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Trying Out Ivory (and General Thoughts on Mastodon)

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When I left Twitter last week, it wasn’t on a whim. I had been considering it for a long time…like middle of the pandemic long.

As people jumped ship from Twitter, Mastodon seemed to be the clear front-runner for replacing Twitter.

I’m hesitant at best, but Tapbots (from the makers of the incomparable Tweetbot), have put out a Mastodon client called Ivory, and I’ve decided to give it t try for a bit.

The app is really, really nice! It has most of the things I love about Tweetbot already, without the ridiculous API limitations that Twitter started to impose over the last 6-7 years.

Something especially nice is how it “consolidates” the Fediverse, abstracting away the server names from the usernames1.

One of the most frustrating interactions is that when you want to follow someone on a different server2, you need to copy their username and paste it into your server’s search.

If I keep using Mastodon, it will through this app. It’s big if though.

I Don’t Really Want to Replace Twitter

Part of the reason I left Twitter is how aggravating trends, tweets, and interactions were. That’s not a platform problem, that’s a people problem.

Jason Snell has pointed this out on Upgrade, and on Connected last week, Federico Viticci said there’s a faction of Mastodon users who are trying to make “people from the bird site” unwelcome3.

The point being, Mastodon doesn’t fix people. There will always be cowardly jerks who hide behind a keyboard, using social media to be mean because there are very few real consequences for them.

I spent years carefully curating what I saw I Twitter. It came crumbling down with the end of third-party apps and forcing the “Home” feed over the “Following” feed.

I don’t have the energy or the inclination to do that again on Mastodon.

I’m very happy interacting on LinkedIn, which feels like less of a firehouse, at least today, more of a place for honest to goodness helpful interactions.

  1. I once said Mastodon is like if you and your friends agree to go see a movie, and show up at different times and in different theaters. I stand by that. ?
  2. Something I didn’t even know you could do until my friend Brian told me ?
  3. He didn’t put it exactly like that, but that’s the impression I get. ?

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2 Comments

  2. I guess if I’m going to spend time there, I need this question answered: “What makes Mastodon better for connections than Twitter?”

    I didn’t extract much value from Twitter. So unless Mastodon can prove it’s more valuable, I don’t see the benefit of being there.

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