I quit Twitter a few years ago, shortly after it was taken over. While Bluesky is lively now, it was not a real option in that antique year of 2022. Instead Mastodon was the favorite alternative.
It’s nice to have as an alternative, and the concept of a social network that is actually a network and not a megacorporation is good. But Mastodon has it’s problems.
This is not an in depth critique of Mastodon, I just happened to read some people echoing my feeling recently and wanted to add my thoughts.
The first issue is relatively niche, in that you are not likely to be aware of it if you don’t run your own servers for anything. Rachelbythebay complains about the way the fediverse hammers your server for link previews every time something on your site gets posted.
My addition to this is that it isn’t just when you link something from your site. If your profile is verified, the link you use for that will also get a flood of traffic whenever you make any kind of post.
Another problem, is the one described in Forking Mad’s post. The many servers of the Fediverse are connected, but not smoothly. The barriers between servers seriously degrade the UX of Mastodon. Just seeing who else has interacted with a post—one of the core parts of being, you know, social—requires clicking through to the original server. Finding the people you want to follow is hard if your home server doesn’t already know about them. Yes, you can still do what you need but it gives the whole platform a janky, unfinished feeling.
I’m not saying this to announce that I’m leaving Mastodon for Bluesky or anything, I’ve got some comfy spots. I just wish Mastodon was better.
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