Good blog post on the ramifications of Micro.blog’s new backfeed replies from Mastodon and Bluesky:

While you could argue that publishing something on the internet means it’s fair game to use elsewhere (in a Google search result, for example) I would argue that our social media interactions at least feel limited to the context in which they take place.

This is an evolving balance between the open web and semi-private communities. More we can do here.

@manton Shouldn't Mastodon be making these semi-private posts much more secure?

It should have been impossible for you to get access to them for the cross-reply feature, otherwise there is nothing honest about their claim that your posts are "Followers Only" or whatever.

@SimonWoods I think because Micro.blog gets your replies "as you", there's a chance for the replies to leak out from the followers-only bubble. But, I'm not actually sure that Mastodon even enforces followers-only on replies to your posts. Need to investigate more.

@manton This is similar to the auto-crossposting everything to the networks you link feature in Micro.blog. It seems natural to people who live and post everything to the open web and don't understand people like us who want semi-private communities. There is no easy way to explain to the former why the latter uses the web the way we do. It's almost like if we have to explain, you will not understand. Similar sentiments had been expressed by the "creating inclusive communities" people, many of whom unfortunately have now left.

@SimonWoods I think this is a good point. When Mastodon’s own privacy features are a mess (server admins can see direct messages, for example) it makes all this even more fraught.

I think this is all a great idea, but the fediverse is such a mess that it comes with lots of problems.

@pratik Well, there's understanding and there is living and breathing a feature. I try to understand even if I don't personally use the platform that way. Micro.blog mission is to make the open web better and reduce the toxic mess of online communities. It will always be limited for more private groups.

@apoorplayer Thank you!

@manton Ok. Forget I said anything.

@manton @pratik -- I agree, and I'd also say that I'm not convinced that there is any way to liberally mix your open, semi-private, or private communities. The level of complexity there is inherently high, especially crossing service boundaries that will have dramatically different designs for controls. It's not that I don't understand the desire for private spaces, it's that I can't imagine trying to interact with any space I want to be private from a public place and trusting a service or myself to keep those things separated well. IMO, taking on that complexity as a service is doomed to fail expectations in ways that are highly likely to be damaging if someone cares enough to have those privacy boundaries.

@jsonbecker I understand; hence, those features are of little interest to me personally, and sometimes, I wish so much attention and development time wasn't spent on them, especially at the cost of the reliability of basic blogging. But I express ways of how people like me could still use them if certain tweaks were made, but there's little interest in that. So perhaps I could stop doing that. Also, if we all know spaces have different designs, controls, and vibes, then why are we trying to force crossing those boundaries?

@pratik I would say that some people use different spaces for those designs/controls/vibes. Many of us don't. I don't have distinct communities on different services. I don't have any distinct privacy controls on those services. I don't have distinct identities on those services. I understand some people do, but if you do, it's inherently difficult to maintain that unless it's incredibly porous, through a single omnibus feed.

That said, I think it's bad that modest additional controls to crossposting don't exist-- I think it would be quite worth while and not terribly difficult to do category-based posting for services, for example, or just to let people turn on more features by default in the new post window (which I'd want for other things as well). I think resistance to that is misplaced.

Crossposting is probably the part of Micro.blog that is the most complicated and least resilient. Actual blogging issues have been incredibly rare.

@jsonbecker

it's bad that modest additional controls to crossposting don't exist.

That's all I have been asking. But I get the impression that doing so will change the very nature of Micro.blog. Hence, I'm hoping Croissant adds Micro.blog posting as an option. For now, I use Micro.blog native app/web for checking replies. The new web editor is also making replies wobbly (text/cursor jumping around) and unfortunately, there's no third-party option.

@apoorplayer agreed. While I am not retired, I am much more relaxed about this whole „I need an audience“ thing since I crossed into my 40s. Micro.blog does all I need it to do and I am very happy about it not doing much more.

@manton Yeah, it gets tricky. I had to write out my own set of rules for how I'm POSSE and PESOS syndicating across multiple networks: https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/rules-for-syndication-on-my-site

Aiming to preserve context for every post

@joshbeckman Thanks for writing this up. That all sounds reasonable.

@manton is there a change in which the cross-posting view is made from the android mobile app? I can't seem to be able to choose a category or the channels I want to cross-post into anymore.. It just goes out everywhere now?

Edit this issue is for posts made from the android "share view"

@rmdes I’m not aware of a change. Do you know when it stopped working?

@apoorplayer @manton You know, that's a customer base that nobody talks about: retirees, over 55. But the fact is that we have way more money than the youngsters. But everybody let FB have them. Well, many of us wouldn't mind a quieter platform where we can write and post without a bunch of noise, and where our family and friends can find us easily. Not a sexy market segment, but worth considering, imo.

@drwalt Hmm, that’s definitely something to think about. It’s always been a challenge of how to market this. We can’t compete with the reach of free platforms but we can double-down on how we’re different.

@manton @drwalt I second drwalt's observation. I have come to the conclusion that, if I want peace and privacy on the web, I will have to pay for it, and that's OK by me. After the new year I will probably begin the onerous process of de-Google-fying my digital life and moving to the secure, encrypted Proton platform. Micro.blog will eventually supplant Wordpress. You have a market of academics and 55+ that I think may be worth tapping.

@drwalt

that's a customer base that nobody talks about: retirees, over 55.

I am over 55, but not retired.

Something must went wrong… 🫢

@apoorplayer I agree with you that people of this age are more likely to pay for services on the internet. But is this niche sufficient?

BTW: I use Proton for 2 or 3 years. It gives me a good feeling.

But I dislike that I have to use their app or have to run their SMTP relay to access my mails.

@thosch It’s the AARP effect. I retired at 62 myself.

@thosch And I was trying to make a larger demographic...lol

@thosch Thanks. Something to consider, I suppose, but on the whole there are always quirks and limitations to every solution.