Tag: Mastodon

Speaking of third party Mastodon clients…

Checking out phanpy.social, it looks amazing. So clean, very app like, adjustable text size and interface via browser control. It’s still in development but it looks like it’s ready for regular use if you’re looking for a visually pleasing and functional web app for Mastodon. Best used on mobile or tablet, IMO.

All the boosted posts are grouped together in a carousel, threads get highlighted with an automated count, replies have a different shade, content warning, post visibility, text description, language options, attachments, and polls are available.

Posts are shown either as the normal stack of text blocks or separated as cards depending on your browser’s zoom level, and you can launch the post composition field into a different browser window for much larger and clearer view.

It has dark mode and post detail opens up in a new sheet over the timeline in the same window. Love it!

PS: Here’s an actively updated list of clients and resources for Mastodon

A Twitterrific for Mastodon?

I’m heartbroken that Twitterrific had to die and I don’t suppose Iconfactory plans to build a Mastodon app. Twitterrific developer Craig Hockenberry mentioned in his blog post that the new Mastodon apps are excellent to help with the transition but they ignore the scale and possibilities of ActivityPub. 

I can understand that. I mean, Mastodon is clearly the flagship ActivityPub client right now but its nature means you can see status updates or posts from people posting using other environments such as Pleroma, Misskey, CalcKey, Friendica, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Takahe, micro.blog, etc which are not Mastodon and not fully compatible with the Mastodon API, but they kind of work similarly in some ways yet at the same time quite differently as well.

Should one build an all encompassing Activity Pub app? I don’t think so because it would end up as a big confusing hot mess. Apps optimized for individual services are still the way to go  in my opinion. I’m still hopeful that there’s an Iconfactory take that can accommodate the Fediverse because the team has always managed to come up with innovative designs and user experience. They’ve never been afraid of experimenting with different approaches to the same problem.

Maybe they have something in mind already or secretly have been building something, maybe they haven’t. Given the response they gave to being abruptly shut out of Twitter, maybe they’re going to take some time before deciding on their next step.

Right now there’s already plenty of upcoming third party Mastodon apps to choose from for iOS even if they’re still in TestFlight, not to mention existing ones as well as web apps that can work across platforms, but a buffet of choices never stopped new ones from appearing.

Calls for the return of personal blogs are getting louder

I restarted blogging a month and a half ago here on this channel having taken time out away from Twitter and since then I’ve seen more and more people either returning to blogging or calling for the return of personal blogging.

A few days ago I saw this site by Ash Huang and Ryan Putnam, Bring Back Blog, looking for people to join their movement. Their reasons are the same as why I started blogging again, the Internet community was much better when people posted longer, more complete thoughts for the public to read instead of easy to twist bits and pieces, and the responses being equally thoughtful and on their own spaces as well.

Launching your newsreader in the morning and going through the feeds was a shared experience among internet users way back when but the web culture seems to have kind of moved on from there. We’re supposed to reduce the layers between publishing and public conversation and it seems the incorporation of the social web would be a fundamental part of it.

Twitter was ideal for information exchange, entertainment, and quick conversations but turns out it’s terrible for legitimate exchange of thoughts and ideas even if it’s taken 16 years for many people, myself included, to finally shake it off. 

The rise of Mastodon shines the spotlight on ActivityPub and other social protocols like it which means we could be on the verge of a new internet era especially as Automattic and Flickr are considering its integration to their products.

A second piece I saw was this post from The Verge, asking for the same thing with the same reasons with the added point of being able to control your own content and presence. I’ll just repost her argument that drives home the point of personal blogging.

Buy that domain name. Carve your space out on the web. Tell your stories, build your community, and talk to your people. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t need to duplicate any space that already exists on the web — in fact, it shouldn’t. This is your creation. It’s your expression. It should reflect you. 

*[update] I’d be remiss to not mention this post by Ernie Smith, formerly of shortformblog, from 2019, about reviving blogs. Have a read through it.

Mastodon’s Moment of Truth

Despite the apparent mass migration of Twitter users to Mastodon in the past several weeks, I don’t feel that this network has experienced anything like the 2009 Hudson River moment when a plane landed in the water and its pilot, Captain Sully, became sort of a household name after Twitter users began sharing photos of the plane and the rescue/evacuation attempt that followed.

In Indonesia that moment was the 2009 twin bombing in Kuningan, Jakarta. It thrusted Twitter to national prominence when terrorists bombed the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels and a survivor live tweeted the entire moment starting from the explosions near the coffee shops of both hotels.

I’ve read people describe the vibe of Mastodon being like Twitter circa 2010 but to me it still feels a little earlier than that. On the other hand maybe it doesn’t need a moment like that because people already understood how it works in general. 

Mastodon is a network that, while technically different to Twitter, serves similar functions, which means unless there are more migration level events or perceived existential threats to Twitter, the general public won’t fly the coop.

The appeal of the elephant site right now is the ability to fully isolate undesirables and to be where people like Elon Musk have no control but if you and your community aren’t affected by their shenanigans (not necessarily due to political leanings or social views but because for you it’s like looking at foreign news on TV), there’s no reason to move because everything still works just fine. Moving there means doing the same thing at a different place which has slightly different features but with more technical barriers.

Yes, the technical barriers exist and not just from the need to choose servers but things like finding out who to follow (because people’s followings are limited), posts not being carried over when moving servers, inconsistent display of metrics, having to follow accounts before you can add them to lists, etc. 

It certainly doesn’t work as a 1:1 replacement and people looking for that won’t see the appeal. Mastodon’s pull factor has to be something else and the reasons will be different from one person or community to the next. 

One thing’s for sure, both sites are about the communities, without which, they won’t survive, let alone thrive. A social network is its people, not the features or the platform. 

Mastodon’s features and platform may help support a healthier community but as long as the community leads, public figures, or thought leaders haven’t moved over, the majority of the population won’t either.

What if we reintroduce the old social network model?

Twitter isn’t worse today just because its owner is an attention seeking manbaby with no self control or maturity of mind when he tweets, Twitter is worse because its owner allows, enables, empowers, and creates targets for malicious individuals to attack and harass, based on misconceptions, misperceptions, and misunderstanding of what matters. 

On top of that, he is part of the malicious individuals himself. People often talk about those who want to watch the world burn, this guy is the mascot and leader of that group.

People used to have to post their content on their own websites or blogs and often they include a blog roll or links to other blogs or sites they like to help with discovery. 

Social media made all that so much easier but it also enables malicious individuals and content to roam much more freely. Reintroducing that control over what people are willing to see and deal with in a much more deliberate and comprehensive way may be the necessary element to reduce the amount of toxicity that’s being spread around.

Mastodon’s federated nature gives people that level of control. If you’re savvy enough you can host and manage your own server/instance/domain, but if you’re not, there are thousands of servers managed by various kinds of people, many of whom may share the same views and interests with you. You can choose to be an island or be in a city or town or your choosing. Your level of interaction is up to you.

Or you can return to old school blogging.

Dealing with Growth on Mastodon

Leaving this thread here for future reference on Mastodon’s growth and how to deal with it. People are advised to join or move to smaller servers to help manage the load and donate to their admins.

From the second post in the thread:

Start your own instance. We have 8,000 servers hosting over 7 million users on the #Fediverse. Growing by half a million a week NOW, with just today’s level of crazy.

Assume this will 4X or more after sh*t really starts going downhill at Twitter.

Got a spare computer, or a @Raspberry_Pi maybe? Want to use a good managed host to set one up? Put it to use.

Tim Chambers (@tchambers@indieweb.social)

The rejection of breaking news and other journalistic content on Mastodon

Twitter had been the place to go for breaking news and live reports and reactions of events, incidents, accidents, and pretty much anything else of interest. It’s heaven for news junkies, reporters, and anyone interested with finding out what’s happening. Mastodon hasn’t been it, isn’t it, and most people who have been here for a while don’t want it to be it.

On the other hand, it’s a federated network in which anything and everything can be accommodated. Some server admins and members will block other servers that hosts content they find objectionable simply out of preference, others would love to have such content hosted or shared to theirs.

Mastodon may have been around for six years but it hasn’t gone anywhere near the maturity phase involving massive influx of people with varying expectations like what’s happening now, so a lot of the existing members are trying to protect and defend the Mastodon they know.

Twitter’s own transformation may or may not end up depriving the public of that real time news update so it’s only natural it’s what people are looking for when they seek a replacement. The federated nature of Mastodon shouldn’t be a hindrance to that. 

Server admins who share the same views could even advertise that as their primary selling point. Right now it’s already happening with journa.host and newsie.social but some server admins are blocking journa.host for insisting on taking the standard approach they’re used to on Twitter. So anyone who want to connect to anyone on that server must make sure they’re not on a server that blocks it.

This can make things seem more complicated than they ought to be, but also means it can still work for those who want it and not for those who don’t, at the same time.

Blocking Spree

My ‘Don server admin has been on a blocking spree and a number of friends and people I follow got caught up. Like a full block, not just limited. This means zero interactions between the servers even if the accounts already follow each other.

Unfortunately this was inevitable with Mastodon growing so rapidly and with so many factors in play. Content moderation is a major thing on the Don and many of the long time admins can be quite strict on it, not to mention personal preferences on certain matters being a factor in deciding reasons for blocking ga limiting access. Unlike blocking, limiting means visibility if the accounts are connected.

I mean, their servers, their rules, no debating that and if it becomes untenable, you have an option to move or start your own.

Having said that, I’m considering running my own server eventually. Haven’t decided if it’s going to be just a personal one or open to registration among friends. Certainly not going to entertain any random person.

Verifying Identity on Mastodon

Here’s a thread on Mastodon about the debate over the use of third party verification services.

The fediverse is what they call the federated universe, the part of the Internet that’s run by multiple individuals across multiple independent servers but interconnected as a larger network. A network whose existence is not dependent on a single corporation.

Anyway, here it is. Tap on “show more” to read the posts.

Aulia Masna :verified: (@aulia@octodon.social)

Aulia Masna :verified: (@aulia@octodon.social)