V For Viennetta

Person. Admin gonk. Nerd. 80s synthpop idiot. Semi-talented iOS app dev. Norwich dweller. Tesco Value satirical poster. Lidl croissant enthusiast. It’s always David Cameron’s fault.

www: https://joebaldwin.me.uk
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Last Notes

2026-03-14 09:30:22 UTC

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I’m not sure anyone at the Mastodon product team, or its various evangelists, have really ever understood (or even really cared to find out) why half the network just stopped posting the moment Bluesky invites started proliferating - or in some cases they seem to actively welcome it for weeding out the unbelievers. @npub1sac…kcpe’s piece from 2023 still rings extremely true today: https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

2026-03-14 09:27:28 UTC

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I know all this. But the discovery is still bad and the network is still very much awash in one specific kind of person (Linux user/nerd/open source/anti-AI/at least vaguely leftist). Which is far as fine as it goes but it just overwhelms everything else. And also, maybe sometimes I want to see pictures of birds - I do not want to follow hashtag-bird and then see every single picture of a bird everyone on Mastodon ever posts. It’s a poor alternative to an algorithmic feed or good discovery system.

2026-03-14 08:14:12 UTC

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It just gets incredibly dull coming on here and seeing a feed that's just "I love open source!" and "AI is horrible, being creative is good!" Like cool, yeah, I don't like AI either, but they're obviously only posting that for clout because that shit's like catnip for Mastodon's natural user base, and Mastodon has basically *nothing outside* that natural user base.

2026-03-14 08:11:22 UTC

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I think half the problem really is that a lot of the Internet has got addicted to being angry at the state of the world, so they're actively looking for things to be angry about so they can portray that righteous anger.
This interacts *extremely poorly* with the fact that (as you say) on Bluesky and *ESPECIALLY* on Mastodon the "discourse" is *extremely* receptive to anti-AI stuff so "I hate AI, share if you agree!" stuff gets boosted more. There is a very narrow band of "acceptable" opinions on here and if you post stuff that validates them you get attention. Given how difficult it is to get attention on Mastodon to begin with, it's a vicious circle.
Honestly I echo what the post you quoted said, and it's part of why I reactivated my Bluesky, because at least I get the impression that people on Bluesky care about *something else in the entire world* other than tech sucking and the world being doomed.

2026-02-19 19:49:27 UTC

RE: https://vt.social/@lina/116097856103360777
Because I've been negative quite a bit about the potential Discord replacements/the way "open web" people tend to try and develop novice-facing applications - reading this guy's post, I actually think his head's screwed on about right.
No FOSS fallacy smells here and a commendable focus on the desired end user experience over purism, even while discussing the development process. Top marks, no notes.
The blog: https://blog.fluxer.app/how-i-built-fluxer-a-discord-like-chat-app/
#note1ju8…gqf3

2026-02-04 13:24:47 UTC

I remember when everyone was talking about how Starmer was going to be this dull technocratic scandal-free no-nonsense sort, and always thought it was complete crap, because he had consistently surrounded himself with some of the biggest and dodgiest shits in British politics, not least Peter sodding Mandelson.
Hiring Peter Mandelson and not expecting him to disgrace you by getting involved in some deeply unseemly scandal is like trying to find a nice film for your two young children to watch and deciding to go with a DVD of "Come and See". At some point it's not someone else's fault that your judgment is just that obviously, hideously poor.
#ukpol #ukpolitics #starmer