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   Kristoffer Lawson (setok@attractive.space)'s status on Thursday, 11-May-2023 21:40:45 JST Kristoffer Lawson

   I see a lot of arguments that are seemingly against #Mastodon growth: 'We don't need to be bigger than #Bluesky or #Twitter, we don't need to change anything'. But why would we intentionally want a platform that is difficult for users and obtuse? Many opensource projects seem to fall into that trap of thinking ease of use is somehow a bad thing, not worthy of attention.

   Surely the web is an example of why open standards, with good experience and business (the horror!) is beneficial?

   #UX

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     pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Thursday, 11-May-2023 21:40:44 JST pettter

     in reply to

     @Setok Ease of use for whom? To do what? I would absolutely like to see Mastodon and the wider fediverse to grow, but I don't think that it is worth any price, and there are inescapable tradeoffs that need to be struck between growth, ethics and community.

     Bigger isn't better, especially not in a society that is so suffused with capitalism, patriarchy, racism, and other unjust power structures and bad incentives.

     No platform can be all things for all people.

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     pettter (pettter@mastodon.acc.umu.se)'s status on Friday, 12-May-2023 17:23:13 JST pettter

     in reply to

     @Setok Some things can improve ease of use for everyone, but many are going to be tradeoffs in one way or another.

     Sorry, you have to choose who to cater to, at some point - whose wants and needs will take priority? What kinds of affordances are you going to offer?

     In particular, are you going to focus on existing or some larger group of hypothetical new users?

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     Kristoffer Lawson (setok@attractive.space)'s status on Friday, 12-May-2023 17:23:15 JST Kristoffer Lawson

     in reply to

     • pettter

     @pettter fundamentally I would say: ease of use for everyone. Good usability, fun, and ease benefits all.

     #Mastodon has a vision, but it's good to make that vision as accessible to as many as possible. Social networks are for connecting people, and everyone on this planet wants to connect somehow.