i will say one thing the TL UI here seems way less janky

following people on other servers is fucking AWFUL though

@hermes it actually makes a lot of sense! it’s just like email. on the app, it’s completely seamless, as mobile clients tend to be. on the web, it’s like webmail, and different servers are different providers. you can interact freely with anyone, but to use more server specific tools (like following) you gotta add them on your own server, just like adding email contacts

@hermes i also think your choice of server determines your experience here pretty hard. since there’s no algorithmic network effects it’s all voluntary self-association, you want to fill your local timeline with friendly faces. i was on mastodon.social before it was just “twitter but worse”. best to treat it as a different approach entirely

@pujz yesh thats one thing i actually DONT love but understand how and why it works this way.

frontloading community choice vs ambiently building the spcial graph

@hermes @pujz It happens eventually, one account at a time, as people boost things into view, and I currently have the best timeline here that I have ever had anywhere.

@taalumot @pujz

yeah its excellent over here too. but for me at least, thats because i struck gold on twitter and its carried over here

@taalumot @pujz thats the nature of social media though. schelling points (mastodon) & shelling points (twitter)

@hermes @pujz I’m talking actual Mastodon People, though. There are like 5 million people posting here, like for years. Photo posters. People who’s entire thing is “the junkyard down the street from my house.” The bot game is up to speed. It’s a real place! Unlike bsky, which seems to be in an arms race between becoming a real place and being completely colonized by auto-following bitcoin shitlords.

@taalumot @hermes very true, easy to overlook. i guess it’s just hard to find them! but this is also good. it’s a more patient approach to social media

@taalumot @hermes i also have a tendency to believe that “junkyards” are where the magic happens