Bluesky: install an app and make an account.
Mastodon: first pick a server. What does that mean? You figure it out. Ok, now select a client and install it. Doesn’t matter which one, but it actually does. Then use that client app to log onto the server you made an account on. Now you just need to figure out who to follow and you’re ready to participate!
Download “Mastodon” from an app store. Create an account. Post.
It’s been a few years since you last tried, right?
It offers you a server, which is a step up, but the option to pick a different one is still very prominent which is going to make some people ask questions and lead to the usual confusion and anxiety about picking the “right” one.
Anyone who has studied UX and how users move through an app knows that every step you make someone do has a huge drop off in user completion of that process.
Unfortunately that means that centralized, simple platforms will always have a distinct UX advantage over federated platforms. We have to make up for it by being simply better. (No ads is a good start.)
The how-to-search-for-people-to-follow thing caused me trouble with Mastodon. I could handle getting a client and an account, but actually finding people not on the same instance as me was a challenge. Discoverability was pretty broken.
Bluesky doesn’t seem to have that problem.
Lemmy I’ve stuck with because it handles that better.
The latest version of Mastodon does suggest accounts to follow. But you’re absolutely right - Bluesky being fully centralized can do a lot of things easier than it is for the Mastodon network. I have high hopes that @dansup@mastodon.social will help alleviate this a lot though with the Fediverse equivalent for “starter packs”:
install an app and make an account
Mastodon is pretty much the same now
There is an option to pick another server, but non-technical users are probably going to glance over it entirely
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2022/04/official-apps-now-available-for-ios-and-android/
AFAIK, Mastodon has exactly the same experience as BS if you just download the Mastodon official client and pick the main mastodon.social instance.
And as far as finding people to follow, just follow some hashtags to start with. Like #boston should immediately got you local users and news and #mac for computer news, etc etc. Following 5 or 10 hashtags will get you a pretty strong initial feed on mastodon.social, I suspect.
Gonna put this out there: the fediverse is vastly depressing and not very fun. Lacks creative-types, too.
I see why people would choose the alternative.
And full of propaganda, especially from Lemmy.ml
Not surprising to me that its faltering, but very disappointing
Hey. Cmon man, every instance has its agendas and bad apples. Some spread pro-US and anti-Russia/China rhetoric, others are flipped.
Yes, a minority of the mods are fucked in some of their values and beliefs but that’s true of any instance, and most of the time it’s not an issue.
We all harbour our strange 1% ideas that’s separate us from the norm, but that’s the beauty of the lemmyverse that you can find a server where that’s better represented.
Too much? Go to an instance where it’s not and chill there for a bit.
Twitter and Meta are corporate social media, but the Fediverse has a chance to be something entirely different
Hey, I’m depressive and not very fun, lack creativity too.
I’m not disagreeing, just voicing my well, fuck you too over here.
(But bring some people over, post lemmy links on that skytwatter before it turns toxic)
Oh, I don’t mind depressive, not-so-fun, lacking creativity people! They’re cool! I do mind pointedly depressing and hostile content.
AI art posts? Put it in the trash. Hopeless memes? No thanks. Constant politic-ing pretending to be sincere but it’s actually t×nkie pushing? Nope.
The general user base is off putting and creates a shit experience. The fediverse will unfortunately never grow beyond a niche platform. It’s a great idea, it’s too bad so many of the people are such shit. Even in this thread another user calmly pointed out what non technical users care about and sure enough, someone with their head so far up their ass they probably haven’t been able to walk outside in weeks is blasting off while smelling their own farts because it’s so inconceivable that some portions of the population may not be as technical or similarly vested in things as they are.
Bingo.
Only place I’ve had folks follow me around to harass me, too. It’s disturbing.
Something that could be fixed if creative types and fun people would just flood the place already. The place is being held hostage by social misers and digital HOA Karens.
They will not come here because there’s an absolute fuckton of hostility.
My favorite woman-centric community went dark due to lack of moderation. Mods left because it was so damn hostile.
The t×nkie problem is also pretty bad.
Federated spaces will forever be niche spaces, because of all of this. Say “good” all you want, but it’d be great to have mass adoption.
The t×nkie problem is also pretty bad.
Aren’t you okay on sopuli.xyz? I now use lemmy.cafe as my main, they block ml, hexbear and grad
They could outnumber and shout down the existing user base in a day. The number of active users in the fediverse is quite small. A tiny number of toxic people have killed the open social web for the next decade.
Gee . . . I wonder why
Users: ermagerd, I haVe to ChoSe a SeRveR! tHiS is SO diFFicUlT!!! 😭😭😭
“but you need to do the same for email…”
Discovery sucks out loud, federation is all to often at the whims of some admin in a pissing match with another server, even when you know someone you want to follow locating their account is a hassle, it’s slower than Bluesky to populate across federated instances, there isn’t a good app design out there for free, the web portal is inferior in both UX and UI to even Twitter, I could go on.
If you want to make strawman arguments, go ahead; but, you’re ignoring the real problems with Mastodon that have caused users to avoid it.
Discovery sucks out loud
It doesn’t have recommendation engine that forces everybody into certain streams of thought, how terrible. You want someone to do the thinking for you? Can’t think for yourself?
Federation is all to often at the whims of some admin in a pissing match with another server
The admin has *audible gasp* power and users can choose the server they want? It’s almost like they are free. Also twitter, facebook, insta and other sites have never banned anybody because they are bastions of free speech.
even when you know someone you want to follow locating their account is a hassle
I know search boxes are advanced tech for you, but the majority it really isn’t that hard.
it’s slower than Bluesky to populate across federated instances
“I want my content and I want it now!” OK, addict. Maybe going slow would be better for you. Relax.
there isn’t a good app design out there for free, , the web portal is inferior in both UX and UI to even Twitter
Would you imagine that, people who donate their free time and skills to a project without getting reimbursed need longer to design and implement something than those working full time on it for tens of thousands of euros a year. And of course there are users like you that want the free work for free. As soon as somebody asks for money “Oh no, then I’ll go to the VC funded alternative where I’m the product! At least it’s free!”
Always the same with you people. You want a free alternative that can compete with a product that has millions invested in it over multiple years but won’t accept anything less than perfection, otherwise it’s “garbage” and “unusable”.
there isn’t a good app design out there for free, the web portal is inferior in both UX and UI to even Twitter,
I agree with the rest of your comment but i love mastodon’s android app design and the web app design. They weren’t so great before but right now, they’re way better than either Twitter or Bluesky (which is basically Twitter anyway).
federation is all to often at the whims of some admin in a pissing match with another server,
Yes, and that’s kind of by design. The whole system is not designed to emulate large centralized social media, but to enable content syndication and synchronization across independent publishing platforms. Each site, then, is hosting and serving content published on other sites.
If a site admin decides they don’t want to be in a contnt hosting agreememt with another, that’s gotta be seen as OK. I wouldn’t want to host most people’s blogs on my website. Especially if the publishing site had a poor track record of content moderation.
But services like Mastodon bend over backwards to hide the nature of the fediverse, and make it seem like it’s all one common place and experince. Most major fediverse platforms now fail to allow sufficient theming or site branding, and reinforce the idea that the local site’s community is meaningless, and is to be ignored.
It bypasses the whole point, so that everyone can get all shakey trying to avoid the FOMO.
That’s cause the Twitter format is not for people who want the open source experience.
Twitter format is about self promotion, it’s not a place to discuss ideas anonymously.
why is the fediverse the girlfriend. I mean ewww. it whoudl be like bluesky and fediverse as a lesbian couple with xitter checking them out from a construction site.
