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Top-level
 @dangoodin There is a lot of discussion off-Masto and -Fedi about why QTs/QPs and search work (or don't) the way they do here. But in summary: QPs *can* be used for good, but arguably are overwhelmingly used for toxic behavior—dunking, harassment, mob mentality, etc. A lot of this comes from people—especially the marginalized—who've been victims of this toxicity. Search, basically the same deal. Tags are a great way to find content you want and opt-in to promote your own. 18 comments
@dangoodin I get that these are features people are used to elsewhere. But this really just sounds like “never mind all the evidence we have that these are features largely used for abuse and hurting real human beings, we want them.” I just fall back to my original statement: I don't understand people.  @chartier @dangoodin Quote posts are on the public roadmap for Mastodon, btw: https://joinmastodon.org/roadmap Personally I think there are other far more important features that need adding first (such as restricting who can reply to posts and other safety measures). Also worth pointing out that there are alternatives to Mastodon that don't have its mindshare (or iOS apps) that already support quoting and more normal search such as Calckey/Misskey/Hometown etc. @JonnyT @dangoodin If it's built with safety in mind *first* I am cautiously optimistic, because I *do* see the upside to them. But these features historically almost never have been. And people unharmed by this stuff just keep trampling on. It's enraging. @chartier @dangoodin I'm hoping any QT/QP feature is opt-in only. Likewise, any full-text search features if ever added. (The one exception I think that should have been available from the start is the ability to do full text searches of your own posts - the absence of this is aggravating and there are no privacy concerns with it, assuming it's technically possible to isolate the index needed so that it's only available to you and you alone).  @JonnyT @chartier There are a ton of researchers and journalists who need the ability to do full searches. They will continue to stay off Mastodon as long as it doesn't exist. Sounds like several people in this discussion prefer Mastodon to stay small and allow users to post to only a small number of people they know or trust. That's perfectly understandable. But those people really shouldn't be perplexed or angry about Masodon's low user base. @dangoodin @JonnyT *need -> would like to Great, then maybe there can be infrastructure eventually to allow that, and most definitely some kind of opt-in mechanism for people who want to participate. They don't have a right to anyone's data. This is one of the fundamental values people just accepted because, hey, capitalist hellscape and nothing matters anymore. @chartier @JonnyT I have lots of criticisms of the capitalist hellscape, but I don't think you can pin people's need for full search solely on that. Some people's jobs or avocations require it. And if Mastodon won't provide it (even for legitimate reasons) they will choose to go elsewhere. Bottom line, Mastodon people have to chooses between a small neighborhood where everyone knows each other or a town square with critical mass. It will never be both. @dangoodin @chartier I'm intrigued. You don't have full text search and access to >90% of the content on Facebook yet it's far more significant and important than Twitter ever was or will be. It seems to me that you're measuring an expectation to access to content from the perspective of what happened to be available via a single social media platform - Twitter - that wasn't and isn't available elsewhere. If that's a problem here, it'll be a problem elsewhere too. @dangoodin @chartier I'm not disagreeing with you on that latter point, I fully expect Mastodon to remain a minority platform. But I'm failing to see how access to content here will be all that different on eg. Threads. It's not like Instagram have ever made it easy to get content or data out of that platform so I don't expect they'll do any different with Threads. Bluesky may make it trivial to extract but it's unclear at this point whether or not it'll go anywhere. @dangoodin @chartier I'm of the opinion that Twitter is already dead. I give it 6 months at most. Once it's gone, there isn't going to be another platform with search parity with Twitter. That era of access to almost everything on a platform will die with it. Mastodon could be that but I don't think the ethos of the place and the people building it will permit it. Calckey supersedes Mastodon in terms of search etc but I'm not sure it'll get big enough either.  @dangoodin@infosec.exchange @JonnyT@mastodon.me.uk @chartier@toot.cafe  |
Gregory's Server
@chartier Those rationales may or may not make sense, but in either case they are dealbreakers that will prevent Mastodon from ever gaining critical mass. Until those features are available, Mastodon will remain a fringe social media outlet.