I know you’ll get blowback for this, eye rolls and such about how it’s not that hard, but I’ve been building social software for ordinary humans for almost 25 years and you are quite correct. Honestly the Mastodon PR itself was too complex. Anytime you heard about it, you heard not about what a hot social destination it is, but how cool its distributed technology model is and that shit just flies over most peoples heads and actually scares them into think it will be complex and hard. Then you prompt them to choose an instance and it’s just game over. Ordinary users have the attention span of a fruit fly.
Comment on Why I recommend against Bluesky.
realitista@lemm.ee 2 weeks agoBut Bluesky does have a lot better features when it comes to actually effectively using the platform. Getting set up on Bluesky is orders of magnitude easier than Mastodon, and I do think that’s a big part of why it’s become the preferred destination recently. Mastodon had a real shot early on but didn’t make it easy enough for people.
scarabic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
blinkfink182@lemm.ee 1 week ago
You’re 100% right. I’m a technical person and until I started diving deep into my journey to manage my privacy better, I didn’t understand the appeal. NOW I do but to others points, when I first started looking to just leave Twitter, the people I followed were on Bluesky. I can’t find many people on mastodon.
TORFdot0@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You can convenience or security, never both. Unfortunately bluesky’s compromises towards convenience hurt it’s security measures against enshittification
realitista@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
For me it’s the difference between something that’s usable for its purpose and something that’s not. As much as I wanted to use Mastodon and tried, it just never got off the ground.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
You can convenience or security, never both.
Generally, yes. Strictly, no.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
I’m so tired of hearing this. Just click the mastodon.social button in the app and it’s not any different.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’ve been on Mastodon for two years now. I’m active and all.
And yet, to this date, I still can’t find a single person in my working field, who are located within the province of Quebec.
Bluesky? Over a hundred already within days.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Yeah I mean you’re making my point here. More marketshare = more leverage over users.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I don’t think I do… what I explained was, Mastodon is too difficult not because of the interface, it’s because it’s too decentralized, to the point of everyone getting lost in the forest, and no one can find each other within the networks.
As for Bluesky, while it’s not the best or safest alternative, is way more convenient for networking—the raison d’être of a social network.
scarabic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Maybe they have more users for the same reason you’re sick of hearing how much easier it is than Mastodon: because it’s easier than Mastodon. Users didn’t spontaneously materialize on BlueSky.
realitista@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Not setting up an account, that’s roughly the same. Adding contacts by topic, blocking topics and people with bad agendas en masse, etc. I started my Mastodon account almost a year before Bluesky. In Bluesky I had something useful in a week. In Mastodon I still don’t (and it’s not for lack of effort).
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Wouldn’t that mean everyone is centralized on the same instance? I don’t use Mastodon so I don’t know if it’s the same as here…
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Not everyone. Just those users who don’t care enough to be picky. I wish they would rotate the instances but this is better than nothing.
Comtief@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Sorry what do you mean? I see users posting from other instances in my mastodon app (I haven’t used it much).