate with other fediverse platforms, and I couldn't find the option to turn the ads off.

Really, Twitter has made a good start, but it will need to add a lot of additional features before it gets to the point where it becomes a true Mastodon replacement for most users.

#twitter #mastodon #twittermigration

190 comments
Inge

@ajsadauskas I love this! I wasn't an active user of my account over there so I have no experience to unlearn, and I love the way you've flipped this. Seen a lot of people moaning about Mastodon because it isn't like Twitter - exactly! It's lovely!!

Mysturji

@ajsadauskas
You CAN bookmark tweets.
You can also put a content warning on your own account, which will CW everything you tweet, but it’s all or nothing. (I’ve never used that myself, but I’ve seen the option.)
Apart from that, 👍

Barry Hope #FBPE

@ajsadauskas This wins the fediverse today!
👏 👏 👏👏👏👏

TimSimmons

@ajsadauskas Bravo, about time, I for one don't think I'll go there. #twittermigration

James @ Temples of Syrinx 💠

@ajsadauskas lol 😆 but twitter does have a bookmark option, otherwise spot on

Tattooed_Mummy

@ajsadauskas I think this is my favourite toot this week

Karen E. Lund 💙💛

@ajsadauskas This is brilliant! It reminds me of a similar piece years ago about how & why to "upgrade" Windows Vista to Windows XP.

As others have pointed out, there is a Bookmark feature on Twitter, but it requires more than one click; most Mastodon instances put it right there among the icons at the bottom of a toot. There is also a CW of sorts, but it's all or nothing that marks ALL media posted on your account as "sensitive," which is ridiculous.

#TwitterMigration

Nour Agha :popos:

@ajsadauskas This gloriously sums up a lot of the corporate hit pieces and corpo journo shit takes recently. Really shows that it's not an issue of design and merely one of perspective. And just because the majority of people have grown in and had only one perspective, it does not mean it's the right one.

Corporations dumbed things down and siloed things off to exert control and push a 'product' and many hopped on board so fast that the original open internet now seems like an alien concept.

richmanab

@ajsadauskas totally agree. I went over there and tried to follow it but it's way too hard to figure out what's what. Not sure the model is to talk TO each other. Guess you are supposed to boost-and-toot in one to your following rather than respond directly. Seems like they have invented the PAWA - a passive-aggressive web app :)

Not sure how far you went down the rabbit hole but digging in, it looks like they have these boosts that come from a "Promoted" alias that appear to be ads. I don't know what else they could be. Really creepy and I swear, they look like they are trying to be confused for normal boosts.

@ajsadauskas totally agree. I went over there and tried to follow it but it's way too hard to figure out what's what. Not sure the model is to talk TO each other. Guess you are supposed to boost-and-toot in one to your following rather than respond directly. Seems like they have invented the PAWA - a passive-aggressive web app :)

GATEKEEPER

@ajsadauskas
I've been locked out again on Twitville for a week.

Steven Mazie

@ajsadauskas yes and just try to compose a four paragraph “tweet“! I think over there people are limited to 280 characters if you can believe that.

Daniel Ghinn

@ajsadauskas love the irony. And you sparked a good discussion. Quite a few questions about editing toots, which of course is not currently in the Mastodon app, though it's included in some apps.

Kristoffer Lawson

@ajsadauskas while I smile at the sentiment, Twitter does have a Like feature, and a bookmark feature :)

Pol Roca

@ajsadauskas

Twitter has no bookmarking feature? Really? I have been bookmarking tweets for ages.

I guess you should make a good use of Mastodon'ts feature allowing to edit toots and fix that part... 😉

doragasu

@ajsadauskas Mostly agree, just one exception: Twitter has bookmarks. Other than that, hell yeah!

Shani N95 Komulainen

@ajsadauskas Few things... I can bookmark on the Bird Site & I don't know (yet) how to do that on Tusk. Is there a list of our starred Toots?

Jeff Ivany

@ShaniKom @ajsadauskas you have two options. Favourite which is visible on the toot and Bookmark which is only visible to you. Both you should be able to find via your profile (some apps make it easier than others to find)

Shani N95 Komulainen

@ivany @ajsadauskas Ah! Thanks. The Mastodon app doesn't seem to have a bookmark button. I see it it the browser version.

Jeff Ivany

@ajsadauskas @ShaniKom yeah the apps all seem to have some limitation unfortunately. Try them all to find the one the works best for your use case. I’m using Metatext which is great for me but doesn’t support toot editing. I flip to browser when I need to fix a typo. 🙂

Shani N95 Komulainen

@ivany @ajsadauskas Mastatoot app has bookmarks & favourites lists, which is useful to me. I'll switch to that app.

Skeleton

@ajsadauskas It is all about perspective. I like this perspective.

OddOpinions5

@ajsadauskas
on the other hand, there is quote r/t and threading
also, twitter has at least some rules whereas on mastodon you are at the mercy of your admin
and, afaik, could be wrong, search sucks
YMMV

Mackaj

@ajsadauskas

That *really* made me laugh. Brilliant 😹

Babu Menos 💬

@ajsadauskas

I read this smilingly and can all but agree; yet, to be fair: older Masto instances don’t have the edit feature, either (only from 4.0 onwards, mine is running 3.5.3), and on Twitter, there is in fact a bookmark feature. Also, but that’s anecdotical, @TwitterSupport was very helpful and responded quickly.

OddOpinions5

@ajsadauskas
I don't think what you say about content warnings is correct; twitter often puts its own warning on at least for sex stuff and you can add a hashtag like nsfw or something

OddOpinions5

@ajsadauskas
it is true that mastodons blocking function is waaay better
and the follower/local/federated is sort of fun

OddOpinions5

@ajsadauskas
quote
There's no way to set up your own instance, and you're basically stuck on a single instance of Twitter.
unquote
this reminds me of circa 2005 and Linux/FOSS: choice is good, let 100 versions of linux flourish

Peter Beens

@ajsadauskas Twitter actually does have a bookmarking feature, but other than that, your assessment of Twitter is bang-on! It will never survive with such limitations! 😁

tux0r :openbsd:

@ajsadauskas You CAN edit ("re-draft") your tweets in most Twitter clients, INCLUDING Twitter's very own TweetDeck. Please don't spread fake news.

jfml - Jonas Laugs

@ajsadauskas @fediverse The problem with Twitter only having one instance also is: Imagine if some douchebag bought it and tried running it into the ground by inviting all the fashs back in, replacing replacing the Twitter logo with cryptocurrency memes and other weird bs. You couldn't even switch to another instance if a random weirdo like that took over …

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