mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

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So, assuming I'm not interested in answers like "neither! use !", why would someone use over ? My wife is on Threads and says there's a good vibe over there. I'm not going to join because I don't want any Facebook any my life, but I'm also not representative. Who does bluesky target? People who are anti-Meta but can't figure out signing up for an account like you would email?

gulfkiwi

That kind of took a turn I don't mean. I know a few folks on bluesky and they're fine people, but their vibe seems to be entirely "we're not mastodon because we refuse to talk about ". But I have a very, very small sample size.

@gulfkiwi I don't see a reason to join BlueSky.

They're strategy seems very suspicious and totally based on corporate bullshittery regarding decentralization, the federation protocol, and confusing people enough about those things so that people don't really try messing around with those parts of the infrastructure...🤦‍♂️

@BeAware I don't disagree, but people are clearly deciding Bluesky vs. Threads (and mutually rejecting mastodon) and I'm curious who "bluesky voters" are, what they perceive bluesky as offering.

@gulfkiwi you might have to go to BlueSky to get those answers.

I'd say there's very few "BlueSky positive" folks here that will be able to give you the answer you're looking for.😬🤷‍♂️

@BeAware HA that's the funny part: I have asked friends over there!

The answer in my group was 100% some combination of (1) mastodon is too difficult, (2) mastodon is too judgmental, (3) too much linux, and (4) mastodon doesn't fight enough (that one is probably attributable to one or two specific friends of mine though).

I genuinely don't understand the perspective. People here are nice. Many are genuine world-class experts. And you can block linux keywords.

@gulfkiwi yeah...I don't get it either. Hope you find the answers you're looking for, but I'd guess that you'll probably keep getting those same answers that don't make sense.🤦‍♂️

@gulfkiwi @BeAware
The reasons people are using Blusky over Threads (or Mastodon) is not rational, stationary, or monolithic.

It’s like Coke vs Pepsi, at this point.

@paninid @gulfkiwi I feel like it's more like "You want coke and Pepsi? We have coke and Pepsi at home" and BlueSky is coke and Pepsi at home that's just carbonated water with brown food coloring.

@BeAware@social.beaware.live
You're doing it too, right here.
🙃
I have zero trust in the company either, but don't diss the tool without using it. It is a great tool, really.
And it doesn't have to be one OR the other.

@paninid@mastodon.world @gulfkiwi@mastodon.social

@DavidBHimself @paninid @gulfkiwi I don't need to use it because I see how they're doing things and I don't like it. It's my own personal opinion. Feel free to disagree, but my opinion can't be wrong, it's an opinion.

@BeAware @DavidBHimself @paninid I don't use it because I'm just generally over monolithic social media platforms, regardless of how good they are. That's not even criticism of Bluesky or Threads as such.

@BeAware @DavidBHimself @paninid Though I will note the irony of my ending up on the most generic of mastodon instances because my attempts on smaller ones were unsatisfying.

@gulfkiwi@mastodon.social @BeAware@social.beaware.live There are a few judgmental idiots here. The "HOA" that tries to dictate how Mastodon and the Fediverse should be used, the Leftist Taliban, and a few more groups who are easy to avoid when you know how to use the place, but who give the place a bad name from the outside. The worst part being that they like it gives the place a bad name. The last thing they want is for the Fediverse to grow and thrive. They want it to remain a small thing just for them. And they're succeeding I'm afraid seeing the adaption rate of these past few months.

@DavidBHimself @BeAware I don't disagree there are unpleasant folks here but I've never seen it as really gatekeeping and no different from the usual town jerks you find in any big community. About the only thing I've found here is a very "we will not be twitter again" vibe that tends to lean pretty hard on people who just come to fight--and I came from activist-left-twitter so I'm used to just omg hyperobsessive combat with today's Main Character.

@gulfkiwi@mastodon.social @BeAware@social.beaware.live Oh, I've seen a lot of gatekeeping, a lot...

And the problem is that it is the perception non-users have of Mastodon now. Seriously, I even think the Fediverse has a Mastodon problem more and more and that Mastodon is the main thing preventing the Fediverse from being more widely adopted.

@DavidBHimself @BeAware I am absolutely willing to be wrong because I'm not in any way the demographic to have been gatekept (?) against, but I've tended to see (a) people grumpy about the influx of normies (sic) right at the beginning and (b) the same sort of toxic, hostile sociopathy way too common on the whole Internet. Lots of folks offering a helping hand to people new to mastodon too. So ... maybe culture is changing?

@gulfkiwi@mastodon.social @BeAware@social.beaware.live Maybe the culture has changed (hopefully it has, I don't see much of that attitude anymore, but mostly because I block and mute on sight - and the most hardcore gatekeepers have probably defederated from most other instances but theirs).
Still, regardless of the reality, Mastodon's reputation is made, and it will be very difficult to change it for people who are not active here.

@mackuba @gulfkiwi I'm positive on the technology, negative on the corporation creating it. I think there's a difference, but maybe not.🤷‍♂️

@gulfkiwi @BeAware The reasons I've been given/observed: a more familiar interface (it looks more like Twitter); easier to get started (it has a few nice onboarding features that Mastodon does not); less nerdy; less scoldy and lecturing. Those last two come up a lot. Seems many people joined Mastodon, found it to be quite severe in tone, often getting "scolded" (that term comes up a lot) for various things. The experience on BS is lighter in tone; more liberal and forgiving.

@gulfkiwi @BeAware I hasten to add, I've not really experienced much of the above myself. These are the reasons I see most often given for people abandoning Mastodon and/or preferring BSky. I have seen others complaining about people being kind of annoying here sometimes. E.g., Trying to be too clever or ernest. E.g. cosocial.ca/@evan/113115950955

CoSocialEvan Prodromou (@evan@cosocial.ca)The lengths I have to go to to avoid gotcha replies. 🙄

@hallenbeck @BeAware The strange thing is that I didn't find the onboarding experience to be materially different between the two EXCEPT that BlueSky doesn't (yet) have multiple instances. I don't even see the interface as being much different. I'm perplexed by the visceral reaction the BlueSky folks have to Mastodon. A couple of good friends have given reactions that cannot be interpreted as anything other than "ewww communism" because mastodon isn't owned.

@gulfkiwi @hallenbeck oh, mastodon is DEFINITELY *owned*. Not sure where the idea that it's not, came from...😳

It's owned by Mastodon Gmbh and with that, Eugen Rochko...they're in control of how every mastodon user interacts with the wider Fediverse and can change that at any time without your permission.

@BeAware @hallenbeck mastodon is AGPL-licensed. Anyone can fork it. There's a governance structure for "mastodon" but I don't see that as any different than something like the nixos foundation: the community can take the platform wherever they want.

@gulfkiwi @hallenbeck sure, but how many of us are on forks?

Naivety only goes so far.

Mastodon Gmbh *is* in control here for the most part.

You can fork it, but there's very few who have done so with any major changes.

Forking is only good if it's actually done.

@BeAware @hallenbeck And forking is only necessary if there's a fundamental disagreement regarding direction, which there doesn't seem to have been. Having a governance structure, on the other hand, is a smart organizational strategy.

@hallenbeck @BeAware (doubly weird because they're very, very far to the left and aren't typically inclined to be testy about collectively ownership)