In recent weeks, people unhappy with Mastodon project talked about forking the project in a different direction. It's harder than it looks.

A lot of people have talked about the possibility of forking Mastodon to get the many improvements their communities need. Making such an effort successful is another discussion entirely.

  • aasatru
    25•6 months ago

    If anything, this proves that forking Mastodon is a great idea. Not because any useful software would come out of it, but it would distract some of the annoying armchair managers out there.

    The biggest problem with Mastodon isn’t the lack of feature X or the presence of feature Y; it’s those exact assholes, draining the energy and enthusiasm from anything that crosses their path while scaring away anyone looking for a meaningful conversation.

    I hate to break it to you, but if you genuinely think you’ve figured it all out, chances are you’re a fucking moron.

    • CMLVIEnglish
      11•6 months ago

      This is my thought as well. The whole point of this system is that if you feel like you have better choices and ability, you are well within your rights to spin up your own instance and manage it, and make your own choices. Just follow the standards, and you should be able to integrate with existing platforms. They are free to defederate, but that’s their call to do so. It’s always been a tradeoff, and one of the big things with Reddit is that, even to a point now, it’s Reddit or nothing. With federated sites, leaving a platform isn’t starting completely over like it is leaving Reddit.