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

[krupo@infosec.exchange]

@wiredfire falling down @cmconseils 's meme tunnel was not what I expected to do this evening but I got some great laughs and it reminded me of another thing few people have mentioned to @taylorlorenz - the extensive and enthusiastic use of #alttext to not only make this place more inclusive for those who need it but to make content easier to understand (and in the case of jokes flying over peoples' heads... Also because they need it).

[krupo@infosec.exchange]

@taylorlorenz @ben the other thing that struck me ages ago was that if I got notifications on Twitter I'd get a bit of an anxiety spike as the network got progressively more toxic.

Here, it's 99% pleasant and when it's not, it's still not stressful, just a case of folks getting a little too earnestly pedantic and even those edge cases are weirdly endearing.

[krupo@infosec.exchange]

@taylorlorenz @bigolewannabe and given the weird ways Google has been presumably trying to fight spam, it's in some ways breaking email.

I try to email folks from my third party email service and Gmail will periodically block my legitimate messages if I cc too many Gmail people, so I have to use a mass email product instead to reach them which.... Hurts my head.

[krupo@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird @livcomp I mean the world is bigger than the US. Federal or Confederation, to think in Canadian, is considered a good thing elsewhere

[momo@social.linux.pizza]

@alessandro
You mean kinda like Bezos owns Amazon (with Amazon Prime Video) and the Washington Post?
@taylorlorenz

[juergen_hubert@mementomori.social]

@taylorlorenz

I tend to argue with the infamous Enshittification cycle:

Commercial platforms are initially good for users until they capture the market. Then they make things worse for users in order to sell them out to other commercial interests. Then they make things worse for their business partners too in order to make more money.

Decentralized, non-commercial media avoid this trap:

They have no financial motive to make the user experience worse.

And if a specific instance does get worse, their users can move elsewhere and take their social media connections with them.

Thus, decentralized, non-commercial social media can actually get _better_ over time, while commercial "walled gardens" will only get worse over time.

[krupo@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird @diraquel @utopiarte notifications from my closest friends are my solution too

[dp0@mastodon.social]

@catnip @taylorlorenz Interconnectivity, the way the internet was meant to be. No matter which provider, client, or technology you're using, you still can connect an communicate with everyone.

Corporations want to achieve that through monopolies, whilst the fediverse (of which Mastodon is part of) does so by using common and non-proprietary standards.

[nomenloony@nomenloony.com]

@dannotdaniel @taylorlorenz my version is that it can't be bought by billionaires, and if a billionaire sweeps in and buys a large server we just fediblock that server.

See also Bluesky.

[eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@taylorlorenz i would personally focus on how fedi, by its nature, is moderated by real people with a real stake in their community. i think much of why this platform is better than corporate platforms is moderation via social contract

[livcomp@hachyderm.io]

@krupo @futurebird for sure it is, and the USA is also kinda deflating these days.. i think all roads should lead to 'fediverse' as the place we are and the place to be.

[wolvericcatkin@tech.lgbt]

@taylorlorenz Tbh, the most challenging benefit to highlight, is how much abusive content your admins are probably protecting you from... The one experience of harassment I have had since I started using Mastodon was also pretty cool, as after I reported the account, their instance administrators almost immediately handled it, by deleting their account... Maybe they'd just been going under the radar, but I guess they didn't like their extensive history of that sort of behaviour...

[reddog@syzito.xyz]

@ScottGrimmett @taylorlorenz I have one to sell.

[cmconseils@mastodon.social]

@wiredfire @taylorlorenz @krupo meme tunnel

[krupo@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird @livcomp my long term project is to move some volunteering work to this platform and this mega thread has been a useful well of ideas on how to justify the move to the rest of my team.

The almost resolved question that has been my main personal stumbling block has been deciding on which instance to select.

[aesthr@wandering.shop]

@haubles @taylorlorenz that first one really isn’t true though. The fediverse has harmful parasocial and group dynamics just like every other social space. And the concentration of power in instance admins sure adds to that.

[wolvericcatkin@tech.lgbt]

@weezmgk Did you go into the settings of your existing account, and point it to your new account?

[weezmgk@mastodon.social]

@WolvericCatkin probably not since I don't know how to do that

[peterbrown@mastodon.scot]

@DataAngler @taylorlorenz well they’re applying what the Nazis learned 100 years ago. You have to control the means of communication which enables you to control the message.
We have a coterie of billionaires who control the printed press and most of the media, but mastodon is outwith their purvey so we can do what we like!

[wolvericcatkin@tech.lgbt]

@weezmgk Yeah, it's been a core part of the platform as long as I've been a user (since 2022...?), but it's a process you need to actively initiate. I don't remember where it is exactly, but if you open the web app, there should be a section in your account settings, to initiate a migration and deactivate your existing account...