-

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 11:34:29 +0100

Kristian

z428@loma.ml

Still then and now wonder whether to recommend people to also use #Hubzilla for certain purposes but as long as not even importing contacts from Mastodon or other systems is something to be accomplished reasonably easy, this is a hard thing to try. ?

hubzilla

show all 4 comments

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 13:40:10 +0100

Kristian

z428@loma.ml

@Tokyo Outsider (337ppm) Indeed. Yes. ? (I'm mostly happy on Friendica for that matter, but still this Nomadic Identity approach is something that can't be stressed enough, even in comparison to what Bluesky try to achieve by now.)

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 15:02:21 +0100

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Tokyo Outsider (337ppm) The high risk is that people come straight from Mastodon, the only Fediverse project they're used to, to Hubzilla in expectation of something that works and handles like Mastodon plus whatever extra stuff on top Hubzilla has that attracted them. I mean, there are people who came to Hubzilla simply because they wanted more than 500 characters.

And then they end up tripping over things that make Hubzilla not more than Mastodon but unexpectedly different from Mastodon. The one-post-many-comments conversation model. The permissions settings that don't even default to the same behaviour as Mastodon which doesn't even really know such a thing as permissions. "Quote-toots" but no boosts. No content warning field until they find out that it's that thing labelled "Summary" for some reason. No alt-text field. Hopelessly outdated user documentation that also reads like a tech spec. No local timeline, no federated timeline. Everything being named differently. Generally, Hubzilla not mollycoddling its users, not even newbies. And so on.

I mean, some return to Mastodon with a "Hubzilla sucks" verdict because they failed to connect to even one of their old Mastodon acquaintances, because nothing and nobody told them right off the bat that they have to turn ActivityPub on first, much less how to do that.

If many more Mastodon users tried out Hubzilla and really tried, there would be more voices demanding Hubzilla be much more like Mastodon. Just like there are Twitter refugees on Mastodon who, after many months of using Mastodon, still can't get used to its differences from Twitter and demand things be just like on Twitter, including a secret-sauce algorithm that automagically fills their personal timeline with exactly what they want to read without themselves having to do anything (not that ? actually did that) and sends their post to the local timelines of everyone who's interested in that.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Mastodon #Hubzilla

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 15:55:54 +0100

Kristian

z428@loma.ml

@Jupiter Rowland I don't necessarily think Hubzilla should be targeting Mastodon or Twitter users, the Fediverse is and has more facets than that, and so does the rest of the internet. From where I am looking at it, however, it would be good if more of these platforms were targeting users not developers or tech-savvy people. That's the kind of crowd who wants to use technology as a tool to meet a particular need, not merely something to be enthusiastic about and spend a lot of time on. I always did and still do have quite some contacts who spend their time in one social network that works reasonably well (nowadays, unfortunately, most of the time Instagram, Threads or Bluesky) simply because they're limited in time and energy they're able to invest into handling with platforms, connecting to people, ... . If at all, these folks join the Fediverse via Mastodon - not because it's the best, most advanced, most recommendable platform but simply because it's the most "polished" platform when it comes to getting end users started. Like: Install app from some app store, sign up with some server the app suggests you to use, connect to a few people, and you're done. Likewise, for people who _are_ on Mastodon and want to move out, there's at least a way to recommend ex- and re-importing contacts they already have, so even while losing all their posts and communication, they can at least keep their connections somehow. Hubzilla lacks a lot of polish when it comes to such features and user groups, by now.
@Tokyo Outsider (337ppm)