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Meta: I wasn't on fediverse/Mastodon until the 2025 #OpenSource Initiative Board Elections.

It's been a journey learning this; I haven't used microblogging (I refuse to call it “social media” , but no, I won't correct you for not using the term I prefer) since ye ol' identi.ca & status.net. (@richardfontana pointed out: many people here weren't born yet when he & I used to debate there.)

Mastodon UX is surprisingly good, but, boy “DMs/privmsg is called “private mention”” is darn confusing.

#OpenSource @Richard Fontana
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Amir Khan
Amir Khan
• •
I’d call Mastodon a microblogging platform as well. But not X, Meta. When there’s there’s algorithmic manipulation involved I call it Social Media
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

warthog9
warthog9
• •
if it's any consolation, I for one have greatly appreciated having you over here and seeing this play out more directly.
in reply to Michael Dexter

Michael Dexter
Michael Dexter
• •
Try Fedilab if you’re on Android. Hopefully it checks your licensing checkboxes, which is difficult in the mobile space.
in reply to Michael Dexter

Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
• •
I think some misread my first post in this thread.
I meant: while it took me a while to learn the platform, UX is smooth (on all clients I have tried, in fact) that my only complaint is “DM is ‘private mention’” thing.
I'm old school & still believe in the pithy adage: “if software was hard to write, it should be hard to use”, so having just one complaint for a large system like this seems like I live in a fantasy land…except the non-meta content then reminds me I live in a hellscape of course😬
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Michael Downey 🧢
Michael Downey 🧢
• •

The whole DM/Private-Mention/Mentioned-Only stuff has been an ongoing struggle for the devs, years in the making.

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i…

#MastoAdmin


"Privately mention" is a confusing name without further elaboration · Issue #24837 · mastodon/mastodon

Steps to reproduce the problem I checked how to send someone a private message and clicked the "..." menu button on their profile for that purpose I only found "Privately mention ", and that sounds...
GitHub
#MastoAdmin
in reply to Michael Downey 🧢

Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
• •
wow, that bug ticket thread re: “private mention” actually *is* in my beloved tradition of “hard to write, then it's hard to use”.
Seems developers have a data model of microblogging & they abstract DM into that data model b/c it has that neat & clean OO feeling you get when every subclass roots (& routes!😁) back to the One True Base Class.
It's mildly comforting to know every generation of programmers wants One Ring to Rule Them All…💍
…But remember how that worked out for Gollum, folks!
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Richard Fontana
Richard Fontana
• •
@downey in fairness to Gollum I don't think he was aware of the existence of the other Rings of Power
@Michael Downey 🧢
in reply to Richard Fontana

Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
• •

Fascinating. I lack Steven Coblert's Tolkien lore recall, but had this head-canon: since Gollum spied on Frodo & Sam so long, Gollum knew everything they did.

OTOH I don't remember if Gandalf told Frodo about the other rings😬

I see now my unforced error was bringing up Gollum at all, as it exposed I score poorly on Tolkien portion of Nerd Credibility test.

But I got a good joke:As a frequent #OpenSource event-goer, I am annoyed most event organizers don't seem to know about Second Breakfast.

#OpenSource

Bradley M. Kuhn reshared this.

in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Richard Fontana
Richard Fontana
• •
Gandalf told Frodo about the other rings, the first time in a conversation that Sam famously eavesdropped on. But at that time Gollum presumably wasn't nearby (he doesn't seem to have been in proximity to Frodo and Sam until they get to Moria). It's possible he picked info on this from them or others at later times, but it seems a little unlikely to me. Maybe lore about the Rings of Power was more widely known?Regarding Second Breakfast though, that makes me think of coffee ∀ 😀
in reply to Richard Fontana

Richard Fontana
Richard Fontana
• •
Just skimmed "The Shadow of the Past" chapter. Gandalf seems to imply that knowledge about the Rings of Power at that point was pretty much limited to 'the Wise' (him, Saruman, and the more clued-in Elves, basically)
in reply to Richard Fontana

Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
• •

I like that all I have to do is mention a few obscure bits of lore and can cause
@richardfontana to go off and research primary sources just to prove me wrong.

This dynamic convinces me it's time to bring back the Fontana/Kuhn debates to a micro blogging platform near you

@Richard Fontana
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Stefano Zacchiroli
Stefano Zacchiroli
• •
Oh no! (as in: "oh yes"!). Should I feel responsible for this, due to a certain FOSDEM 2025 dinner conversation about Mastodon, UX, engagement, etc.?
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)
in reply to Stefano Zacchiroli

Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
• •

No, it's actually b/c I needed a place to campaign for the #OpenSource Initiative elections and & bloggjng to do it wasn't interactive enough.

I am not sure what I'll do with this account after the #OSI situation is addressed.

As you may recall, @zacchiro, in that conversation at #FOSDEM that you mention, I pointed out that I do think microblogging is addictive and often pushes people toward baser form of discourse.

I will write more about this after OSI stuff reaches safe background level.

#OpenSource #FOSDEM #osi @Stefano Zacchiroli
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)
Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)
• •

I do hope you'll continue to participate here, at least occasionally. It is an imperfect medium, but it does have its benefits.

Since I travel a lot less these days, it helps me feel more connected to the larger community in a way that blogging / writing on LWN does not. Sure, I have interactions in the comments there, but I find it nice to keep up with people beyond the things that rise to the level of writing a blog. @zacchiro

@Stefano Zacchiroli
in reply to Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)

Stefano Zacchiroli
Stefano Zacchiroli
• •
@jzb I agree it's useful, especially for activism, but also sympathize with the idea that social media is inherently addictive. Mastodon has a lot of great countermeasures at the UX level against that, but there's something very deep that's likely impossible to avoid entirely. I think I've reached a good middle ground and I'm currently happy with my Mastodon usage. But I still find myself periodically reconsider whether my life would be better without *any* social media at all.
@Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)
in reply to Stefano Zacchiroli

Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)
Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)
• •
@zacchiro Perhaps we need a FOSS insiders mailing list or something... though, I still need an outlet for cat pictures. @bkuhn
@Stefano Zacchiroli @Bradley M. Kuhn
in reply to Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)

Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn
• •

@jzb I think we have enough secret backchannels. I don't mind public discussion, but using a clearly addictive platform may not be the best place for it.

But I'm being imprecise in my explanations of all this. I'm going to write a fulsome blogpost about my concerns about microblogging even if it's FOSS after this OSI mess radiates to a safe background level.

CC: @zacchiro @richardfontana

@Stefano Zacchiroli @Joe Brockmeier (@jzb) @Richard Fontana
in reply to Bradley M. Kuhn

Elena ``of Valhalla''
Elena ``of Valhalla''
•

@Bradley M. Kuhn @Richard Fontana yes.

yes.

yes.

this.

(also, the fediverse, or at least the slice of fediverse I'm on, is *very* suitable for that kind of interaction)

@Richard Fontana @Bradley M. Kuhn

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