Ancestors

Written by Matt Baer on 2024-10-12 at 12:11

Reading (on Threads) about why people like #bluesky over #mastodon, and most seems to boil down to usability / wrestling with servers.

Have to agree. And it's why I still think we need a good #fediverse client as an entry point.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from matt@writing.exchange

Written by Matt Baer on 2024-10-12 at 12:18

Maybe it's devs implementing the C2S side of #ActivityPub, or a multi-protocol client, or built-in browser support for the #fediverse. Maybe we need a single entry point to the fediverse, with a smooth interface, easy setup, and a server behind the scenes.

Either way, making "decentralization" central to the user experience here is keeping a ton of people off the network.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from matt@writing.exchange

Toot

Written by Fla on 2024-10-15 at 11:08

@matt email is completely decentralized and people perfectly understood that if they have a gmail account they don't need to log in yahoo.com to write an email to the person there. Nor that they can't find the email listed in a centralized directory.

I think it's actually the opposite, we tried to hide decentralization in the UI as much as possible (only nickname instead of full id for example), but that's a mistake.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from fla@mastodon.social

Descendants

Written by Matt Baer on 2024-10-15 at 12:52

@fla the problem is people have a different mental model for social media already (based on centralized platforms), whereas email has always been the same. So people expect fedi platforms that look like centralized platforms (like Mastodon) to behave like those platforms (e.g. Twitter).

Fediverse platforms need to meet people where they already are in terms of functionality, UX, and design, instead of forcing people to wrap their heads around "it's just like email."

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from matt@writing.exchange

Written by Matt Baer on 2024-10-15 at 12:59

@fla more to my original point, Gmail doesn't make it all about "you can message someone on Yahoo". It's just Gmail, and it just works. The providers don't sell themselves on how great interoperability is, so the protocol blends into the background from a user perspective. That's what the fediverse needs.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from matt@writing.exchange