Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@nikclayton

nikclayton/frustration-mastodon.md

Created February 22, 2024 13:01
Show Gist options
  • Save nikclayton/89bf882afeb0df8d61315037ddd18985 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save nikclayton/89bf882afeb0df8d61315037ddd18985 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
Raw
frustration-mastodon.md

On frustrations with the Mastodon experience

This is a reply to https://social.polotek.net/@polotek/111973724539175076 which rapidly became too long for a single Mastodon post.

I'm a client developer. I'm largely1 building a client that meets my needs, and hopefully it meets others needs as well.

When I see someone having a bad experience (your problem statement was "I can't seem to find many interesting conversations"2) I'm interested in understanding the problem because maybe the client can be changed to improve that. I'll benefit, and so will everyone else that uses the client.

For example, would your experience be better if it was easier to browse or follow the local timelines of servers that are for specific communities? This might show you more people that you would be interested in following because they share your interests.

But it's also possible that the user is trying to use the wrong tool for the job (my "YouTube sucks for photo hosting" analogy). In which case your expressed needs might be better met using a different Fediverse platform.

I'd like you to have a good experience. In the short term that might come about because (non-exclusive list):

  • You get a better understanding of the different Chesterton's Fences that are in Mastodon and accept them
  • You find a client that has feature set that makes your experience better
  • You decide your needs are better met by joining a larger Mastodon server, and that is more important then the tradeoffs you mentioned3
  • You decide that alternative Mastodon-compatible software is a better fit for your needs (Iceshrimp, Pleroma, etc)
  • You decide that these limitations are inherent in the Mastodon-like part of the Fediverse, and determine that Lemmy or similar would give you a better experience
  • You decide that non-Fediverse platforms are a better match for your needs, and go elsewhere

Any of those are fine outcomes.

You could also decide to engage constructively with the developer community. This does not mean writing code. It could include:

  • Lobbying for better default settings for small / single-user instances
  • Writing guides for admins of those instances, based on your experiences
  • Reading disparate feedback from users and synthesising it in to something coherent so developers can act on it
  • Describing the pain points you have on a single-user instance, and what would be helpful features in clients

That all takes time, and you may decide that you do not have the time to devote to that. So there's also:

  • Pay someone to work on the things you care about

For example, if your concern was about trust and safety issues then I'd recommend @thisismissem@hachyderm.io / https://support.thisismissem.social/.

[ To be explicit -- I am not soliciting payment for any work I do on client development ]

Or you can use the platform to vent about the things you don't like. It's cathartic, but it's not an effective way to bring about change.

Footnotes

  1. Not exclusively. E.g., I built https://pachli.app/pachli/2023/09/29/accesible-fonts.html because I saw people asking for it and was interested in the technical challenge. It's not a feature I use. ↩

  2. https://social.polotek.net/@polotek/111965454652276237 ↩

  3. https://mastodon.social/@polotek@social.polotek.net/111966798383261325 ↩

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment