Huh. Just chatted in person with someone who's been on #mastodon for a while, now, who honestly thought that all the Mastodon domains were run by Mastodon.
-
@fastfinge That's crazy to me. Though maybe it was because my instance has signs ups that must be manually approved, so right away you know you're talking to an actual person.
@silver_huskey I think even that's going to become less clear as more and more big corporate websites start requiring age verification. Just because your account needs some sort of manual approval is already not really triggering people to think "There's a human in charge somewhere". They're just thinking "Probably some exploited and underpaid contractor in another country has to verify my identity somehow." -
@silver_huskey I think even that's going to become less clear as more and more big corporate websites start requiring age verification. Just because your account needs some sort of manual approval is already not really triggering people to think "There's a human in charge somewhere". They're just thinking "Probably some exploited and underpaid contractor in another country has to verify my identity somehow."
@fastfinge This is true! I guess even the "tell us why you want an account" section wouldn't be enough. Though most services never really ask why.
-
@Tooden This has been my frustration with fedi for a while. The majority of us, and I include myself in this, are tech nerds. And tech nerds are historically not good at communicating with non-tech-nerds. But social media is all about communicating! I think this is the primary reason fedi struggles to grow. We make it seem harder than it is, and we kind of blow off people who want to have conversations about things not related to our specific interests. See the way folks interested in sports get treated around here: mostly, they get yelled at and told they shouldn't like sports at all because it's corporate or bad for the environment or politically distasteful. Anyway, let's talk some more about the 47 hard drives I just purchased for my 12th server.
-
Huh. Just chatted in person with someone who's been on #mastodon for a while, now, who honestly thought that all the Mastodon domains were run by Mastodon. And having a different domain was, like, just a vanity thing to look cool. It only came up because they were complaining about an issue they were having, and they were on a smaller server (not naming it for anonymity), so I suggested contacting their server admin about the problem. I was surprised when they answered "Dude nobody at big companies reads those reports. It just all goes to AI or whatever." It took some actual convincing to get them to believe that the server they're on does, in fact, have a living breathing human admin who can be talked to.
Anyway, folks, support your #fediverse server admins and moderators. With money, where you can. They're almost certainly getting messages from users who think that reporting things to an admin here is exactly like reporting stuff to Facebook or Google. IE: screaming at a giant faceless entity who's never going to care or do anything about whatever your problem is.@fastfinge A story is told that a man gets harassed on Mastodon social media and complains to friend. “I can’t eat, I can’t sleep,” says the man. “I feel constantly miserable.”
“Report post to Admin is best medicine, my friend,” says the friend.
The man looks at the friend for a moment. “Ah,” he says. “That won’t help.”
“Why not, sir?”
The man shrugs. “I am Admin.”
-
@Tooden This has been my frustration with fedi for a while. The majority of us, and I include myself in this, are tech nerds. And tech nerds are historically not good at communicating with non-tech-nerds. But social media is all about communicating! I think this is the primary reason fedi struggles to grow. We make it seem harder than it is, and we kind of blow off people who want to have conversations about things not related to our specific interests. See the way folks interested in sports get treated around here: mostly, they get yelled at and told they shouldn't like sports at all because it's corporate or bad for the environment or politically distasteful. Anyway, let's talk some more about the 47 hard drives I just purchased for my 12th server.
@fastfinge @Tooden The biggest deal, from my vantage point is that tech nerds (often, not always) dislike algo-fed timelines whereas the research indicates that really most (90%) people like that. I think people come to fedi and it feels like a lot of work right up front (CHOOSE an instance, PICK people to follow) and there's no short way in. I spend a lot of time making tech topics clear to tech novices and almost no one I talk to in my rural location has ever even heard of Mastodon.
-
@fastfinge to be fair, I am only on beige.party to be cool.
@fastfinge @Tattooed_Mummy i think you mean that beige party is made even cooler by your presence
-
@fastfinge @Tooden The biggest deal, from my vantage point is that tech nerds (often, not always) dislike algo-fed timelines whereas the research indicates that really most (90%) people like that. I think people come to fedi and it feels like a lot of work right up front (CHOOSE an instance, PICK people to follow) and there's no short way in. I spend a lot of time making tech topics clear to tech novices and almost no one I talk to in my rural location has ever even heard of Mastodon.
@fastfinge @Tooden That said, I definitely love it here, am on a small instance and always get a reply back from my instance moderators if I report a spammer or something similar. This is what I wanted and I'm delighted to have it, but I can see how it's not for everyone which is maybe fine?
-
@fastfinge @Tooden That said, I definitely love it here, am on a small instance and always get a reply back from my instance moderators if I report a spammer or something similar. This is what I wanted and I'm delighted to have it, but I can see how it's not for everyone which is maybe fine?
-
@fastfinge @Tooden The biggest deal, from my vantage point is that tech nerds (often, not always) dislike algo-fed timelines whereas the research indicates that really most (90%) people like that. I think people come to fedi and it feels like a lot of work right up front (CHOOSE an instance, PICK people to follow) and there's no short way in. I spend a lot of time making tech topics clear to tech novices and almost no one I talk to in my rural location has ever even heard of Mastodon.
It’s also a learning curve for someone without connections to the site. If no one knows you, and you don’t post often, people think you’re a bot or a scammer, and can be reluctant to follow or reply.
-
@fastfinge @Tooden The biggest deal, from my vantage point is that tech nerds (often, not always) dislike algo-fed timelines whereas the research indicates that really most (90%) people like that. I think people come to fedi and it feels like a lot of work right up front (CHOOSE an instance, PICK people to follow) and there's no short way in. I spend a lot of time making tech topics clear to tech novices and almost no one I talk to in my rural location has ever even heard of Mastodon.
@jessamyn I have a helluva lot of tech nerds and gamers in my follows, and vice versa. Because we are autistic, or adhd or au-adhd, we click on other levels. I found peace here. @fastfinge
-
A Angela shared this topic
