Twitter Suspends @Joinmastodon

[Sithwuth]

If you're thinking of trying Mastodon, I would recommend joining an interest-specific or locality-specific server rather than one of the general purpose servers, because the local community is likely to be stronger and more engaged. You can always jump ship later if you find it's not your thing

Some examples:

- https://fosstodon.org for FOSS - https://infosec.exchange for infosec - https://sfba.social for the bay area

There's a map of locality-specific instances here: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/mastodon-near-me_828094

[defrost]

Of possible interest to some:

> Please consider joining @mastodon.acm.org, a community for #computing researchers & practitioners to connect & exchange ideas with each other, whether you are an ACM member or not.

https://mastodon.acm.org/invite/FbXaxAHg

[j1elo]

Last time I looked into Mastodon (a couple years ago), I found a small, specific community that piqued my interest. Months later, the owner of the instance lost interest and closed it. In the end I never registered, but, what would have happened if I did and started to use it in my day to day? Would I wake up one day to find out that I no longer have a Mastodon account?

I feel the response might be something akin to "what would happen if you have a fastmail account and then fastmail closes?". If that's the case, I see absolutely no reason to choose a small instance, just for the sake of reliability and trust in its continued operation.

[scrollaway]

Im very surprised that, among techies, there aren't more people running their own instance as a solo user, so that they can own the entire username including the domain name.

It's what I did for myself (Follow me! @[email protected]), following Simon Willison's post: https://til.simonwillison.net/mastodon/custom-domain-mastodo...

[minimaxir]

https://sigmoid.social/ for AI/machine learning.

[kornhole]

Fosstodon was just banned from Twitter too, but that should not stop you from joining it. It looks like Twitter will be playing a game of whack a mole as we launch more instances.

[jghn]

This assumes one cares about the local community aspect of Mastodon. Granted many people do in which case your advice is spot on. But if you're just looking for a pure Twitter replacement, it doesn't matter. In fact you might be better off on one of the big players as they're probably less likely to be fly-by-night.

[lapcat]

Multiple journalists have now been suspended from Twitter: Drew Harwell, Aaron Rupar, Ryan Mac, and Donie O'Sullivan. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34007811

This is getting crazy!

[standardUser]

Twitter faces no real threat from Mastodon until they streamline their sign up process and mask the "decentralized server" nonsense. I understand that the people here don't see it as nonsense, but the millions of less tech savvy users needed to make it a true Twitter alternative do see it that way and it will prevent Mastodon from ever being more than a niche service. It's a baffling process to the everyday user who has signed up for dozens of different services over the years with a simple email and password (if not single sign on).

[smoldesu]

That's fine. Mastodon's goal isn't to replace Twitter, but the way Twitter is heading I wouldn't blame people who use it as a replacement.

Mastodon's real problem is that it doesn't have sex appeal. It's not a Game of Thrones celebrity throwdown like Twitter, and it lacks the marketing of successful viral platforms like TikTok or Instagram. It was a conscious decision too - calling posts toots and designing the entire network to be distributed - making it less social was part of making it more healthy. Even now, Mastodon maintainers waffle at the idea of making the platform more Twitter-like because it dilutes the balance the platform has cultivated over the past few years.

It's like saying that Discord doesn't face any threat from IRC. You might be right from a financial perspective, but the communities around them are completely different things. It's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[Sithwuth]

Curious as to how many people manage to sign up for email addresses across a variety of providers despite all that decentralised server nonsense.

[minimaxir]

Banning ElonJet was already a cheat, so I'm extremely curious how this is one is justified.

[dmatech]

It linked directly to ElonJet's account there and invited people to join and follow this account. That's probably what did it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221215174053/https://twitter.c...

[micahflee]

I was suspended for posting this https://infosec.exchange/@micahflee/109520648205436407

[frankacter]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603181423787380737

"Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info."

While you did not embed the link itself, that nuance is a distinction without a difference as the intent was still to share the location to a site with real-time location information, which as stated, will result in suspension/ban.

[lapcat]

Hey Micah!

Could you post a screenshot of the suspension notice you got from Twitter? Does it say which "rule" was allegedly broken?

[clouddrover]

The Twitter accounts of journalists are also being suspended, presumably because they dared to talk about ElonJet:

https://twitter.com/drewharwell

https://twitter.com/RMac18

https://twitter.com/donie

This journalist has not been suspended yet: https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy

This is not a good look for Twitter or for Musk.

[bogomipz]

The cartoon image would be of Elon scrolling through Twitter and spite-banning and spite-unbanning accounts in real time and according to his whim. This cartoon image is also the one that feels increasingly more likely to be true.

[mrlonglong]

He's nothing but a petty tyrant. History teaches us what happens to tyrants.

[the_only_law]

> History teaches us what happens to tyrants.

Seems like a pretty mixed message tbh.

[kupopuffs]

they die. just like everyone else

[quantified]

Even cable TV providers allow ads for DirecTV, etc.

[simonsarris]

Twitter is still running ads for TikTok, funny enough

[ipaddr]

Cable tv providers pay for content from networks/channels who themselves put ads. Cable TV providers could only block ads by not buying channels with ads.

[calibas]

Isn't that because they're legally required to?

[favorited]

Cable TV doesn't sell ad time, the networks they carry do. And you won't see ads for NBC sitcoms while watching CBS.

[Kye]

Possibly in response to their tweet about the @elonjet account on Mastodon. Banning someone for talking about or linking to something that would break rules if it were on Twitter seems contrary to the variant of free speech Elon Musk claimed to support pre-Twitter purchase.

[someNameIG]

I think elonjet also has a sub on reddit. Will reddit links be banned from twitter soon? Any website that mentions elonjet? lol

[minimaxir]

This rationale is so silly that I agree it's the likely answer.

[Technetium]

You also cannot post any links to ANY Mastodon instance, any that are already up have a huge danger warning.

[dorkwood]

Are we certain this wasn't caught up in the recent purge of bot accounts? I expect Musk will probably reinstate this account soon.

[badwolf]

just petty.

[djaouen]

Anyone who supports Elon’s takeover at this point is basically a shill who has sold out to the man

[abambresm]

the sky is blue...

[krapp]

...yes? That's exactly what's happening.

And no one is claiming the government needs to repeal or change any laws and force Elon to do anything, either. They're just leaving.

[the_optimist]

We figured out that we’re not allowed to encourage stalking, but if we call it “press coverage” of stalking then we can pretend it’s not stalking. The analogy doesn’t hold anywhere, child porn, drug sales, anything. This is a honeypot for the very lowest-performing flies. The traditional press may be gleefully rubbing its tiny legs together but the logic doesn’t survive first-order scrutiny.

[hoppoy]

My main problem with Mastodon is it's such a tiresome monoculture of opinion. So many people with the pretty much the same politics, biases, grievances as everyone else. Any server that dissents too much from this gets a fediverse block.

The whole thing is just so tedious. I don't know about the rest of you, but I enjoy reading opinions from people I have nothing in common with in terms of world view, and whom I vehemently disagree with.

On Twitter, you get that easily. On Mastodon, meh. Same old shit repeated everywhere. Boring and sanctimonious.