Why Jump From One Social Media Platform to Another?

[Denny]

@Jeagar52

From the Mastodon web page: “We can’t control the servers, but we can control what we promote on this page. Our organization will only point you to servers that are consistently committed to moderation against racism, sexism, and transphobia.”

In other words, it is not open and free. One organization is controlling what is allowed to be seen or not seen. It is still an organization controlling the town square. And, as the Mastodon homepage says, the individual servers also “moderate,” which means they too control the town square.

No, that’s just the developer’s JoinMastodon page which serves as the primary gateway to Mastodon due to the fact that it’s run by the developer. It is open and free in that a person or group of people can create a Mastodon instance and say whatever they want on that instance. But, the beauty of the federated system is that moderation can happen between instances. So, while you would be free do say as you like in your own instance, other instances are free to say no thanks, we’re not interested in what your community is putting out.

What it comes down to then is that if an instance gains a reputation of whatever flavor, it becomes known and other instances will block.

Another important aspect to the free and open here is that the Fediverse is not just mastodon. It’s a host of services that communicate via ActivityPub. So, for example, Manton and the micro.blog crew have enabled ActivityPub so micro.blog users can follow and freely blog/comment back and forth with folks on Mastodon, Pixelfed, or other ActivityPub services. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, there is no centralized, controlling entity that dictates the Fediverse/ActivityPub “town square”. In that way, it’s much more akin to the old-school, decentralized early web.

[HobbyCollector]

@Denny

In that way, it’s much more akin to the old-school, decentralized early web.

Decentralized web for sure – and standards-based. I’ve heard it likened to email…generally agreed upon practices (even with Google-style use of IMAP) allow emails to flow across servers, services, apps, etc.

[webwalrus]

@zkarj

A web site is so easy and cheap to do these days, there’s really no reasonable excuse. Just “we don’t want to.”

If you’re talking about an organization or company, I agree 100%. For an individual, not so much.

@HobbyCollector

I also think forums are not going to be the solution.

Plus, forums have to be moderated too. And “the community” isn’t inherently the solution to that - look at Reddit.

[Medievalist]

Quitting is fine, but do not delete your account on Twitter. Just remove private data (DMs) and posts, download an archive if you wish, and make your account Private. If Twitter does die, its assets include user data. Protect your data, and your name space.

[HobbyCollector]

@webwalrus

Plus, forums have to be moderated too. And “the community” isn’t inherently the solution to that - look at Reddit.

Reddit is a good example of “it depends”. Some subreddits are moderated very well, while we all know there are some really bad parts of Reddit. Moderation of some kind is generally needed on the internet (at least I haven’t seen one instance where civility doesn’t require moderation…much like real life).

[MitchWagner]

@zkarj

Being of an age where life without the internet is a known quantity, I have trouble understanding the whole “I have to” argument. I’m not saying you’re wrong. I just don’t feel the need to engage with friends and family in such public places. I have email, phone/text, and… in person face time. I used to manage with only phone calls and face to face.

I’m of the grew-up-without-the-Internet generation myself. I was over 30 before I touched a web browser.

These family and friends are located thousands of miles away from me. They are what’s sometimes called loose social connections.

@Jeagar52 MPU and Discord are as much closed as Facebook. They’re just smaller and more distributed.

[zkarj]

@Medievalist

Quitting is fine, but do not delete your account on Twitter.

Yeah, good call. That’s what I’d do. I’ve given up on Mastodon for now, and just set an avatar and banner to indicate I’m not really there.

@MitchWagner

These family and friends are located thousands of miles away from me.

Distance is not solved by social media. Phones have existed longer than you or I have. And planes and trains and boats. My own sister lived half a planet away for well more than half her life. When she returned, I still knew her, and we always have stuff to talk about.

Maybe I am an outlier, but I just do not need to be inserted into the humdrum of everyone else’s lives. All the more to enjoy the time we do spend together, whether on a phone, via messages, or in person. It’s how I grew up and I don’t see that daily contact is a net positive.

In fact, I have a counterpoint in that my mother has managed to put a few noses out of joint since she (rather surprisingly to me) joined FB a few years ago. One of those noses being mine. Having your “finger on the pulse” of everything going on isn’t necessarily a good thing.

[WayneG]

@zkarj

I just do not need to be inserted into the humdrum of everyone else’s lives. All the more to enjoy the time we do spend together, whether on a phone, via messages, or in person.

I feel the same. It means something if an old friend, etc contacts you directly, even if it is just an email.

[Joe_M]

Thanks for including my post in this thread and on your site @Jeagar52. I’m enjoying the conversation here, with lots of thoughtful perspectives.

I am hopeful that more people will move towards having control over what they create and how it is delivered. I like to keep social media in a metaphorical box, with controls meant to help manage the addictive and sometimes toxic nature of the platforms. I’m editing a post for my site about how I’m doing this, and I look forward to sharing that soon.

I know there are barriers to owning a website or domain name, and for some, it’s just beyond their interest. Still, if even a small percentage of Twitter users were inclined to go this route, and I think that’s the platform where it’s most likely to be of interest to a not insignificant amount of users, I think it could be beneficial for us all.

As a slight aside for community building, It’s fun to see a directory like ooh.directory pop up, too, hopefully making blogs and websites more discoverable!