Firstly, I want to say thank you so much! --
Everyone's been SO wonderful to speak with, generously sharing opinions and tips about Mastodon, and kindly helping me feel welcomed in this community so far! Since I’m still new, I wanted to again share that I’m an Art and design student from he University of Michigan, using Mastodon as my social media platform to study for my UI/UX class.
If I can gather some feedback from whomever would like to share, I am curious to find out if you feel more free to share your opinions with the Mastodon community vs other social media platforms? And why you think that might be?
[#]socialmedia #art #MastoArt #mastodon #introduction
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@anasti I think the biggest thing is a combination of moderation and ability to not be in global search.
If I posted on Twitter, depending on the topic, the result would be obnoxious randos in the replies because they're trolling certain search terms.
On here, it can happen if I get boosted enough (or I'm personally targeted) but being able to choose (or run) a well-moderated instance means not having to put up with it, and having many fewer of those people I never want to hear from.
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@ellesaurus so since you can be boosted by certain people that may resonate with your post, it sounds like you may be connected with a lot more like-minded people more easily. Is that true for you?
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@anasti That does help build out connections and has helped. But it's more just that at best other networks only filter out the worst of the worst on a good day. That doesn't address, say, the "just asking questions" guys.
There is the option to avoid communities that allow that kind of behaviour. On our instance, mastodon.social is limited, meaning you only see posts from there if it's boosted into your feed or you follow them. Replies don't show up. Because it has a fair number of those guys.
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@ellesaurus could you elaborate a little on the "not addressing ‘just asking questions’”?
And I am still trying to understand how the feed vs replies, and what shows up on your page-- how all of that works. It’s very different from other social medias that I’ve used!
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@anasti I'm referring to a type of person you'll frequently encounter online.
On Twitter if I posted "Trans rights are human rights" I might get someone I've never interacted with before asking about trans people in sports in an effort to be transphobic, but with a veneer of honest discourse. Twitter will never do anything about these people.
I rarely see those types of interactions here because the instances where those people would have accounts are not allowed to interact with our instance.
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@ellesaurus I see what you’re saying! Well that’s really encouraging to hear that this platform has the type of moderation that makes everyone’s interactions more inclusive and safe!
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@anasti Hello 👋
For me, it can be easier to share opinions here because I have some control over the visibility of my posts (whether they show up in search, whether people other than my followers can see them at all). Some bigger platforms offer per-post visibility settings too, but many don't.
Besides that, I'm more open about my interests here than I was e.g. on Twitter, because over there I knew my interests were always being tracked and mined for ad targeting, which Mastodon doesn't do. 🙂
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@julian Hi! Thank you for all of your kind feedback so far! I didn’t think about the aspect of not wanting to share as much specifically in an attempt to avoid ad targeting. Is there any reason in particular why you’d like to avoid ad targeting? Some people may argue that specialized ads are good, otherwise they may not know about something that they like without it.
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@anasti Yes, I have heard that sentiment, but I do not share it. I overwhelmingly perceive surveillance-based advertising as very creepy. Just seeing ads on Twitter would be one thing, but I don't control who else buys (or intercepts) that data. Think health insurance companies learning about my eating habits or about medical terms I look up, or the current issues surrounding government access to e.g. menstruation tracking data in the USA. The only protection I have is to dodge the surveillance.
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@julian That’s a great point that you bring up! I totally understand the need to take whatever measures we can to protect our privacy because it can be harvested for a variety of different things that we may or may not have thought could affect us, and the companies around us.
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@anasti Hello ! I joined Mastodon in Mastodon in 2017 but did not stay at that time, I was too immersed on Twitter and everyone that I was following was still on it as well. I am mostly a reader, not a writer so Twitter was good enough for me at this point.
I started everything again one or two years ago I think and this time I decided to invest time and energy in it, find lots of people to follow, mostly whose hobbies align with mine. And I found myself way more at home ! I found people that I love to read and laugh at their shitpost, people I love to interact with and people I'd consider now friends. The "more at home" feeling also make me want to contribute to this, by interacting more, posting about my hobbies, being there for people or just boosting more.
I've seen bad interactions as well, everything is not perfect for sure, but this social network is, for me, the best compromise with my values.
I heard arguments about the fact that "defederation", the fact that your server can nullify and nuke all interactions with another one, is to strong and so you might stay in your microcosm but I don't get why is that a bad thing ? People might not what to fight with every post, this place might be their safe place, so they are free to choose their rules for it.
Welcome here :meow_sip_smile:
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@anasti :)
More and less I suppose. Large numbers make people disappear in the mass, where it can seem like nobody's in charge of the atmosphere, hence posting less reflexivly. Here it feels more personal, you see living rules (and variations) and moderation/tors (or admins), you may even know them a bit, hence adjusting more for what you would like the platform to be & perspectives. It also means I feel safer from trolls, bots and targeted harassment (though I know it's imperfect).
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@MartinVuilleme
Thank you so much for your response! You’re the second person to mention the moderation in a way that helps protects users from trolls and targeted harassment! - totally understandable that it’s imperfect, but so is everything else, right? It seems that Mastodon is a lot more community driven, so it makes a lot of sense that the mods would make sure that the community is protected!
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@anasti
Welcome. Do I feel more free? 🤔
I.. Guess no. But I do have more control and this makes me feel better
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@hikingdude I think that having some control over your own life is a step towards freedom! Thank you for your response!!
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@anasti
Actually .. one thing that I really appreciate here in terms of freedom is the auto-delete feature. The freedom to "let the system forget what I said"
In all commercial platforms I know, I find it really hard to "let it forget" (aka delete) old content. I literally feel they're all like "add content!! you can delete, but we won't make it too easy"
To me - not all those posts need to be published forever. Here I can say: delete stuff older than ... (given some conditions).
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@hikingdude That is a wonderful point to bring up-- I’ve got goosebumps because you just inspired me with another topic that I can add to my final writing once I get to that stage. “You have the right to be forgotten.” I’m so excited to explore that later!!!
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@anasti Oh I'm happy if I was able to help. Good luck for your writing!
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