1) Mastodon instances are, for the most part, way smaller than Twitter. Playing whack-a-mole with spammers and Nazis isn't fun, but finding people who want to do it doesn't turn out to be impossible. I'm not sure AI is a better solution than (relatively) large numbers of people who care and have skin in the game within their own communities.
2) Users have a lot more control over their home timelines than on Twitter. The ability to turn off boosts is great on days when the network is all up in arms about something. Similarly, the lack of trending topics is something of a calming influence.
3) Users timelines aren't dictated by an algorithm (that rewards engagement for advertising purposes etc). There are still outrage cycles, but they feel different in ways I struggle to articulate.
4) If users aren't happy with the moderation policies on their home instance, they can switch to another one (and I think importing followers/followees is automated now).
No, we cannot stop Nazis creating instances of their own. But putting them mostly in their own echo chamber means that it's possible for the rest of us to participate widely on Mastodon with much less hassle and risk. I am not sure that bifurcation is such a problem in that context.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2022-04-29 11:47 am (UTC)1) Mastodon instances are, for the most part, way smaller than Twitter. Playing whack-a-mole with spammers and Nazis isn't fun, but finding people who want to do it doesn't turn out to be impossible. I'm not sure AI is a better solution than (relatively) large numbers of people who care and have skin in the game within their own communities.
2) Users have a lot more control over their home timelines than on Twitter. The ability to turn off boosts is great on days when the network is all up in arms about something. Similarly, the lack of trending topics is something of a calming influence.
3) Users timelines aren't dictated by an algorithm (that rewards engagement for advertising purposes etc). There are still outrage cycles, but they feel different in ways I struggle to articulate.
4) If users aren't happy with the moderation policies on their home instance, they can switch to another one (and I think importing followers/followees is automated now).
No, we cannot stop Nazis creating instances of their own. But putting them mostly in their own echo chamber means that it's possible for the rest of us to participate widely on Mastodon with much less hassle and risk. I am not sure that bifurcation is such a problem in that context.