I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.

[astrashe@mas.to]

@taylorlorenz Youtube works for Google, X works for Musk, Facebook works for Zuckerberg. But Mastodon works for us. No one else's interests or desires come before ours.

[knord@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz There's no central entity that can control what you see, when. And even if a single instance tried to do that, its users could just migrate to another instance.

[meltedcheese@c.im]

@taylorlorenz It is all about choice. As a reader, I see only what the people I follow post, plus what they boost. Not what some marketing algorithm thinks I should see. As a writer, it is about being assured that my followers have a chance to see my posts. No guarantees, but I’m not paying to be seen.

[jab01701mid@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz 1 - There is no "algorithm" - you see posts from those you follow, unless you choose to explore.
2 - Your platform of choice does not make money by selling your personal information.

[petersibley@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz no elon , no zuck by technical design?

[katrinakatrinka@infosec.exchange]

@taylorlorenz
It might be useful to reference the recent news on censorship on TikTok and BlueSky and Threads and Instagram.

I like my instance's rules, but if they ever change, I can keep my name and followers and just switch instances to one where I can continue as I have been. I don't have to worry about who owns the gated garden I'm allowed to interact in or how they feel about our demented dictator's whims from minute to minute.

It's more stable. It's also more international. I know what other people think around the world.

[clew@ecoevo.social]

It’s like having a neighborhood as well as the global connection, and the health of the neighborhood depends on you and the neighbors.

@taylorlorenz

[wjmaggos@liberal.city]

@taylorlorenz

the magic of this place is that it gives the people all the power over what info, ideas and art gets attention. not governments or billionaire owners of media or corporate platforms. (not sure they'd want to hear that)

the problems with social media come down to the algos, not social media itself. that's what we're proving. the algos push a tabloid culture cause they know we'll pay attention to junk, even if we'd never share it. so they push the junk and our culture dets debased.

[plwt@mstdn.social]

@taylorlorenz It's by and about the people.

[h_tejas@newsie.social]

@taylorlorenz Content moderation is decentralized and therefore more localized and spread out. Dispute redressal feels much more interpersonal than on corporate platforms.

[ericdere@mastodon.nl]

@taylorlorenz And local laws apply, not from the US.

[haubles@hachyderm.io]

@taylorlorenz

Mastodon is the anti-influence platform

On the social web we are
- free from the influence of megalomaniacs or any one person
- free from the influence of VCs and profit motivations
- free from the influence of algorithmic manipulation

Plus as a bonus, you can follow a friend's "Instagram" from your "Twitter" account

#Fediverse #Mastodon #SocialWeb

[lor@goingdark.social]

@taylorlorenz

An oligarch with extreme views cannot buy the whole thing and turn it into a data mining, propaganda shit show. See X.

With Mastodon if someone turns an instance into something you do not approve of, you can move your entire acct to a new instance w/out losing followers.

[darkghosthunter@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz Basically, "having a small Twitter or Facebook". Most of these do not have ads, manipulative algorithms, or hidden agendas.

Like a any web application, tech savvy people are in charge of hosting it, but its easier nowadays.

Being decentralized like a spider web, you can still interact with people from other Mastodon servers, or even people from Threads. That's "The Fediverse".

Some may focus on particular interests or groups, making it easier to interact with other people.

[andybrwn@sfba.social]

@taylorlorenz We’re not force fed an oligarchs’ interests.

[bjb@fosstodon.org]

@taylorlorenz @HenrikBruunDK

And the commercial ones can decide to charge you for access to your community.

[skotchygut@social.seattle.wa.us]

@taylorlorenz easy. I can explore whatever shows up on my feed without worrying about it showing up in my ad portfolio. It took time for this is sink in. My curiosity or lack of ability to understand what a link is before a click it no longer punishes me by assuming that I am now into whatever that was. It's like getting out of an abusive relationship when they question everything I do.

[dataangler@vis.social]

@taylorlorenz Nothing new really--just that we make the algorithm with boosting often and following widely. The effort I spend in getting into streams of content is worth the satisfaction of enriching multiple aspects of my life. Knowing that a billionaire cannot ensh*ttify this is also a big plus because the present-day game plan seems to be billionaire + media outlet = ashes.

[zymurgic@mastodon.online]

@taylorlorenz imagine picking and choosing what to read rather than having if rammed down your throat with 'suggested content ' that you can't avoid, where you are the algorithm.

[nikatjef@mastodon.acm.org]

@RowinSpeez
That last is actually not quite true... At least two servers that I was on did change their platform multiple times and even had adds.

But I was able to simply move to different servers without losing the content I wanted to see.

@taylorlorenz