The “it’s too complicated” complaints about Mastodon are the same as the “I’m not paying for a social network” complaints about Micro.blog.
People have been trained into wanting everything for nothing on the web, and then living in denial about the true cost of the services.
@SimonWoods While I generally agree, I do think Mastodon is in fact complicated for very many people. And I'm saying that despite being a tech enthusiast. Even though I understand how to use the Fediverse, I still find myself annoyed at best from the UX side effects of decentralization.
@uncertainquark That's not just something with which I'm comfortable; I think it's a good thing.
One of the things that drew me so strongly to Micro.blog was Manton's philosophical positioning that the web should be made up of endless small networks. I think this better fits reality; when people learn to prioritise their small communities, they are much more likely to be happier, more productive, and a better citizen in every sense of the word.
@uncertainquark @simonwoods It helps for people to think of it as analogous to email, where you can communicate with others regardless what server hosts their address. I agree though there are UX differences that make it a more confusing beast than the traditional platforms. Like yourself I was even lost when I first looked at it, and I’m tech savvy as well.
That being said, Simon’s point about fostering attention and interest in smaller communities rings true, both online and off.
@pimoore The email analogy works great initially but quickly breaks apart. For example, it's uncommon to have entire big email provider domains blocked but on Mastodon there's a real possibility of people being affected by that simply because they chose an instance without being explained how moderation works, or without understanding how it would work because that in itself would require sufficient usage experience.
@SimonWoods I don't disagree. I'm not saying let's not have decentralization like the Fediverse or effective decentralization like that of Micro.blog but I'm saying that let's not stop making efforts to ease the UX-related difficulties caused by it. Because the last thing we want is technical seclusion. Mastodon 4.0, for example, made good improvements compared to the previous experience of following a remote user, and I applaud that, but there's room for much more like improving communication about how moderation works there.
@uncertainquark That’s an excellent point. I think a solution to this needs to be better on-boarding and documentation, though it still doesn’t stop something from being unknowingly blocked in the future.