Call to all Mastodon Newcomers
Welcome to all!
How can we improve the #onboarding process? If you joined in the past few weeks can you let us know what was difficult when you joined and/or once you had joined?
For example:
- I didn't know which server to join
- it took too long for my joining request to get accepted
- I wasn't sure how to find people to follow
(The aim of this post is not to collect answers to the problems but rather detect all potential obstacles to joining & starting to use Mastodon. Please boost around! 🔄)
#Mastodon #MastodonTips #NewHere (not me, but my target audience)
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (7 Monate her)
Hiker
Als Antwort auf El Duvelle • • •El Duvelle
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •Hiker
Als Antwort auf El Duvelle • • •Carola Meyer
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
I agree with @elduvelle that this is too overwhelming right at the start, when you struggle to find yourself around. Give the people a little time to settle. After that it is a great adventure to explore the vastness of the Fediverse.
I encountered that right at the start and it was okay because there were a lot of people helping me. But if somebody is too shy to ask or does not even yet know how to ask this is too much.
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Carola Meyer • • •@carbonwoman
> because there were a lot of people helping me.
Concepts with comercial interests invest vast amount's of VC in this "onboarding process" to lure people so they can enshittify them later on. Palihapitiya had a good take on this in kinda university teaching talk.
> But if somebody is too shy to ask or does not even yet know how to ask this is too much.
Well that (impossed) behavior actually is kinda lost cause anywhere.
@hiker @elduvelle
Like to say:
It's the "mindset" stupid!
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •> Like to say:
> It's the "mindset" stupid!
Hate to say "I told you so .."
@carbonwoman @hiker @elduvelle
jeSuisatire …ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •#fediTips
My advise:
"Don't trust stupid cause he'll destroy the fediVerse by destroying it's core value, the federation itself."
(while crashing on the highway playing with tiktok)
ramblings.social/@frank/113858…
@bitpickup @carbonwoman @hiker @elduvelle
Fediverse Frank
2025-01-20 04:39:26
Hiker
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •But if you say that you shouldn't make it too difficult for the other person, perhaps you haven't really understood it yourself.
@carbonwoman @elduvelle
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •Not sure what you are trying to say @hiker.
@elduvelle @carbonwoman
Hiker
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •crossgolf_rebel - kostenlose Kwalitätsposts mag das.
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
Yeah, that's stupid, and actually not only stupid from the get go but helps to stupidify people even more.
I guess it's the #infoDump aspect. that overwhelms people who try to do things they actually don't want to do but feel forced to do.
... aaaaand that's the "mindset" I'm talking about.
They didn't want to leave where they were, and they want back what they had.
First is their problem, second is becoming ours.
🤷♀️
.. "they" are linear freeriders ..
@elduvelle @carbonwoman
Hiker
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •Of course, you can also hide behind complexity. But that is certainly not the aim of the #Fediverse. The goal is for people to really understand the #Fediverse as “the other network”.
@elduvelle @carbonwoman
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
> The goal is for people to really understand the #Fediverse as “the other network”.
True.
"Our truth, our goal" not theirs, They just want party and their old situation back. They want their twitter back and they want their fakebook back.
We never wanted that in the first place and have build tools to prevent those sites and what they made become people.
So we actually are their "cold turkey" clinic.
And than there are serious neurological dopamine issues I guess ..
@elduvelle
Hiker
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •The more than 2 million users are still here - they have understood and accepted the “other network”. Keep it up!
@elduvelle
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
Definitely.
Quality not quantity!
We can't "win" becoming like "them". And in this case "them" are the Dumbfuckerbergs, the swastiMuX's and Palihapitiyas.
If we are right that "it's the setup stupid!" than sooner or later we will prevail.
The point is how we get as much of the good people to stay and to settle down in a decentralized manner. If mastodon.social becomes "the onboarding process" we need to work on the rest waiting for the trickle down ..
@elduvelle
Hiker
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •We just have to keep focusing on quality and spreading the correct information about our network (we're back to the beginning) and disagree with the simplifiers.
@elduvelle
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
We came a long way already.
There are some basic tipping points we need to achieve, in terms of content creation and resilience of the whole network. Mastodon.social right now is as worriesome as joindiaspora.com was.
On a personal level I'm seriously considering not to engage to much with newbees, they just don't get it, or get me, and driving them away isn't useful either.
Anyway, as it is already it's fine for me.
Actually wikipedia and bitcoin are our proof of work.
@elduvelle
Hiker
Als Antwort auf mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup • • •This federation of so many applications and ideas is a great idea - it's not mega big - just: Quality over quantity - and that's a good thing.
@elduvelle
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
> spreading the correct information about our network
yepp
Here you are:
tupambae.org/display/0ac89072-…
tupambae.org/display/0ac89072-…
tupambae.org/directory
Sry @elduvelle , this was kinda offtopic but, you know ..
tupambaeOrg [stable] | Directory
tupambae.orgTutorial
2025-03-20 15:47:49
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
Als Antwort auf Hiker • • •@hiker
> criticism that you shouldn't overwhelm people
That's the main point Palihapitiya was making in his talk on what we are talking here.
Once you get people to enter your "businesses" they need success "their first orgasm" so to speak, so they come back.
"That is a good question, thank you!"
First they need to be seated, cheered and told that they are brilliant.
"Don't do this, don't do that!
You are doing it wrong!
You don't understand!"
Scolding @jeffjarvis?
@elduvelle @carbonwoman
Dan Goodman
Als Antwort auf El Duvelle • • •El Duvelle
Als Antwort auf Dan Goodman • • •@neuralreckoning thanks for the input!
The alt-text scolding does get mentioned quite often. I think it's nice to push people to write Alt-text, but not sure what would be a nice(r) way to reach that goal, without pushing people away.
Is it just a question of tone (they're not asking nicely) or quantity (many answers asking the same thing because they can't see that someone else already asked)? Or people just don't like to be advised on how to use a network? How could we improve that? A little pop up or warning before sending a post?
(Sorry for all the questions, they're for everyone generally, not just you 😀 )
#AltText
Albert Cardona
Als Antwort auf El Duvelle • • •Stefan Bohacek
Als Antwort auf Albert Cardona • • •@albertcardona @neuralreckoning If it was compulsory, people would just type a few words to fill that requirement and move on.
I think the most effective way to improve this is by suggesting alt text people can use in a friendly, nonjudgmental way, using the "Alt4You" hashtag.
Yes, some people see this as passive-aggressive judgement anyway, but scolding people just doesn't help. And you never know if someone's own disability makes adding alt text harder.
Stefan Bohacek
Als Antwort auf Stefan Bohacek • • •Making alt text required might make more sense in the future, once the culture changes and people better understand why it's important.
But even then you might have to account for folks with disabilities, and scenarios like people documenting protests, police brutality, etc.
Carola Meyer
Als Antwort auf Stefan Bohacek • • •@stefan @albertcardona @neuralreckoning
Some things regarding alt-text since the first exodus from twitter. There are know bots at hand that generate alt-text + it is possible to edit posts.
And: typically I provide alt-text in a post below, when I want to boost a post with missing alt-text. I hope that being helpful rather than scolding people does the job. And I have seen that quite some people do it this way by now.
四
Als Antwort auf Stefan Bohacek • • •@stefan @albertcardona @neuralreckoning A good UI makes doing the right thing easier. Sometimes it can just be something as simple as someone forgot. Ones headspace is usually not about describing images.
Also wording helps. “Please add a simple description of the image to help people with etc” as part of the app is nicer than an angry message. Don’t assume people are bad out of the gate.
It would be really neat to have a way to specifically add a descriptive text to someone else’s image, like a comment. And with an option for the author to approve. As you say we can’t combat the need of one group by attacking the need of another. We should embrace them both.
Also as maybe just a me thing I’d like to know
... mehr anzeigen@stefan @albertcardona @neuralreckoning A good UI makes doing the right thing easier. Sometimes it can just be something as simple as someone forgot. Ones headspace is usually not about describing images.
Also wording helps. “Please add a simple description of the image to help people with etc” as part of the app is nicer than an angry message. Don’t assume people are bad out of the gate.
It would be really neat to have a way to specifically add a descriptive text to someone else’s image, like a comment. And with an option for the author to approve. As you say we can’t combat the need of one group by attacking the need of another. We should embrace them both.
Also as maybe just a me thing I’d like to know if my descriptive texts are read. Not in a spy way, but in a “do I make a difference?” Positive reinforcement is a thing after all. So if anyone reads them, and you see someone posting really good ones or always doing it while posting a lot. A little note about it I think would lift someone else’s spirit.
Just some thoughts. I provide them 99% of the time myself, but I don’t know if anyone reads them. 😀
Stefan Bohacek
Als Antwort auf 四 • • •@yon
"A good UI makes doing the right thing easier."
Oh absolutely! I touched on this in stefanbohacek.com/blog/impact-…, see the note about Phanpy, the alternative Mastodon web client.
"do I make a difference?"
You do!
- mastodon.social/@alttexthallof…
- mastodon.social/@alttexthallof…
- alttexthalloffame.org
@albertcardona @elduvelle @neuralreckoning
Lisa Melton: The fediverse’s own algorithm
Stefan Bohacek (stefanbohacek.com)Alt Text Hall of Fame
2024-10-21 13:57:20
四
Als Antwort auf Stefan Bohacek • • •@stefan @albertcardona @neuralreckoning 14.3% is a *lot* lower than what I’d expect. That’s disappointing.
I think calling it alt text was a mistake. Something like descriptive text might be better. I for once would think A/B testing would be worth it here.
I also wonder if other instances have distinctly different results. More than 60% of my feed has descriptive text after all. Probably well north of 90%. Actually running the numbers was a great idea btw!
Also, we are talking about making people’s lives a little better with for the vast majority of us a very minor effort (there are exceptions). Of all the things to be upset about and refusing to do:(
Stefan Bohacek
Als Antwort auf 四 • • •@yon @albertcardona @neuralreckoning Yeah, I get disappointed too.
But still best to try to find positive ways to counter this. This has been my goal with @alttexthalloffame, with some good results!
mastodon.social/@alttexthallof…
Alt Text Hall of Fame (@alttexthalloffame@mastodon.social)
MastodonEl Duvelle
Als Antwort auf Stefan Bohacek • • •great initiative!
@yon @albertcardona @neuralreckoning @alttexthalloffame
Stefan Bohacek
Als Antwort auf El Duvelle • • •Thank you! One thing I have been wanting to bring back is the #AltTextChallenge, which was a weekly community challenge to try to describe a specific image.
Just more positive ways to get folks involved and get some practice!
@yon @albertcardona @neuralreckoning