A lot of people make up all kinds of wild assumptions Mastodon, how it works, and what it is. We're here to help clear up some of the biggest ones.

Hey there! Figured I’d share here since my main instance, Lemmy.ml, seems to be really broken right now. I published an article today focusing on some of the myths and misconceptions Mastodon users have spread over the last few years, with some critical analysis and debunking.

Let me know if you like it!

  • biddy@feddit.nlEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    Maybe I’m optimistic here, but I feel like most users of email and Facebook understand that you can send email from Gmail to Outlook and that those are different services, but you can’t send a Facebook(message? story? idk I don’t use Facebook) to a Twitter user.

    I can’t think of a better way to explain that activitypub is an open and cross-compatible protocol. The only other big cross-compatible protocol is the web(HTML etc), but that’s hopeless, half of people don’t seem to understand what a browser is.

    • Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.comEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Why be so technically about it? I send SMS with signal, it’s just sending information.

      The best description I have heard of Lemmy, Mastodon, … is that anyone can spin up an instance (so no central control). That’s it, anyone can make a Reddit or Twitter with this tech!

      I don’t get it why you have to annoy non-tech savvy people with email server tech and activitypub protocols, I also think you might grossly overestimate peoples knowledge (and interest) in those techs. I bet most social media user don’t know or care about the underlying tech like at all.

      I find it truly fascinating, but I think most people don’t.

      • Bebo@literature.cafeEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        For non tech savvy people it would be better to explain how a Fediverse platform functionally compares with the platform they are familiar with, rather than focusing on how the Fediverse platform works because most of them would be least interested in that.

      • biddy@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Because it matters to the end user that all the instances are cross compatible, that’s the federated part. When I first heard of Lemmy and Mastadon as “self hosted social media”, I assumed that all the instances were isolated, and dismissed it as pointless. Once I learned what federation was, possibly through the email analogy, I was instantly onboard.

        We’re not at a stage where you can make full use of these platforms without having a basic understanding of how they work. A disinterested idiot is going to go " WTF is an instance, why is [whatever instance they landed on] so empty" and give up. The email analogy is useful for the interested skeptic and they’re the people that are most likely to stick around.

        In this thread the email analogy has been criticized for being not technically accurate enough and too technically accurate. That suggests it’s about right.

        • Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.comEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Wrong again IMO, I said spin up your own stuff right? Like spin up a twitter. Or a Reddit.

          I didn’t say spin up your local twitter only you can use and only you. I mean who would think that would be a good idea? Nobody, right?

          Maybe you are too tech savvy and reads between the lines so you’re the person figuring out all these things we’ll need to fix in the future, and that’s super cool, but for grandma, I persist and signs, spin up your own FB is most probably meaning just have the power of it for her.

          Anyway, It seems it’s quite complicated to explain easily, we all have so different ways to see what it is.

          Cheers