Finally realized what Mastodon makes me think off. Remember in all those cheesy 80's/90''s books and Shadowrun novels how the hackers had their own secret online hangouts normal people couldn't get to?
@Samizdata It's the opposite of those, but it has a little of that old FidoNet vibe.
Perhaps slightly less quirky than previously. We should bring the quirky back.
@Samizdata I'll grant you that — the federation taking place more than just daily ZMH helps a lot with conversation flow!
I had thought that the FTN vibe was a product of the delay: extra time spent reading and crafting replies to echoes and netmails, penpal style, because of the latency in batch delivery. Redrafting.
It is pleasing to see that I might've been wrong about the lack of immediacy being a strong factor.
@akr I will agree to disagree. It's got the whole delocalized aspect, but it is so much more responsive than FidoNet (I used to run a WWIV FidoNet node). Trying to do my part to bring the quirk while still saying something meaningful.