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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: January 23rd, 2024

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  • Discoverability is a huge barrier to entry in the Fediverse, and they’re not helping.

    It’s hard for me to judge them too harshly, though. Fediverse devs do things I disagree with all the time, and users too. Maybe, in a different world, something else could’ve taken Mastodon’s place… but its forks stick close, Pleroma has the charm of a brick, Misskey is too 日本, and Misskey forks got Messy, and—

    …Oh. That’s it, isn’t it? Mastodon is the best that ActivityPub has to offer most microblogging fans.


  • Yes, people chase content, which means chasing where many people are, but why did Bluesky become a mainstream alternative and Mastodon didn’t?

    I’m saying marketing doesn’t cut it, and it’s not just about where most users are either, otherwise everyone but Threads would be irrelevant.

    People bounce off both Threads and Mastodon, and there are platform-related reasons for that.


  • That may be true for some people, but isn’t a valid generalization. See the Brazil blocking Twitter situation.

    Millions decided to give Bluesky a chance and a graph showed daily user activity quadrupling. Now, a not-insignificant portion are saying they refuse to return to Twitter because:

    • It feels less toxic and healthier
    • They have more control over their experience
    • They’re finally having fun with social media again

    Sound familiar?

    And I’m pretty sure Misskey has more features. Hell, Mastodon as well probably. Bluesky doesn’t even support video yet.

    The first sin of the Fediverse isn’t being small, that’s the second. First is being a pain in the ass.


  • This was one of the reasons I left, and I assumed most disliked the official app, but weren’t willing to part with the content.

    Now, I think I was too close minded. Stuck in my bubble. If it’s not in a discussion about reddit sucking, chances are people don’t care that much.

    App sucks? Didn’t think about that, it’s just an app. App really sucks? Whatever, they already use 5 other apps that are worse.

    The medium shapes the experience, but isn’t an experience unto itself. Not that important to the average person.




  • I think I agree with the major point of the article, that many gaming journalists… don’t do a great job. At all. Many seem to outright hate the communities they serve, which can’t be healthy for either side.

    But it certainly wasn’t this article that convinced me. It’s needlessly hostile, contains personal attacks and petty insults, and despite its many claims and assumptions about Deadlock, gaming companies, journalists and gamers, it has only 4 outgoing links—one of them, bizarrely, simply to x.com—and nothing else. Screenshots? More supporting evidence? Have a useless picture of Valve’s office, I guess.

    One of the linked resources is a tweet:

    bye Twitter Quoted tweet: “Where to find Verge staff on Mastodon https://theverge.com/23519135/mastodon…”

    Why does the author think this is relevant?

    Their Twitter account links to a Mastodon address, a throwback to when Elon Musk bought the website and the journos had a hissy fit because they could no longer backchannel to have accounts banned for telling them to “learn to code.”

    Wow, that’s why you think people were complaining? Nothing else, no other possible undesirable consequence arising from Musk’s takeover of Twitter? Not even his influence in levels and management of hate speech and misinformation in the platform?

    Indeed, the majority of his last month’s output on Twitter – now X.com – is whining about Musk and bizarrely saying “bye Twitter” despite The Verge still being very much active on the site. It’s all so tiresomely typical.

    It’s actually quite common for organizations that give mastodon a chance to keep their Twitter account as well. It’s the sad reality that most people (many of their following) will stay on Twitter. See Mozilla for another example, they host their own instance, even, but that sadly doesn’t mean they can throw away Twitter.

    So the journalist in question shows support for mastodon, both by mentioning their account and bringing attention to the fact that The Verge is also joining, and this is your reaction? If you know why this happens, it’s misleading, and if you don’t, then it’s a failure in reporting. Both are bad and make me hesitant to believe anything else you say.

    By the way, I’m curious about your choice of platform. I wonder what factors led to you picking nazi central as your center of operations. I’m not claiming you’re a Nazi, it’s just… you’re sitting at the table with them, you know?

    The answer is games journalism, maybe journalism in general, has become a largely self-serving practice where nothing matters except appearing smarter than the audience you’re supposed to serve.

    Well said, Richard. Definitely got that feeling just now.

    And to people thinking The Verge sucks completely: don’t generalize publishers like this, please! You should be critical, aware of their leanings and biases, but remember that they’re still an organization hosting multiple writers with different skills too. The Verge has some solid reporting, like when they showed how SEO ruined the web. They also have some utterly shameful moments—let us never forget The Verge PC—just like most other media.














  • I sincerely apologize if I misrepresented your position, I hate it when that happens to me. Maybe I was too defensive. I genuinely tried to engage with your original comment as I understood it. It didn’t help that, in my experience, people who start off a discussion like this:

    Makes me want to sit down watch it and pick out any falacies, but let’s be honest, that’s not likely to happen.

    Tell me you don’t understand fallacies without telling me you don’t understand fallacies I guess.

    Are often not discussing in good faith.

    If you can’t see the flaws in the argument that “we’re making the first bridge across this river, so we’re your only hope for a bridge across the river”. You’re going to have some really tough times not being scammed.

    Yes, but I addressed in my previous comment how I don’t believe that’s the spirit of the message being conveyed.

    Regardless, if you’ve already spent that much time in this comment section, there’s no need to drag things out even more. You sound very set in your ideas—whatever they are, what you meant to accomplish; I don’t think I’ve grasped them quite yet—so I won’t bother you further.

    Hope you have a good day.


  • We are the only ones currently trying to do this, who have gained this much momentum and a serious chance of accomplishing it.

    Is how I understand Ross wanted his message to be interpreted.

    Starting off with a false dichotomy, conflating that no one else is trying so you’re their only hope.

    It might be incorrect, but I genuinely don’t know of any other project trying to do the same. There’s more, please read on.

    Makes me want to sit down watch it and pick out any falacies

    Would you also recognize its valid points when you noticed any, or would you just go hypercritical on it? I don’t feel the latter is a healthy mindset in general, to be honest you with you.


    You mention—and I appreciate that—that you didn’t watch the entire video. I understand that, because it’s lengthy and we all need to be judicious with how we spend our time. But in this instance, I think you’re missing the forest for the trees, overly focusing on one specific fault to the point of disregarding the rest of the effort.

    From your other comment:

    I’m sorry, but who else is trying?

    Doesn’t matter, the false dichotomy is our way is the right way because no one else is trying.

    I don’t think that’s the spirit. It’s more along the lines of, “this may not be ideal, but it’s the best we have right now, and it’s unlikely you’ll have other options, if any, before more avoidable damage is done to the industry.” Which I find entirely believable. Momentum is a widely understood political tool, you see it every election.

    It’s not necessarily the right way, but it sure is your best shot.

    Just like we don’t always get to vote for the politicians we want, but the ones we need, among the ones we can.

    Your focus on…

    Best, not only.

    …is not key to the discussion at large, and borders on pedantic.