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   Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 15:16:45 JST Katie Mack

   I have spent the last two weeks in conferences with other science communicators and the general consensus in discussions was that (1) Twitter is dying and (2) it’s not clear what will replace it. (And not much enthusiasm about Mastodon, it seems.)

   • clacke likes this.
   • clacke repeated this.
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 15:21:36 JST clacke

     in reply to
     @AstroKatie Been seeing hundreds of science communicators join since November though. Maybe it depends on the field of science, but e.g. several climate scientists and/or communicators have joined.
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     Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Apr-2023 03:50:29 JST Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @hollie I think the perception is it’s a bit complicated, the interface isn’t as nice, it feels kinda siloed

     clacke repeated this.
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     Jef Poskanzer (jef@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Apr-2023 03:50:29 JST Jef Poskanzer

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie Huh. All true and yet I remain confident that most Twitter refugees will end up here.

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     Hollie (hollie@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 23-Apr-2023 03:50:30 JST Hollie

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Were there any reasons given for not feeling positively about Mastodon?

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     dpnash (dpnash@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:38:44 JST dpnash

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie To be fair, the default Web interface on most mastodon servers *isn't* as nice as the default interface on twitter.com, and it wouldn't surprise me if the other twitter-ish services popping up lately also had generally nicer interfaces.

     I *highly* recommend Elk (elk.zone) for Web access to mastodon - it's advertised as "alpha" but is quite stable, looks much nicer than the default server Web site interface, and so far hasn't done anything unexpected.

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     David Slifka (davidslifka@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:39:43 JST David Slifka

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie We just launched a volunteer-driven site http://SpreadMastodon.org to help explain it and make signing up crazy easier. Mastodon is our best shot to #TakeBackSocial. I hope it might make Mastodon more approachable to people like your colleagues (who are far from alone!).

     clacke likes this.
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:24 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Hollie
     • 𝙲:\𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚣𝚎𝚗> █

     @trkzn Likes are not private. Here are the people who liked the spreadmastodon comment above:

     mastodon.social/@davidslifka/1…

     @hollie @AstroKatie

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     𝙲:\𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚣𝚎𝚗> █ (trkzn@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:28 JST 𝙲:\𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚣𝚎𝚗> █

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie It's designed this way, you won't have an algorithm recommending you stuff that could interest you, likes are stricltly private and you can't quote a message you boost. It's all by design, to fight virality and the culture of immediacy that is at the heart of Twitter.

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     𝙲:\𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚣𝚎𝚗> █ (trkzn@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:29 JST 𝙲:\𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚣𝚎𝚗> █

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie also I find it quite curious that scientists of all people would find Mastodon too complicated.I've heard this criticism from the general public, but that surprises me.

     clacke likes this.
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     Jim Jones (greatbigtable@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:30 JST Jim Jones

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie that's unfortunate. Hashtags help spread information and stuff that gets "engagement" across the fediverse usually shows up under the # feed. I have seen a bunch of creators run AB tests between the same content on both current Twitter and Mastodon who have found good results here, but that is anecdotal.

     clacke likes this.
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     Martin Urschel (greenback@det.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:32 JST Martin Urschel

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie Mastodon looks and feels so much better if one uses the right apps. Megalodon for Android, Ice Cubes for Apple, Elk for web browser. Beautiful.

     I agree that there are still issues, eg with search and embedding posts, but I also think that Mastodon is getting better every day, unlike some other platforms... It's not a commercial enterprise, so it doesn't develop quite as rapidly, but I think it just may prove more sustainable for exactly this reason!

     clacke likes this.
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     Johanna, CanCon variant (johannab@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:34 JST Johanna, CanCon variant

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie Oh gosh PLEASE help us here if you have the platform to do it!

     It's the exact opposite of "siloed", people really do not understand that term!

     The problem is it expects and requires people to own their own presence and NOT outsource their feed to algorithms (or the whims of an oligarch at the top of the ACTUAL silo).

     Humans are messy. And hard.

     clacke likes this.
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     AskPippa🇨🇦 (askpippa@c.im)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:43:35 JST AskPippa🇨🇦

     in reply to

     • Hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie It's evolving. I'm seeing a lot of discussions between developers on how to change things, new apps, etc. For me personally, as a journalist, it's been proving more useful than Twitter. I have more followers, more engagement, new expert contacts and have a gotten a number of story leads.

     clacke likes this.
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:46:00 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Marcus Hutchins :verified:
     • Disco Cat

     @cmdrDiscoCat The tweetdeck-like is no longer the default, it's now the "advanced" interface.

     If people are used to tweetdeck I hope they discover or are told about this.

     @malwaretech @AstroKatie

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     Disco Cat (cmdrdiscocat@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:46:02 JST Disco Cat

     in reply to

     • Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     @malwaretech @AstroKatie I'm surprised people complain about mastodon's UI when they probably mostly use tweetdeck and not the Twitter UI ?

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     Marcus Hutchins :verified: (malwaretech@infosec.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:46:03 JST Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie I think Spoutible had the right idea with offering to let people transfer their legacy verification, but they were far too late to market and also launching without a mobile app is an instant death sentence in 2023.

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     Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:46:04 JST Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     @malwaretech Yeah. And for every one of them it’s easy to find some reason to say “well that one is problematic because…”

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     Marcus Hutchins :verified: (malwaretech@infosec.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:46:05 JST Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie I think the big hangup is that people want a centralized platform as that's what they're used to, but too many popped up at once prevent any one of them from gaining critical mass. Ideally someone needed to just stick to what works and make a clone as close to Twitter as possible for the mid term, but everyone tried to reinvent the wheel.

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     Andras Gaspar (andrasgaspar@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:48:02 JST Andras Gaspar

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie What made Twitter great were the people. When people like you, Phil, Jessie, etc. migrate over here, it will be similar, at least within the astro community. The rest will hopefully follow. The UI will need to evolve, without a doubt. Twitter is over.

     clacke likes this.
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     Chris, In A Clown Suit. (devils_rancher@octodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-May-2023 19:48:05 JST Chris, In A Clown Suit.

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Seeing all the people in this thread on Mastodon, complaining about Mastodon just feels like proof to me that it’s gaining critical mass. 🙂

     I do see a lot of people here saying that despite lower follower count and what feels like less reach, that actual engagement here is off the charts by comparison.

     clacke likes this.