47 replies

1. Scott Macdonald 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇨🇺 3 min later

   @zachleat Nicely said. Happy reboot!

   1. Zach Leatherman 13 min later

      @scott_eff Thanks Scott!

2. Tammy Makes Things 5 min later

   @zachleat I think people didn’t realize when Facebook and Twitter were starting how much power we were giving the algorithms. And more importantly, how much incentive we were creating for people to try to manipulate the algorithms, and to shape what they said, for their own ends. Hopefully we don’t make the same mistakes here. 🤞

   1. Zach Leatherman 12 min later

      @tammymakesthings Yes, the intentional manipulation was so dangerous—and it worked, too.

      1. Tammy Makes Things 18 min later

         @zachleat Human nature is that we shape our behavior to the incentives we’re given. And now a large swath of our society lives in a constant state of manufactured outrage. It’s one way to get that dopamine hit, for sure, but it’s so incredibly corrosive. I don’t think we realized that until much too late in the game.

         1. Zach Leatherman 21 min later

            @tammymakesthings Yes! I just realized the parallel between this and leaving Facebook years ago—some of the same feelings happening.

            (nature is healing)

            1. Tammy Makes Things 33 min later

               @zachleat I still have too many connections on Facebook that aren’t easily portable to leave it. (I’m realistically never going to get my mom to use Mastodon, for example.) But understanding the problem has definitely changed how I interact with the platform, which is a net good thing as long as I have to be there.

   2. Charles J Gervasi ⚡🛡️🥥 2 hr later

      @tammymakesthings @zachleat
      Shortly after I got on Twitter in ’09, I realized I could only really follow so many people, esp I followed accounts that tweeted a lot. Twitter came up with the algorithm that allowed me follow hundreds of accounts, with the algorithm picking which tweets I saw.
      We will have to develop our own tools here. I definitely don’t want an opaque algorithm designed to maximize my time on the site deciding. It seems like a problem with no easy answer.

      1. Zach Leatherman 2 hr later

         @cgervasi @tammymakesthings I really prefer the sequential timeline and don’t want an “algorithm” beyond that

3. Bastian Allgeier 5 min later

   @zachleat I had exactly the same thoughts. For me it's a lot about my negativity bias. I find myself surprised here by all the positive conversations. I obviously now have this built-in suspicion that the next asshole lurks behind the next reply. I really don't want to assume this per default. I feel quite a bit manipulated there.

   1. Zach Leatherman 11 min later

      @bastianallgeier yeah! I felt the same when I deleted my Facebook account years ago—a sense of relief. Feeling a bit of that now, too.

      1. Bastian Allgeier 18 min later

         @zachleat 💯 it's actually very comparable. There's a certain FOMO at the beginning but it starts to vanish and then it's just glorious.

         1. Charles Roper 1 hr later

            @bastianallgeier @zachleat Relief for me is twofold. I left in 2018 but never found a true replacement. To find such a vibrant community here right now… Relief is definitely the word. 🙂

4. Fesh 14 min later

   @zachleat the algorithms never helped do anything but encourage negative behaviors. I wanted to learn more about building software but usually ended up seeing the most controversial posts. I prefer this way. I’d rather scroll through hundreds of toots than have rage pushed to the top of my feeds

   1. Zach Leatherman 17 min later

      @gonzofish Same!!

5. Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊) 1 hr later

   @zachleat So true. It was getting to the point where I could post some thing helpful or interesting in some way, get almost zero engagement. Then post a hot take on something, boom 💥 goes semi-viral. Maybe at first that's a bit exciting, but then after a while, you realize you're just feeding the monster & it's chipping away at your soul. Yikes! 😱

   1. Brian Rinaldi 1 hr later

      @jaredwhite @zachleat Twitter's algorithms encouraged controversy and argument. I will miss two things in the near term though:

      1. The 15+ years worth of professional connections I built on there (and let's be honest DMs on here aren't great atm)

      2. A place to promote my free developer events that actually reaches developers. The alternatives right now do not which is already making building awareness extra difficult.

      1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

         @remotesynth @jaredwhite yeah, there are downsides—but there are other upsides too (especially when thinking long term)!

         The cheapest short term thrill is that I get my own custom emoji 😅

      2. Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊) 2 hr later

         @remotesynth @zachleat Yeah, those points are definitely weighing on me at present. hence: https://indieweb.social/@jaredwhite/109325993992642331

         It makes me think we need something that's a bit of a cross between DEV and Twitter…but I have nothing but unformulated thoughts atm…

6. Daniel Schildt 1 hr later

   @zachleat Fortunately there were always also positive voices that focused on a good and uplifting things in life. Such as you. Your solid focus on helping others have made many a lot happier, in many ways. And you do it because you like helping people. And that is also why people like you a lot.

7. Luis Pinto 🌀 1 hr later

   @zachleat I definitely think that the resistant to move over here are the ones that are deeply addicted to that type controversy and negativity, which caters to the most basic and ugly instincts of the human beings! Being negative is much much easier that being positive and to bring constructive arguments to the table!

   1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

      @lpinto yes, the same with jokes—mean jokes are cheap but easy to get a laugh 👎🏻

      1. Luis Pinto 🌀 2 hr later

         @zachleat yeap, intelligent humour is also very hard to achieve! And in Twitter everyone is a "sitdown" comedian!

8. Chris Coyier 2 hr later

   @zachleat thanks for tooting.

   I'm a smidge jealous of your solo setup

   1. Scott Kellum 2 hr later

      @chriscoyier @zachleat You can do it too Chris! Playing with the CSS on your own instance is very fun.

   2. Zach Leatherman 2 hr later

      @chriscoyier I can’t stop tooting, going to see my doctor about it next week

      the coolest thing so far in comparison to twitter, oddly enough, is custom emoji: :11ty:

      1. Scott Kellum 2 hr later

         @zachleat @chriscoyier I’m so happy with my stylesheet, although it does have plenty of bugs but they are my bugs that I created.

         Also yes emoji!!! :typetura: :samandmiri: :miri: :sam:

         1. Dave 🧱 2 hr later

            @scott @zachleat @chriscoyier Wow this is lovely! Also, I don't recall getting into the NFT game 😂

            1. Scott Kellum 2 hr later

               @DavidDarnes @zachleat @chriscoyier Thanks 😅 I’ve been toying with our new branding for ”typographic packages” and now everything is in an isometric box … that just so happens to be a hexagon … that just so happens to be how birdsite showed NFTs …

         2. Chris Coyier 2 hr later

            @scott @zachleat that's awesome.

            where my mind is at right now is I wanna like build a "theme" for https://github.com/nolanlawson/pinafore because it's already so fast seems like it would be a good foundation.

   3. Dave 🧱 2 hr later

      @chriscoyier @zachleat I’m this 🤏🏻 close to doing it myself with darn.es domain

      1. Zach Leatherman 2 hr later

         @DavidDarnes @chriscoyier (do it)

         1. Dave 🧱 2 hr later

            @zachleat @chriscoyier I mean DigitalOcean has a 1-click thingy for it https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/mastodon

            1. Tane Piper ⁂ 2 hr later

               @DavidDarnes @zachleat @chriscoyier I looked at the costs and @mastohost is cheaper for sure (when it's back). The minimum droplet you could seriously run it on is $24 a month

               1. Tane Piper ⁂ 2 hr later

                  @DavidDarnes @zachleat @chriscoyier @mastohost (and that's without backup - you could maybe run it on a $18 🤷‍♂️ and get backups)

                  1. Dave 🧱 2 hr later

                     @tanepiper @zachleat @chriscoyier @mastohost Makes me wonder if they should up they pricing to help sustainability and slow down the influx of signups

                     1. Tane Piper ⁂ 2 hr later

                        @DavidDarnes I guess based on the infra it's priced right - my single instance runs on a server and has a fixed number of threads and space - but I can see on the server there is still plenty of space - but I guess it'll be network/CPU that spikes

                        1. Dave 🧱 2 hr later

                           @tanepiper more concerned about the people working on it than the infrastructure. It’s needs to be worth their time

               2. Charles Roper 3 hr later

                  @tanepiper @DavidDarnes @zachleat @chriscoyier @mastohost How much would it be from the @beasts? I like their style.

                  1. Dave 🧱 3 hr later

                     @charlesroper @tanepiper @zachleat @chriscoyier @mastohost @beasts if I’m that far gone maybe I should blow the dust off my Raspberry Pi and do it myself 😂

            2. MWDelaney 4 hr later

               @DavidDarnes @zachleat @chriscoyier eesh I feel like I spent most of the 2000s hosting my own things, and most of the 2010s divesting myself of those, and I’m happier on a daily basis…

               1. Dave 🧱 4 hr later

                  @mwdelaney @zachleat @chriscoyier it’s hard to find the balance between ownership and “quality of life” when interacting online

         2. Noah Liebman 2 hr later

            @zachleat @DavidDarnes @chriscoyier what’s the easiest way to do it now that masto.host is on hold? DigitalOcean? (probably just worth waiting for managed hosting to scale back up)

            1. Dave 🧱 2 hr later

               @noleli @zachleat @chriscoyier yep looks like it https://mastodon.design/@DavidDarnes/109326291520167418

   4. Sam Smith 5 hr later

      @chriscoyier @zachleat I wouldn't have thought you could install on a subdomain but use the root domain as your handle, that's pretty neat 😎

      1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

         @smth @chriscoyier yeah! just a few redirects https://social.jacobian.org/@jacob/109247399870935153

9. Stephen Hay 2 hr later

   @zachleat I think it did change how many of us interacted. And it kind of snuck up on us. https://front-end.social/web/@stephenhay/109326243917930938