Re all that talk about onboarding, UX, and stuff like that on the #Fediverse, especially #Mastodon (but also with #Calckey, which is often praised as the better alternative): I really don’t think that this matters so much.
Sure, Mastodon isn’t the user friendliest interface of the Fedi, or the social media in general. But Calckey is only marginally better, as I’ve experienced using it the past few days. Don’t get me wrong, I love both and depending on Calckey’s development, also if there’s going to be a larger German/European instance, I might make this a home in the Fedi. Just not now, Mastodon (especially if you’re on a large instance like .social) has more than a hand up imo.
But this not what I want to talk about. It’s about the onboarding and UX stuff that allegedly prevents people from embracing the Fedi. I think this rubbish. Even the “best” UX (best according to what?) is still part of the Fedi, a decentralised, non-commercial oriented, non algorithm-based social network of social networks. And THAT is the problem for folks imo.
We have been educated for well over a decade what social media IS: commercial, ad-based, algorithmic, focused on clout, attention, virality. NOT on building organic social relationships online. That was a nice side-effect, but the main thing was: YOU are the product, the most prized commodity, but you have to compete with other products i.e. other people for attention, clout, virality etc. in order to fill the pockets of the network owners (which were not you, but folks like Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and now Musk).
Social media culture since the late 2000s/early 2010s has changed our perception of what it means to be social online. Where we originally had social networks, those turned into social media and a business model. AND NOW the Fedi: a complete contra point to that, with a very different culture. Here it is about building organic social relations, in a non-commercial, non algorithm-based environment. And regardless how easy you make the technical onboarding process and the UX, this built-in difference, that’s not just technological BUT CULTURAL, irritates people.
That’s why #BlueSky will fail spectacularly once it truly federates i.e. once there’s not just one node running AT protocol but 1000s or 10th of 1000s. The battle for the future of our social online presences is not won by building a nicer UX experience but by engaging in a war of position (Gramsci!) about what it means to be social online. So yes, it requires online activism just as much as building better interfaces. My two cents.
(Brought to you by Calckey and its 5000 word post limit 😉)