Fixing Twitter on Mastodon

Twitter is broken beyond repair.

But it can be fixed. On Mastodon. If users learn something I learned back in 1988.

I’m @danablankenhorn@journa.host on Mastodon. Journa.host is run by Adam Davidson, formerly of The New Yorker. It’s one of thousands of servers supporting Mastodon on the Internet.

Users can block users on Twitter. But on Mastodon servers can also block servers. Users can also move between servers. This means people choose whatever server conforms to their standards on what should be blocked and what allowed. You can have alt-right servers, alt-left servers, and alt-bicycling servers.

A lot of people, looking at Mastodon over the last few weeks, have looked askance at this. People are isolating behind their server walls, they complain. Or they might.

But that was always true for Twitter. It was designed to be. The problem is that many people didn’t use their block commands aggressively enough. Journalists amplified extreme views by retweeting them. Hate was amplified by user outrage.

Elon Musk didn’t start this. But he may have finished it by overpaying for Twitter, firing a big portion of the staff, and amplifying his acolytes like a common troll. Those victimized by his tactics either left, or reduced their use of the site. Musk’s claims that traffic is increasing and that everything will turn out great are as ridiculous as Kari Lake’s claim she’ll soon be governor of Arizona. Advertisers are also fleeing, which is the real bottom line. No one, save a bot farm, is buying an $8/month checkmark. The whole edifice is circling the drain.

All this can be fixed, on Mastodon, if users understand and grasp their power.

I don’t have to stay at Journa.host. I can go to another server and take my traffic with me. I don’t have to listen to people I don’t like, either. No one should feel obligated to listen to me, either. If someone gets you angry, block them and move on. If another server is attacking the one you’re on, block it or move. The power is yours.

This attitude can save your mind on Twitter, too. Block those who anger you, who annoy you, who don’t serve you. Don’t respond. Don’t try to fix them. That just encourages the bullies.

I learned this way back in 1988, when I briefly dealt with political threads at CompuServe. If you try to be rational with the irrational, you won’t get rationality back. You’ll get abuse. Block it. Walk away.

One more suggestion. Tip your server. If you like the service your host provides, throw them a few shekels. It doesn’t take much. Let them know you appreciate them. You don’t need to build a big company to create a big medium.

There’s a downside. Twitter was a Tower of Babel. It was the one place everyone went to when anything happened. Everyone was trying to speak and be heard in the same room, and no one was listening. The single community that was Twitter is unsustainable.

But it was like that in 1988 too. (Still think they should have elected Dukakis.)