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I—a nerd—actually really like Mastodon most of the time, but I would like it so much more and feel like it was doing a lot more good in the world if it were more welcoming and easier to use. When I raise these points on Mastodon, I get a steady stream of replies telling me that everything I’m whining about is actually great, that valuing a “pleasant UI” over the abstraction of federation is shallow and disqualifying, and that that people who find Mastodon difficult don’t belong anyway, so I should “go join Spoutible” or whatever.

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I—a nerd—actually really like Mastodon most of the time, but I would like it so much more and feel like it was doing a lot more good in the world if it were more welcoming and easier to use. When I raise these points on Mastodon, I get a steady stream of replies telling me that everything I’m whining about is actually great, that valuing a “pleasant UI” over the abstraction of federation is shallow and disqualifying, and that that people who find Mastodon difficult don’t belong anyway, so I should “go join Spoutible” or whatever.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/294/286/755/005/783/original/efecba65cb04a536.jpeg

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Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:27:02 UTC Chris Trottier

You know what? I agree with @kissane point here. Mastodon is not user-friendly.
Some of the design decisions are befuddling. For example, DMs. I’ve never seen a more confusing implementation of that feature.
However, here’s a further problem.
Every time I try to recommend a more user-friendly Fediverse app for newbies, I get, “But Mastodon is the standard.”
The problem with the Fediverse for the past 6 months has been myopia. Everything is focused on Mastodon.

In conversation Monday, 01-May-2023 17:27:02 UTC from mastodon.social permalink