Where Did Everyone Go?

nedbatchelder.com

5 pointszoidb3 comments

I want to like Mastodon but sadly it suffers from the same disease that every other app does: politics.

If I go to Fosstodon or Infosec Exchange, my expectation is that when I click the Explore button - I am going to see content specific to that topic/instance, but that sadly isn't the case at all.

Just opening Fosstodon[0] now to prove my point: I scrolled three times and 5 out of the 15 "trending" posts are about politics. The same repetitive garbage you'll find everywhere else.

[0]: https://fosstodon.org/explore

I hear complaints like this a lot, and it seems like a basic misunderstanding of Mastodon. It's not a place, and it's not a single service. It's a piece of software, run on thousands of instances by thousands of operators, and used by millions of people. "Mastodon is political" is like saying, "email is political." Find a different instance, and/or follow different people.

Adding on to this great point… it only seems like a matter of time before the ecosystem becomes sophisticated enough to solve these problems. Tools and addon services will fill the gap to provide whatever niche experiences people are looking for.

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