Oddbean new post about login | logout Here's a fun / painful challenge depending how you look at it: 1. Pick an app of your choice and join Mastodon 2. Write down anything you didn't like about joining it 3. Write down anything you don't like about it while browsing it 4. Come back a few times later, and note anything interesting / or not interesting. Come back to nostr and report: why are you on Mastodon daily now, or why are you not on Mastodon. Explain some of your observations.
I joined and it sucked, not as much as BlueSky social though.
Try again with the above 🫂
I came on Nostr after reading Fiatjaf's description of it on his website. No one has ever told me good things about mastodon. I don't know why I should check it out. Maybe to learn a few things we can take inspiration from for Nostr.
I check Mastodon once to twice a week (I've two accounts on two instances of one it's our local geo community where I'm on of the admins). As there are many more people in the fediverse, the content diversity is really great. So when I check it, it always serves me new sources of information I would like to check later. I spent a lot of work of finding the interesting people back in september-december 2022. This was hard, as all those accounts are shattered on many instances. The most interesting accounts I'm following with Nostr thanks to the mostr bridge from @Alex Gleason 🐍 to be sure not to miss their updates. Here are some clients I like: - kbin - pixelfed - writefreely - firefish - elk (one of the best pwa I've seen) - peertube (I'm running my own instance which I also can use as my live video streaming server for @zap.stream) Furthermore, Per Axbom (@Per Axbom) https://axbom.com/fediverse/ and https://fediversereport.com/ are a great sources to follow.
Ok, here's my quick review of Mastodon Social: I signed up in app using Mastodon.social, Bugs while signing up: Took 5 "Resend email" requests to finally create an account, Email is required, multiple bot tests required to sign up. Experience so far in app: some cool and funny content. Don't like that it tries to tell you multiple times how to talk: https://image.nostr.build/a9885e786e8d7903f8e27aa627a8c99c1dada8ad6d669c2e13bfd546c40b137e.jpg Funny News: https://image.nostr.build/5315f4aadb237c97f864763085ee59bfbfe691101b0d20ad9d046259d3fd9609.jpg Overall not that bad but Nostr is way better. nostr:nevent1qqsqgkve4h78v0ww9pqk8x4rujacw202u54h5p6zac67t22d0has06cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfdupzqx78pgq53vlnzmdr8l3u38eru0n3438lnxqz0mr39wg9e5j0dfq3qvzqqqqqqy5dwwea
Here's my most recent Mastodon experience / observations: - No idea which server I should be joining - No idea who the recommended users are.. why should I follow them? I’m looking for familiar brands / sources of information - Hard to scan recommended users. I don’t care to see their banner and number of followers, I just want to see a profile picture, name, and bio. - No easy way to follow people without clicking to their bio every time - Main client “what’s on your mind” box is kind of annoying - Not many interesting users, hard to find any interesting content - I like that they show trending hashtags, easy to get into the conversation - Like https://joinmastodon.org/ and how you can join right from there, no lengthy explanations - UI is fast - No bitcoin content, refreshing in the short term, but I might miss it in the long term.
My very first, second and now 3rd attempt to test out Mastodon has ended the same - didn't find any interesting content or people, no reason to stick around. From memory, it feels a bit more neutral than BlueSky, but still left-leaning and a bit negative. What Mastodon would need for me to consider it: Following of topics and users who talk about those topics. I'd want an improved UI too - Id probably look at some of the other clients, the main joinmastodon client UI is not that great.
The best way to discover content on #Mastodon is #NOSTR ... https://slidestr.net/tags/photography%2Cmastophoto%2Ccatsofmastodon%2Cmastodon%2Cfediverse%2Cactivitypub (FYI most content in the #photography hashtag is from mastodon users) nostr:note14lfv7hqy08e5zt5l52fqxjcqyv9vua4phdj5ujapr6kud5xj5r9qwp7f7a https://image.nostr.build/d671ee958eb5ce2d504e98656a072f42c15d4c52cbedfd55908c266c2d2f784c.jpg
I've been on a quite big mastodon instance for the local town (run by volunteers). When it was announced to shutdown I switched to a very small instance. And then problems where there: You don't see many posts because the small instance only imports posts from people followed by people on this instance. So you have to browse e.g. the giant mastodon.social for interesting content. And then try to follow the accounts from there. Regarding political orientation: You'll find anything on some instances but that is also what fragments mastodon even further: Server admins block each other if they do not like the content coming from the other side. On the other hand most of the interesting content I read on Nostr comes from mastodon. Most Nostr topics I see are still self centered or bitcoin. But it is not easy to interact with Mastodon content from Nostr. The mostr.pub relay does (of course) not copy all posts, is blocked by many instances. Also if I answer to a post from Nostr, it looks quite awkward on mastodon. Sometimes I switch to a mastodon client for that, but then again: Don't find the post in question on my instance, following via their home instance is complicated and it takes some time (sometimes days) to see the sought post then on my instance.
To illustrate the problem interacting from Nostr to Mastodon further: Here is a note originating from mastodon and I replied to it nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpv4j80wr3l4gu7938sksqfx66jj7gf5sml82eqdzul404y5458e5qqsq2sxg7tmpx5stu6qz3relmefm6srp504lp2t3rxv58226a6p4rxc964yl6 My response is one some relays but as I'm writing this it does not show up at Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@neuimneuland/112296312651864213 And if I look at my Mastodon home instance (I'm following that account!) https://res.social/@neuimneuland@mastodon.social It looks like that user did not have posted anything ever. Hilarious!
I came to Mastodon after Nostr and really like it. Philosophy is different, a lot of responsibility outsourced to server admins, and many there love blocking, which I do not really get. But overall it has the better content compared to BlueSky and here (apart from Nostr and Bitcoin related content). About the “complexity”: just join https://mastodon.social, use the “official” apps and do not say the n-word. You should be fine.
