Mastodon has serious UX problems that even other federated networks don’t have. I’m pretty well tech literate and love Lemmy, for instance, but I just couldn’t ever get Mastodon to stick for me, like it just didn’t have the right feel and wasn’t fun to use. And if it’s not working for me then it’s never going to take off with a more general audience.
Bluesky is a lot better. It still has some issues that I feel keep it from fully replacing Twitter, especially Twitter before Elon screwed it up. But it does manage to keep me checking it, even though it’s probably only once or twice a week max.
How is Bluesky easier to use when it’s literally also federated? And you can just create an account on any Mastodon instance like mastodon.world or mastodon.social and start using it.
It may be easier because Bluesky already made the choice for you, you don’t need to pick an instance, the default is Bluesky Social and that’s it, if you want a different one you can search it or make one. It removes that tiny mental block of having to commit to a server you don’t know if you will like.
That’s inaccurate and reductive. ATproto and ActivityPub do not federate the same way, and how they work greatly affects how users interact with the entire ecosystem.
On Mastodon, pick the wrong instance and there’s content you’ll never see, migration isn’t complete, discovery is so bad they started a new initiative to try fixing it, instances have their own cultures, and so on.
Bluesky has issues, some I’d consider critical, but they’re not directly user-facing for the most part. Make an account, you get the same experience as everyone else.
edit: Sorry, I have this issue where I try to be concise, yet feel like I end up being rude. I get your confusion, but they’re quite different. Hopefully this helped; I can elaborate if you want.
Why replace horrible company with bad company run by literally THE guy that let the prior company become horrible instead of replacing it with good non-profit network?
Sadly, Mastodon had its shot during the pandemic and blew it. The non-tech savvy didn’t understand how federation worked and they marketed themselves very poorly.
Why, oh, why, Bluesky and not Mastodon
Because outside of the Fediverse, literally no one has heard of Mastodon. No one has heard of the Fediverse either.
Mastodon has more users than Bluesky. (I fear it won’t stay like that for a long time anymore though as Bluesky has a bigger growth rate.)
Mastodon has serious UX problems that even other federated networks don’t have. I’m pretty well tech literate and love Lemmy, for instance, but I just couldn’t ever get Mastodon to stick for me, like it just didn’t have the right feel and wasn’t fun to use. And if it’s not working for me then it’s never going to take off with a more general audience.
Bluesky is a lot better. It still has some issues that I feel keep it from fully replacing Twitter, especially Twitter before Elon screwed it up. But it does manage to keep me checking it, even though it’s probably only once or twice a week max.
I think one of the biggest reasons is that the Fediverse is often a pain to get into and sometimes a pain to use.
Bluesky and Threads “just work.”
Some people say it’s marketing and in Threads’ case I can believe it, but I haven’t seen any example of large marketing campaign by Bluesky.
How is Bluesky easier to use when it’s literally also federated? And you can just create an account on any Mastodon instance like mastodon.world or mastodon.social and start using it.
It may be easier because Bluesky already made the choice for you, you don’t need to pick an instance, the default is Bluesky Social and that’s it, if you want a different one you can search it or make one. It removes that tiny mental block of having to commit to a server you don’t know if you will like.
That’s inaccurate and reductive. ATproto and ActivityPub do not federate the same way, and how they work greatly affects how users interact with the entire ecosystem.
On Mastodon, pick the wrong instance and there’s content you’ll never see, migration isn’t complete, discovery is so bad they started a new initiative to try fixing it, instances have their own cultures, and so on.
Bluesky has issues, some I’d consider critical, but they’re not directly user-facing for the most part. Make an account, you get the same experience as everyone else.
edit: Sorry, I have this issue where I try to be concise, yet feel like I end up being rude. I get your confusion, but they’re quite different. Hopefully this helped; I can elaborate if you want.
Because people, even leftists, want the bad company to be replaced by a good company.
Why replace horrible company with bad company run by literally THE guy that let the prior company become horrible instead of replacing it with good non-profit network?
deleted by creator
Sadly, Mastodon had its shot during the pandemic and blew it. The non-tech savvy didn’t understand how federation worked and they marketed themselves very poorly.
But Bluesky is federated as well; why isn’t that a problem for Bluesky either.
Because Mastodon needs a reliable instance with a catchy domain name. Maybe even the slightest bit of advertising.
Someone reputable could make a real Twitter competitor for about $2m a year these days.
I’d say Mozilla, but they just took all their social media funding away and threw it at AI. Genius.
mastodon.world? mastodon.social?
Which don’t exactly have the name recognition of The New York Times.
Would you worry Google would have too much influence?
I would worry that Google will simply discontinue the product abruptly. Google is unreliable with product longevity.
It’s rather see NYTimes get into it. Even if they time allow outside signups on their instance.