Lots of good discussion on #BlueSky and #Fediverse going on. These four questions dominate my thinking:
1. Can the ATProtocol really scale and federate? This is a very open question.
2. Can BlueSky's ATProtocol moderation work at scale? Or even NOT at scale? Blurry still.
3. Can the #Fediverse and #Mastodon improve its UX and UI experiences faster than the these first two things occur?
Lastly:
4. How quickly do robust Fediverse/ATProtocol bridges emerge?
@tchambers @activitypubblueskybridge *Is* there any discussion happening (in the open) around the UX of Mastodon? I jumped right in last October but quickly pulled back as all of the real work/prioritization was happening in house.
@scottjenson @tchambers
I've seen open discussion around UX, but it's fraught because:
1. The Mastodon team has limited dev resources and is spending most of them on improvements to security and scalability (which are arguably a higher priority).
2. Because of (1), people feel bad criticizing the UX
The cool think about Masto, however, is that it's openness allows other teams (e.g. Elk.zone, Phanpy.social) to build their own compatible UI layer on top of Mastodon.
@scottjenson @tchambers
I'm using Phanpy right now, which solves a ton of UX issues (e.g. making it clear who is replying to whom in a thread), but I really like the approach Elk takes to spacing, typography, lists, and account previews.
It would be great if the Mastodon team took some cues from either of these projects, but I'm happy to continue using them as my primary way of accessing Mastodon in the meantime.
@dominick @tchambers I see your point but I'd put it a little differently: Forking shows what's possible but it's a very slow road back to main line.
The critical point here is that the UX issues we're talking about here: better onboarding, stronger DM model, search, quote tweets are all things that benefit most from being across ALL servers.
The 'just fork it' approach focuses on the easy and optional window dressing that is far less important.
@scottjenson @dominick @tchambers My hot take is that things went too fast. A lot on the fediverse is still forming and things aren’t keeping up with a “product now startup funding” type of expectation.
I think fixing mastodon itself by forking, as well as running effectively test builds on a few servers (like mastodon’s own), is a mistake. Getting it back into something cohesive will be difficult, while not solving the core aspects.
Other fediverse projects are, imho, a fine idea.