@noodlejetski @qooqie https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt I read article and can say I understand many problems listed there. If you join Biggest instance then sure you won’t encounter some of the listed problems, but federation isn’t about joining biggest. Not intuitive UI also big factor, why greeting message don’t tell Use #Hello #Привет or other language for first message? People don’t understand/know about search being specific to # add to that bombardment with tips… Fediverse is bad for newcomer.
So, I don’t use Mastodon for the same reason I never used Twitter (I don’t need a microblog and I’d rather read other people’s regular-sized blogs), but point 2 sounds like a problem. How do you decide who to follow, when you’re working from a blank slate? I presume you need to see several of someone’s posts before you can know if you’d like to follow them, so if Mastodon doesn’t show you any posts by default how do you get started?
It does show you your local and federated timelines. You can also follow hashtags for topics you might be interested in.
If you’re only interested in topics then switching from another social network to fediverse isn’t so bad. But a lot of the twitter userbase is there because they want to follow people not topics. If you’re into journalism all the journalists are there. If you’re in the art world all the artists are there. Prior to musk it was easy to know that you were following who you thought you were. And the value is in that group of people all being there.
It’s like how it’s not a big deal for me that I quit reddit to come here, but I still have to maintain a Facebook and LinkedIn presence for my career. I can’t (yet, anyways) tell people I meet at conferences to look me up on fediverse and then have to explain what that is and how it works and make sure they follow the right account name from the right instance.
Right. Unless you’ve started your own instance or joined one that is somehow completely isolated, Local and Federated will let you find plenty of people to follow.
My instance is just a few users, so Local isn’t a very happening place, but I love the Federated timeline. It’s where I spend the majority of my time.
Not to advertise or anything, since I’ve still not grown accustomed to it, but I downloaded an app called mammoth the other day and it seems to have a for you page which makes it kinda easier to follow stuff. Also makes up for the mute filters I’ve set up not working on any app.
