Gregory's ServerYou asked for it, and itโs coming. Quote posts, search, and groups are on their way. In the meantime, check out the new onboarding experience launching today. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/
  @Mastodon Can't wait to see the new features! The Fediverse keeps getting better and better - I can't wait for it to be in a state I can recommend to friends and family. ^^  @Mastodon yay quote toots and search!! Glad to hear quote posts are coming. Not because I wanted them, but because I am tired of reading the debate.
@Mastodon please no quote posts. One of mastodons greats strengths is that it encourages interaction over attention seeking. @solarbear Quoting is an _integral_ aspect of how some communities interact, and is something I've seriously missed since coming to this platform. @ben_zen @solarbear quoting posts with an easily accessible hyperlink back to OP is also an integral aspect of social media dogpiles. @mdstevens0612 respectfully, that already exists today, in way that does not provide for traceability. I can link to any post in another one, but there is no trace of the connection between the two the way a quote-post has. So, to follow this to its most absurd conclusion, should posting hyperlinks be blocked? @solarbear @Mastodon i think it's too late. Hopefully a way to mute them, and opt out. I fled Twitter for the last time in 2016 after qt/dogpile accounts made it too damaging to my mental health. Fingers crossed, but worst case i find a server that prohibits them and blocks instances that allow them and we get right back to communicating.  @whatzaname @solarbear @Mastodon Perhaps that is tge future. Separation into two sub-networks: a viral Mastodon copying twitter features, and a proper Mastodon maintaining all those elements that support considered dialogue rather than broadcasting. Agree. A sad day. Those who aggressively demanded features supporting attention-grabbing broadcasting seem to have got what they wanted. We have to await implementation details, but my flags are on half-mask today.  @solarbear @Mastodon @Mastodon that new first screen on the official app is horrible tho. You should not prioritize a server over others, this just makes it more centralized. @luana @mrhamel @Mastodon As each instance is a separate service provider with different policies and regulations (depending on hosting location and nationality of the owner), I can imagine Mastodon gGmbH doesnโt want the legal trouble of automatically directing people to instances outside of their control. The curated server list and account migration is still available, but then the responsibility lies with the user.  @luana @Mastodon There must be a way to create an easy centralized sign-up method that assigns people to instances randomly (spread the love). Maybe include a short questionnaire to increase the odds they can be assigned to an instance they can relate to (say check off words on a list with key words expressing interests).
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 @Mastodon when the new expewrience is live, what server are people going to be assigned to?  @jcrabapple @rjcc @Mastodon I'm wondering if a sign-up could include a way to randomly assign people to instances. Use a short questionnaire with key words to help identify interests. Then using that info, randomly assign people to instances that use those key words. @jcrabapple @rjcc @Mastodon Who exactly comes up with this list? A centralized group of people... @rjcc @Mastodon looks like mastodon dot social is the default, per the app. Seeing some suggest the app should display several popular servers at random (per concerns about staying decentralized). Though mastodon dot social is the top search result in Google when searching "Mastodon" (well, after the rock group that had the name "Mastodon" first...).   @chpietsch @Mastodon I hear you. But they basically already exist because you can always link to another post. We may as well have some proper UI around them and get notified when they happen.  @chpietsch @chpietsch @steve @Mastodon @Gargron Agree on both items, QP and centralisation, it looks like a climbdown on both. Sad, sad day. And the vulgar "you asked for it..." language makes it worse. @Mastodon I would love to have the ability to have an account in a list without having them in my home timeline. I tried muting, but that also mutes them in the list.  @steve The ability to have an account in a list without having them in your home timeline is in progress ๐  The "official" @Mastodon app now sends new users to overloaded megaservers by default. Don't use the official app, and don't recommend it to new users. It's turning into a dedicated mastodon.social app, and isn't good general Mastodon experience, by design. @tek onboarding is perhaps the most important part of a good social network. It can make or break a potential user. I donโt think Mastodon app providing an easy way to onboard people is a bad thing. You shouldnโt have to be too technical or savvy to enjoy a new potential social network. I get the idea of many servers but I would be lying if it didnโt make this experience a bit sour. User friendliness will always win. Imagine that Google made an email app called "Email" that hid other email servers than their own unless you went looking for them. That's how I feel about a mastodon.social client being called "Mastodon".  @Mastodon Great new features, thanks. What do you mean by groups? Something like discussion groups or communities?
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 i read the piece about the new onboarding experience, maybe i missed it but it doesn't seem to say what the actual onboarding experience is. @scottjenson @davew Thereโs a few GitHub posts complaining about it. See: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/issues/1023#issue-1677449280  @stemy@mstdn.social @Mastodon@mastodon.social Quoting has been a feature in ALL other fediverse software for years... if you're being harassed, notify your admin. As for the flagship instance... I don't know what you mean by this? does the new login page promote mastodon.social? I'm lost here... Agreed in both points. Somebody suggested that this is a parody account. The strange commercialist style ("you asked for it ...") suggests it might be? @the_roamer @Mastodon Unfortunately, the account is validated by the official site, so it's indeed the official.  @Mastodon Oh no. That means Mastodon being unusable for the next days because timelines being overcrowded with either: - fedipolice explaining why onboarding on 1 server as default is evil vs. the I-want-it-to-be-like-twitter crowd explaining that it must be so - fedipolice explaining why quoted tweets are bad vs. โbut-bluesky-has-itโ folk explaining why regular people need it. Both claim its because of marginalised people as well. @FlyingTrilobite I never actually boost posts much because sometimes I would only show it with a content warning, so if I can put cws on quote posts that would be great.  @simon_brooke Feel free to add your voice to this discussion: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/issues/1023#issue-1677449280 @Mastodon As someone who was very much frustrated these "Quality of Life"-type features might never arrive, this is so great. @Mastodon@mastodon.social what's changing with search? one of the things I miss from when I used mastodon was that the search made it really easy to search for specific posts that I saw before @Mastodon Not excited for quoteposts and searches to come around. Was enjoying the serenity of no dogpiles and living without trolls keyword searching for people to harass. Hopefully the masto community is above this, but I suspect history will repeat. @Mastodon funny cause i didn't ask  @Mastodon I'm not sure a default signup to their server is optimum, but they do need a simpler onboarding process, so maybe this is better than the apparent confusion that so many people apparently have. I would prefer a "round-robin" type of sign-up where servers which meet a certain criteria so far as terms of service, age, and maybe even size, are rotated through a default, with the person having the option of selecting a different default at sign-up. @CarlG314 Feel free to add your feedback to this ongoing discussion (if you havenโt already) https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/issues/1023#issue-1677449280 @Mastodon wow thank you go fuck yourself. thanks for turning this place into another twatter  We just surpassed a๐ billion ๐ posts per month which validates the very real and engaged conversations happening across Mastodon and the wider Fediverse. Whoo Hooo!! @Mastodon hmm not sure 'becoming twitter' is really what most people here were asking for but go off i guess lol @Mastodon for those who are replying โplease no quotesโ, itโs already implemented in several apps and even natively in iOSโฆ  @fenarinarsa It's been implemented for years in almost all Fediverse softwares except Mastodon - as well as groups and chats etc. @Mastodon
@Mastodon Very happy about quote posts and search! For those concerned about these features, I think opt-in controls should provide protection - but there are many legitimate uses and these are important features for some of us. Thank you for adding. @Mastodon Caved to the twitter crowd then...๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ #QuotePosts, text-based #search --- ouch. It will be important to see how these are implemented, but it feels like a climbdown. A move toward attention-grabbing broadcasting, away from attention-giving dialogue. Whatever happened to the slow, considered, anti-viral ethos of classical #MastodonCulture? Awaiting implementation details, but I am sceptical. And an #onboarding process that sends everyone to one mega instance seems to be the opposite of #federation building. @Mastodon Didn't ask for it. Especially the default server. Prioritizing growth over the ideology of that made mastodon what it is, will just turn it into a shitty Twitter clone. Since it's not possible to migrate post content from instance to instance, switching instance will be very painful. Also will be interesting how you are going to scale to a mega-instance, without forking out or making the main software more complicated to operate for small instances. @Mastodon Contrary to what some other folks are saying, I think having a default server for new sign-ups is a decent solution, since that seems to be a big stumbling block for a lot of folks.  @Mastodon
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 @Mastodon it remains a philosophical question as to whether quote boosts are a good idea. BUT...it's what people want. Will I use it? Yes of course. Time will tell if it was a good thing or not. @Mastodon not convinced by the "using mastodon.social by default is good for decentralization" argument. There are ways to suggest different servers in nice ways (but it's more difficult, sure).  @Mastodon So the solution to easier onboarding everybody should create accounts on mastodon.social. See, this is why people are flocking to Bluesky.
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@Mastodon This is great, and comes on the heels of some research that shows that Quote posts are not a uniquely toxic feature! https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/01/12/quote-tweeting-over-30-studies-dispel-some-myths/ @Mastodon to bad that mastodon.education still cant be found from join.  @Mastodon federation *is* your product. Do better with the onboarding experience, you canโt just recommend your own massive central server.  โ ๏ธ [BUG] App onboarding is directing new users to join mastodon.social by default
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  @Mastodon Thanks, I really want more #HinduExtremists and indian #fascists to be able to sign up through .social without proper moderation philosophy and exercise, and be able to poison the #fediverse. /s @Mastodon i'm cool with quote posts, i just hope there's an option so folks can disallow it on their own posts as desired. maybe per-post, but definitely per-account.  @Mastodon all of this news delights me, sounds great and looking forward to it. Thanks! โ๏ธ  @Mastodon Quote-posting was always going to be a sensitive one. Hopefully, it'll be implemented with enough thought to protect those that could be most vulnerable to abuse. I'm def looking forward to be able to search my own posts. Have lost count of how much I relied on doing that on hellsite to find refs to past work I did, etc.  As others already mentioned, not sure, if this goes into the right direction... ... regarding groups, technical details of implementation would be nice.
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@Mastodon not sure how I feel about quote toots... Default server is great though. Can't get a single real life friend on Mastodon right now cause the server selection option is confusing/overwhelming to non-tech folks. This will certainly help with that. Hopefully server migrations can get a bit easier so decentralization can still work fluidly.  @Mastodon@mastodon.social finally catching up to what the better alternatives had for ages! โ:amazed:โ  @Mastodon The people who think this is the wrong move are wrong btw. Thank you and good job.   @Mastodon You should've put out polls to see what the popularity would be for any of these "features". :blobcatgrimacing: @Mastodon Ok, quote toots are cool, but having mastodon.social as the default instance is a terrible idea! Mastodon is going to become another Twitter if we keep going in that direction, and nobody wants that.  @Mastodon Very much not a fan of this new 'onboarding' process. I'm trying to drive traffic to my instance so I can find people to help me pay for these servers and contribute to the open-source. I don't need mastodon.social taking potential users away from my instance. That's bad form guys. Not cool. You are making it harder for public instance owners. :shit_brain: @Mastodon Iโm curious what the rollout is going to look like given the federated architecture and loose coupling. If you happen to write about it Iโll make time to read. |
@Mastodon Great news!