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1. Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:30:36 UTC Katie Mack

   I have spent the last two weeks in conferences with other science communicators and the general consensus in discussions was that (1) Twitter is dying and (2) it’s not clear what will replace it. (And not much enthusiasm about Mastodon, it seems.)

   • Sascha Pallenberg 🇹🇼 ♻️ ⚡ (pallenberg@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:32:47 UTC Sascha Pallenberg 🇹🇼 ♻️ ⚡

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie imagine all of Twitter would migrate to Mastodon 😱

     I'm glad this won't happen

   • hollie (hollie@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:34:26 UTC hollie

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Were there any reasons given for not feeling positively about Mastodon?

   • Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:34:26 UTC Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • hollie

     @hollie I think the perception is it’s a bit complicated, the interface isn’t as nice, it feels kinda siloed

   • Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:35:10 UTC Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     @malwaretech Yeah. And for every one of them it’s easy to find some reason to say “well that one is problematic because…”

   • Marcus Hutchins :verified: (malwaretech@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:35:11 UTC Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie I think the big hangup is that people want a centralized platform as that's what they're used to, but too many popped up at once prevent any one of them from gaining critical mass.

   • Bethany Brookshire (beebrookshire@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:40:14 UTC Bethany Brookshire

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Every other day it seems I see something like "oh move to spoutible" "oh move to post" "oh move to...newbelephant" (I made that one up but give it a week).

     I honestly think sci commers won't move en masse until enough big ppl in the field gather somewhere. Then they'll saunter in and pretend they are NOT following the popular people.

   • tofumusubi@mastodon.social's status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:44:19 UTC tofumusubi

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Being decentralized requires people to think. Not everyone enjoys thinking.

   • Tae Kim (firstadopter@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:44:36 UTC Tae Kim

     in reply to

     • Marcus Hutchins :verified:

     @AstroKatie @malwaretech mastodon is so much better once you use one of the better third party clients

   • Jef Poskanzer :batman: (jef@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 01:45:01 UTC Jef Poskanzer :batman:

     in reply to

     • hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie Huh. All true and yet I remain confident that most Twitter refugees will end up here.

   • kcǃ (exkclamation@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 02:37:07 UTC kcǃ

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie disappointing (but not surprising) that Mastodon isn’t more in the discourse for the future of online social media… although I remain hopeful we’ll get all the ‘good ones’ over here eventually 😉

   • David Slifka (davidslifka@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 03:47:12 UTC David Slifka

     in reply to

     • hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie We just launched a volunteer-driven site http://SpreadMastodon.org to help explain it and make signing up crazy easier. Mastodon is our best shot to #TakeBackSocial. I hope it might make Mastodon more approachable to people like your colleagues (who are far from alone!).

   • Ken Disbrow (kendisbrow@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 04:10:47 UTC Ken Disbrow

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Sorry to hear about the lack of enthusiasm. I look for science communicators to follow and I suspect there are more like me

   • Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 04:43:04 UTC Pyperkub

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie yeah, a lot of the scientists I followed over there have been tough to find here.

   • Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 04:45:01 UTC Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • Bethany Brookshire
     • Glendon Mellow

     @FlyingTrilobite @beebrookshire 🙋🏼♀️

   • Glendon Mellow (flyingtrilobite@vis.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 04:45:15 UTC Glendon Mellow

     in reply to

     • Bethany Brookshire

     @AstroKatie @beebrookshire - (whispers: I have Bluesky codes if you want them, bwah ha ha)

   • Inkdependence (inkdependence@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 05:52:32 UTC Inkdependence

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Yeah, I don’t really understand mastodon. It kinda feels like there’s no one here?

   • Prof Heino Falcke (hfalcke@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 06:10:26 UTC Prof Heino Falcke

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie Of course, Mastodon can’t be better than Twitter before Elon. That will take a few years, but it is good enough for now and the basic idea seems valid. (I would still like to retoot with comments though) #astodon

   • trankzen (trkzn@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 07:54:21 UTC trankzen

     in reply to

     • hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie It's designed this way, you won't have an algorithm recommending you stuff that could interest you, likes are stricltly private and you can't quote a message you boost. It's all by design, to fight virality and the culture of immediacy that is at the heart of Twitter.

   • trankzen (trkzn@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 07:56:51 UTC trankzen

     in reply to

     • hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie also I find it quite curious that scientists of all people would find Mastodon too complicated.I've heard this criticism from the general public, but that surprises me.

   • Jock Rutherford 🌻 (jockr@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 10:48:41 UTC Jock Rutherford 🌻

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie
     My experience of Mastodon has been much superior to Twitter and engagement has increased noticeably even over the last few weeks as, presumably, more people abandon Twitter. I don't find it siloed at all and I make extensive uses of Lists, as I did on Twitter, to shape the content that I see. Seems to be a lot of unnecessary FUD being spread about Mastodon.

   • Jim Jones (greatbigtable@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 11:34:10 UTC Jim Jones

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie that's too bad, because the more time I have spent over here, the more I have enjoyed it. It is a much calmer experience.

   • Jim Jones (greatbigtable@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 11:43:20 UTC Jim Jones

     in reply to

     • hollie

     @AstroKatie @hollie that's unfortunate. Hashtags help spread information and stuff that gets "engagement" across the fediverse usually shows up under the # feed. I have seen a bunch of creators run AB tests between the same content on both current Twitter and Mastodon who have found good results here, but that is anecdotal.

   • Dervish (dervishpi@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Apr-2023 20:26:33 UTC Dervish

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie The problem with Mastodon (for this aging science lover) is that you don't find new science communicators to follow as easily as you did on Twitter, so don't hear what they have to say. The 'keep you entertained' algorithms need a lot of work, but had a purpose.

   • peter_panther@mastodon.social's status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 03:38:13 UTC Peter_Panther

     in reply to

     • psychoSoph - Comic

     @AstroKatie
     In a way sad.
     @psychoSoph

   • Bethany Brookshire (beebrookshire@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 13:52:16 UTC Bethany Brookshire

     in reply to

     • Glendon Mellow

     @AstroKatie @FlyingTrilobite Sigh yeah ok sure.

   • Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 13:52:48 UTC Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • Robert Norlyn :coffefied:

     @robertnorlyn I was reporting what people were saying about their level of enthusiasm, not asserting that mastodon is impossible to use

   • Robert Norlyn :coffefied: (robertnorlyn@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 13:52:49 UTC Robert Norlyn :coffefied:

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie I don’t buy most complaints about Mastodon. Usually, people are either vague and say its too hard for some such and such reason.
     If you are an established science communicator with resources; respectfully, you can have your own instance and yes people will see your content. It is not hard to control your presence on Mastodon.
     I think a lot of this boils down to privileges that were taken for granted on other centralized social media platforms.

   • Katie Mack (astrokatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 15:23:55 UTC Katie Mack

     in reply to

     • Robert Norlyn :coffefied:

     @robertnorlyn ok

   • Robert Norlyn :coffefied: (robertnorlyn@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 15:23:56 UTC Robert Norlyn :coffefied:

     in reply to

     @AstroKatie I believe that two are related. People super exaggerate their difficulties using Mastodon and a whole lot of people are turned off by that. It’s not merely having to move to a whole new platform that’s the issue. I get that is totally annoying too. It’s that the old familiar platform allowed people to buy captive audiences and it was familiar to them.