Submitted 9 months ago by silentslinky@sh.itjust.works to [deleted]
I recently tried to join Mastodon, and like Twitter before it, I don’t understand the premise. You follow individuals instead of topics, and if you try to follow hashtags they change on a whim all the time so you’re unlikely to get relevant posts.
Am I missing something, or is the purpose just to shout your opinions into the void? Could any Twitter/Mastodon users explain it to me like I’m 4?
Unlike Twitter, Mastodon seems to rely much more on stable hashtags for discovery. That’s probably because there’s no “the algorithm” like on Twitter. So with Mastodon you very well can subscribe to hashtags and expect them to get reused over time.
Sounds like you understand it pretty well. And dislike it.
That’s it
I’ve never been a Twitter/microblog user, but here’s how I gather it worked, presented in the order in which it was developed.
Do you ever think “oh, that’s a funny/interesting thought I had”, but there’s no one around to tell? Or not enough people and you think it had more potential than that? Microblog. Unlike a forum, you just dump in out into the void as-is. It’s a broadcast. Like if every account was a personal /r/showerthoughts.
From there we make it so I can subscribe to my friends. Now when they post their funny thoughts, or even just being like “I feel like tacos tonight, anyone in SF down?” I’ll get their post. Now it’s kinda like open group texting. Except I don’t choose who sees my random thoughts, they self-select. I just broadcast things out there and whoever might be interested might be interested.
That was basically all that microblogs were, at the beginning. A stream of non-topic’d stuff I said, and you can follow me if you want to hear more like it.
But sometimes I’m surrounded by strangers, like at a conference. At these points I want to know what random people I don’t follow are all saying about FooCamp. Search already exists so I can see all tweets with the word “cat” in it, but I can’t find a way to fit FooCamp organically into every post, so hashtags get invented as a social convention to say “that was my message, but here are some other keywords for search purposes”. Later they got linkified and so people started putting them inline, but originally they were just at the end and just for extra categorization.
So now the tool does two things. I can just broadcast out any thought I have without having to care about where to put it, etc. It all goes on my feed and anyone who has chosen to care about me will see it. And I choose who I care to receive broadcasts from because they’re cool, and it doesn’t matter what they’re talking about. But also I can tag a particular message with some categories, and that will allow strangers to see my messages if they happen to be looking for messages in that category, but obviously a single message can be in multiple categories.
Then later famous people and governments showed up, and people followed them because they love go hear what famous people talk about. But if you don’t follow them, then you don’t hear from them.
That’s basically it! So it’s kinda like the opposite of a reddit/lemmy/forum/usenet model. Rather than topics that have content posted by people, it’s people who post content that sometimes has a topic. Like a large group-chat (among friends or colleagues) where you’re not really sure who is in the chat, but you don’t have to care. You can prefer one over the other (I know I do), but fundamentally they’re not trying to solve the same problem as lemmy, they’re just a totally different model for communication. More like a friend group than a discussion group.
Jesus christ you and me both brother. It’s just a giant stream of fucking word vomit. Where’s the categories topics and subreddits Jesus Christ organize it what the fuck
It’s also frustrating with all the hashtag stuffing. #truth #freedom #socialmedia #chickennuggies
Lol I know. And it’s just filled with people in their opinions. Like I don’t care about you dude I just want to answer questions and give advice on topics and categories and stuff. I don’t care about how you feel about fosteroid and shit like that.
At its best, twitter was group texting, but in public. its evolved into a semi-broadcast form with the expectation that many will read and few will engage, and in both twitter and mastodon the tooling is built for that.
within that, you follow people because they produce content you want, or because you intend to interact. Hashtags are there for topics you are intersted in so you can consume in a more ad-hoc way
I‘m influenced too heavily by my time one Reddit now. When I tried Mastodon and saw something interesting I wanted to read the comments and engage. But then it’s just silence. I might as well talk to the TV.
If you want something similar to Reddit you should try Lemmy. Otherwise Mastodon is (pretty much like Twitter) a fire (shout) and forget principle. Sometimes there are conversations going on, where you can engage in, if you like.
Same experience. If you want people to talk to you on Mastodon you have to insult them LOL that’s how I started getting attention and finally getting fucking followers LOL it’s ridiculous haha
Twitter-style seems to make sense if you’re a public figure or an organization. As a private individual it doesn’t make as much sense unless all you want to do is follow the people/orgs you’re interested in. I tend to use the Lemmy/Reddit model way more.
is the purpose just to shout your opinions into the void?
I don’t know if that is its purpose, but that is how it is used.
I actually like shouting my opinions into the void. Because that way, I’m happy knowing that someone will read it eventually.
Sure. It’s cathartic.
I’ve had luck shouting things into the void before.
It’s good to get things out there sometimes.
Back when it was twitter before I gave up on it, I only really followed artists and people who I thought were funny so really I was just looking for art to retweet if I liked it enough.
Obviously most people don’t use it for this but it sucks cause all those artists scattered now across social media- they’re on instagram which I hate using or some of them went to tumblr and now they rarely even update.
Basically it’s user/brand centric and is why it’s boring as hell. The evil “algorithm” Twitter had tried to add relevant topics to your feed instead of the same copy&paste person posting the same political opinion for the millionth time.
Hashtags serve several different functions on Twitter. I’m not sure how similar Mastadon is in this respect, but here’s some of the purposes:
Areas of interest - so if you support a particular sports team, or like a particular TV show, or whatever, you can search for (and use) hashtags around that topic to find discussion and to make your thoughts more likely to be seen by those interested. These hashtags are likely to remain relevant over a long period of time.
Trending news/issues - when something notable is happening in the world, hashtags are a good way of related information. This could be a sports event, or a breaking news story or whatever. These hashtags are usually going to be relevant only for a limited period of time, but they’re useful for in-the-moment info/discussion
Jokes/Messages - this is like an ultracompressed and more focused version of the above. So if someone posts something they think, and uses a hashtag (which changes the text colour and thus draws the eye), it can be simply to highlight that message, a bit like using bold or italics. This is only likely to be relevant to the individuals involved in the conversation, although followers may get something from it too. They’re usually intended for one-off use, not for long or even medium term grouping of ideals or information - although their use can also be part of a wider trend.
See, for example, instances of people adding #OKBoomer onto a tweet - it’s adding tone of voice and attitude to the main tweet, but it also slots into a wider trend of similar messages relating to intergenerational conflict or disagreement. It can also be used in an ironic way, referring to the more earnest usage of the tag, in order to make a humorous, or self-deprecating point.
Overall hashtags can be very versatile and useful. And even fun.
#ThankYouForComingToMyTEDTalk
Microblogging is for following individuals and for general public sentiment vs forums which are for following specific topics and communities
Twitter in the old days and Mastodon now I treat as custom news feeds, you subscribe to people or entities you’re interested in hearing news from and there you have it. I find it much less useful as a platform for having discussions or browsing for pleasure than Reddit in the old days and Lemmy now, which as you say is topic-focused rather than individual focused.
I didn’t get it until I found the artists on Twitter. Unfortunately, they’re now scattering all over the place with Elon’s bullshit.
I have one artist friend on Mastodon, Arsbin@mastodon.art, but so far she’s the only one.
I never cared much for the political or celebrity bullshit on Twitter.
Can’t speak for Twitter as I wasn’t really on it, but Mastodon I pretty much use for the same topics as I use Lemmy, except if it’s a longer more discussion-wanting post it goes on one and if it’s a short casual posts it goes on the other. Don’t bother much with the home feed I just stick with my topics of interest.
Often, I’ll post to Lemmy from Mastodon when something is relevant to both, which means I’m chatting to both groups at once in the replies.
Right now there’s a communal crafting event going on over there with its own hashtag, and tons of people I’ve never interacted with before are taking part, so that’s fun and a nice wholesome time.
It’s just a slightly different format for talking about the same stuff, from my pov.
The only use I’ve ever had for Twitter was THE public place to post notices on the internet. Bands, comedians and other touring performers could post concert dates, etc.
The end of that Sparah commercial from Virgin Mobile “I’m so confused” “That right there? That’s a tweet. Tweet that shit!” is mostly what actually happened though, which is why I didn’t have a Twitter account for long.
Correct, but that doesn’t explain hash tags. I’m equally as confused as OP. By the time you sub to a hashtag, it’s abandoned lol
I always figured that was to make it easy to search for relevant messages after the fact.
I followed artists, comedians, reporters etc. Micoblogging is just shouting into the void and folks shouting back.
I’ve actually found some good artists posting good stuff on Twitter.
Too bad I wanna quit Twitter, hope to find them on Mastodon.
PS: I know it’s X, but fuck Elon Musk.
Someone suggested referring to it as Ex-Twitter.
Yeah you follow people. Whats confusing?
Same honestly, never really understood what’s so good about any of them.
I have not noticed hashtags I follow changing much at all. Can you give an example of this?
Well coffee can be an interesting one. Some people use it to post about interesting coffees and others just use it in their “beautiful morning” post.
There was another I forget what it was, but it ended up pulling in startrek fans instead of whatever it was the hashtag was normally used for.
Yes, I could see that happening for broad topics. Most of the hashtags I follow are less broad, like #cityname, #backpacking and things like that. Most of my feed is follows of users I have interest in and it took a lot of effort to find those accounts.
The twitter format is a pub/sub format, it’s not really about group discussions. It’s for if you are a creator or business and want people who care about your output to be able to follow your announcements. E.g streamers who want to announce when they’re about to go live, artists who want to post their content (though personally I wish they’d do that on art gallery sites), game devs who want to give news to fans, etc etc.
The comments have already explained it, it seems; Twitter/Mastodon (microblogging) is for broadcasting your shower thoughts, for when writing a lengthy essay post isn’t appropriate.
It took me some time getting used to how Twitter worked, but eventually I got the hang of it and I liked it. I can’t for the life of me get used to Mastodon, though. Maybe something to do with the layout that I don’t like…
That’s my understanding as well, never understood its appeal as a social platform, tried to use it for a few months but it’s shouting into the void and loudest voice wins. Tis a silly place.
i personally have a firefish account but it hasn’t really ‘clicked’ for me. i don’t follow a whole ton of people so my personal feed is pretty slow. i’ve had a couple of meaningful interactions but on there and before the latest elon meltdown i was aware of some interesting ARGs/spooky threads on the birdsite but otherwise i don’t really vibe with microblogging.
i was made aware of spacehey recently and i adore any social media with that level of customization but my issue is that i really don’t have anything to blog about. maybe i need to lead a more exciting life? lol
I’m the same way. I tried Twitter several times, and I am occasionally on Mastodon, but the format just does not suit me. Different people have different styles of engagement and that one seems to work well for some. I was primarily a reddit user and now I use Lemmy and kbin in a similar way.
scytale@lemm.ee 9 months ago
You’re just not a fan of the micro blogging format. I myself have never had a personal twitter account but tried mastodon a while back. I eventually stopped using it because I had nothing much to post and I didn’t like the short form style for having a conversation, especially if there are multiple people commenting. I much prefer forum style discussion because of nested threads (lemmy, reddit, etc.). Also, microblogging has a personal element in that it’s about who is posting, vs forums like lemmy which more about the topic posted rather than the person who posted it.
TheHawaiianKoala@kbin.social 9 months ago
Same but I tried Firefish (formerly Calckey) instead. Used it for a week or two and now am just using Kbin
PrettyBlackDress@lemdit.com 9 months ago
Bingo
cubedsteaks@lemmy.today 9 months ago
are there any artists on mastadon? I feel like I have given mastadon so many chances but never really find anything worthwhile there.