Re: [projectvrm] Mastodon

[John S James < >]

A good way forward for Twitter- or Facebook- alternatives may be to provide a platform that communities (or other projects) can use to conduct their business. Then the disadvantage of not having many millions of users is much less important, since you have the right users right away, for the purpose at hand. And the advantages (no intrusive ads, unwanted data harvesting, privacy violations, or other abuses) can exceed the disadvantages of not having millions of less-relevant users who already have accounts.

Seems that we may be doing this right here: Mastodon could become a forum for community-building around VRM. And it probably has lots of other Internet policy issues already on it (which could be a critical advantage).

Any advice on choosing a server (instance) to use, of the hundreds that have a good score? Or does it not make much difference? Could you move to a different instance later without significant problems (like needing to give your followers a new name or address), if the one you chose goes down or otherwise has difficulties? And are there significant advantages of people working on the same project using the same instance(s)? (The instance at mastodon.social is currently closed, due to high traffic, but it gives you a list of the other instances.)

On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 5:39 PM, Doc Searls < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

BUT::::

We have the Net, the Web, email, and other graces that somehow happened anyway.

So maybe it can be done with this too. We’ll see. 

My main wondering right now is whether it’s better for Mastodon to improve on Twitter, or to make something mostly new.

Meanwhile, hats off to the effort.

Doc

On Apr 13, 2017, at 5:01 PM, Phil Windley < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

FWIW, this is the problem with decentralized things. They’re hard for people to parse. We all accept it for email, but in the mid 90’s, it wasn’t so easy to get people to understand the idea of multiple email servers, all working together. 

Decentralization Is Hard, Maybe Too Hard

http://www.windley.com/archives/2016/02/decentralization_is_hard_maybe_too_hard.shtml

There’s the problem of UX along the problem of business model. 

On Apr 13, 2017, at 2:55 PM, Doc Searls < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

Okay, I seem to be cooking, via " target="_blank"> . Playing around with it. After I deal with some local issues I’ll add Steve and John. Others? 

Doc

On Apr 13, 2017, at 4:48 PM, Phil Windley < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

Ah, whether it’s mastodon.social, mastodon.cloud, or windley.com (not really) depends on which place you signed up. They’re federated. 

Then you log in. Search box highlighted below (on mastodon.cloud, which is where, I’m windley)

<Screen Shot 2017-04-13 at 2.47.07 PM.png>

On Apr 13, 2017, at 2:43 PM, Doc Searls < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

On Apr 13, 2017, at 3:39 PM, Phillip J. Windley Ph.D. < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

I typed that into the Mastodon client (web page) search box and got you back, clicked “follow” icon and now it says I’m following you. 

Hm. 

Is the web page you’re talking about https://mastodon.social/ or mastodon.cloud? 

Either way, where is the search box?

On Apr 13, 2017, at 1:32 PM, Doc Searls < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

I guess I’m doc at mastodon.host.

But, now what? Next steps are less than obvious. To me, anyway.

On Apr 13, 2017, at 11:53 AM, Phillip J. Windley Ph.D. < " target="_blank"> > wrote:

windley@mastodon.cloud 

On Apr 13, 2017, at 8:06 AM, John @ BB < " target="_blank">john.philpin@beyondbridges.net> wrote:

Anyone else there?

- I am jgphilpin over on mastodon.network

JOHN

On Apr 13, 2017, 05:56 -0700, Doc Searls < " target="_blank"> >, wrote:

Check it out everybody: https://mastodon.social .

Since VRM is about independence and engagement, and Mastodon is about both, I’d say it fully qualifies as a VRM thing.

Sure to come up at VRM Day and IIW.

Doc

--

John S. James
www.replicounts.org