Mastodon

Twitter et al seems like it's working through some issues. I have no loyalty to it, of course, but I do think it's a shame. I have a lovely little network of friendly and supportive folks that have made pandemic-induced isolation much more tolerable. Most of them have been in my life for a decade or more. It's fair to say that none of this would have happened without Twitter. I also love dumb joke and watching people out themselves as fools.

But if you get the sense your car is gonna shit the bed, it's not a bad idea to take a look around the car market. Mastodon is the most interesting player that I've seen.

PROS

• It's been taken up by mostly people I want to be around. And I have a lot of control over what I see.
• No ads, no brand engagement.
• pretty geeky with its servers and federation and what not.
• I have control of my timeline view, so I don't get the sense that there is a corporation pricking me to see how I react.

CONS

• It lacks the viral/addictive aspect [a better person would put that in the PROS]. Because I haven't spent 15 years training twitter to give me what I want, I find myself less amused with my mastodon timeline. I think this is ultimately a good thing, but it could be why it doesn't end up taking with me.
• While I appreciate the geekyness of the whole thing, the learning curve is more than I'm used to for a social media product.
• The instance I set up my account has some classic Fail Whale. This probably means I should throw some money their way.

Anywho, I'm at https://mastodon.social/@coburnicus if you want to find me.

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