@lucien I know, I know... When I first started (a week ago), I struggled with understanding the federated nature. But I just put out a post to ask questions, and people explained things to me, and I was amazed with the awesome community out here!
I agree ๐ I ended up on Reddit rabbit holes and documentation pages to learn some things. This user type will however not search and if they can't ask their friends or family for help, they give up.
Still, steps are taken to make this process more user friendly, which is great!
@lucien also, you have to bear in mind that when we reply to public comments, it isn't just for the benefit of the one person who commented, but for anyone else who may be lurking in the comments sections. And: usually you have to hear about a new product a number of times before you try it out. So, many baby steps, one big goal.
@lucien One example I like to repeat a lot: imagine that when a channel you follow on YouTube publishes a video, you saw that publication on Twitter. And you could leave comments and give likes directly to that YouTube video from that same Twitter publicationโฆ you can do that on the Fediverse with Mastodon and PeerTube. Thatโs the nature of federated content using a single protocol, but sharing different content on different instances of different services.
@lucien The Fediverse has a great collection of techies creating the protocols and infrastructure. What we're missing is the folks helping regular people use it.
Hopefully folks like Hannah will start creating that layer. Not just through advocacy, but by hiring staff dedicated to helping people use it.
@jztusk @lucien I think Hannahs like Hannah Aubry (@haubles) are key to bringing the most important aspect of the Fediverse front and centre: the community vibes. ๐ ๐
@lucien What's wrong with #Mastodon's #UX? I think it's great. I find it to be about as usable as #X, maybe even less confusing due to the lack of feature creep.
@realcaseyrollins @lucien for me, it took some time to get used to the federated nature. For example, if I am on my EUPolicy server and I open a link to a mastodon.social profile, I won't be logged into my EUPolicy account and can't directly interact. I have to find them in my search bar. It's not a huge thing, but it lead to some hang-ups. I was shameless enough to admit I was struggling with this, and people in the comments just walked me through the process. Good community here.
@realcaseyrollins this are the top ones that I observed: - Server selection onboarding. This is number one, you'll find plenty of posts online with confused users. Though Mastodon works on improving it soon it seems. - Limited search and discovery (bottlenecked by the server) - Broken uploads because of dead CDNs - Confusing 'DM' feature
These all make sense to me and are ok, but casual Joe will struggle.
@lucien @realcaseyrollins Yeah, I have to say the "private mentions" are interesting. I like that I can take a discussion from public to private within the same thread.
I like the private mentions, but they aren't DMs. And maybe it's ok not to have DMs for now?
@realcaseyrollins @lucien, Well, in my view, DMs would land in an inbox, and create a continuous back and forth between two people. If I stopped answered to your DMs, you would notice next time you opened your inbox. Private mentions happen in threads under posts. When I stop answering there, you probably wouldn't notice. I phrase it like this, because as a girl on the internet... I CAN get creeps in my DMs. So maybe I like that things are a bit more... decentralised here. Makes sense?
@lucien You're welcome! I do think they should rename these to "direct messages", I think the #Mastodon has a hangup about the verbiage, although I can't remember exactly what it is or why.
@project1enigma @benny @lucien people often mistake familiarity for ease, like when windows sysadmins complain about having to type a command on linux because it's "hard to remember" right before listing off their 12 pages of instructions on which 10 menus you have to go down and pixel hunt or a 200 character long registry keys you need to search for in regedit to fix a basic setting.
@moftasa Yeah, what the Commission answered here isn't quite what they asked. But with a generous reading, still an opportunity to promote the Fediverse.
I read it like the person who asked wanted a silo while the EU Commission social media people answered with the actually open alternative. Like even if there were Fedi servers that allow only people verified to be EU citizens (or residents), one could still interact with all the world across servers.
It shouldn't really matter, though. The server may be EU based and only open to EU citizens to register, but it's not a "silo". It's simply one's home base. Other than server block lists implemented by the server's moderators, you can engage with anyone, anywhere, in the Fediverse.
Lately I'm not happy by much stuff EU championed, especially on the digital world but I love this! Especially because instead of trying and failing to build and push their own solution as governments tends to do they promote a grassroots movement.
@MissWarcraft I would say there are many reasons. I also think that Mastodon just doesn't have a large marketing budget, that would be useful to get people on board. That, and I think the initial step of choosing a server can be offputting
Being locked into a Server is why I do not post often, I don't see what people in Europe really think. But on X I do. It is a true hodge podge of posts from around the globe. I try to stick to Warcraft, animal and science stuff. Very little of that here. On Mastodon they just post Hate Trump Hate America. Why would I want to see that all day.
@MissWarcraft I see what you mean. I think. Actually, wait, what do you mean you are locked into a server? If I follow you, I see your posts, regardless of what server I am on, no? PS: For the Horde! ๐ค ๐
It means When I joined it said select a server. I picked one that said it was about Science, Books. etc. And it turned into just politics. If I want Politics I can go to X. I go to Insta for cats, and fun stuff, I keep hoping for more about EU on mastodon, but it is all Hate Trump, Hate America, Hate Jews. So I rarely come here. Anyway, will check in later I am a hopeful person. Peace! โฎ๏ธ
A cheap way to market the platform would be for EU politicians to start migrating here en masse. That would be headline news in and of itself, and journalists would have to follow them here, which would inevitably be a huge publicity generator for Mastodon.
@stefan This is a 2025 report. And one from Jan 2026, Insta active monthly users over 2 billion. When I came here I wanted Cats, Science and Warcraft. I follow those but very limited activity, but lots of Politics. That might be part of the problem. People are burned out on Politics except for a few hard core people.
@MissWarcraft Maybe, but I don't think so. Political content seems to do really well on Bluesky, I see a ton of it getting shared widely.
I think it's just the toxic culture here. I've seen so many people driven out. There are too many self-righteous, gate-keepy people. On Bluesky, you can at least lock your replies, no wonder people feel safer there.
This might be a small distinction to some, but personally, I think it's a good thing that they verified the account, so that people know whether to report them for what the organization is doing versus for impersonation.
To me, a much bigger problem is that they are actually hosting that account. Why is that even necessary if Bluesky/Atmosphere is meant to be decentralized?
Yeah, but not a huge fan of people's blocks being public on Bluesky/ATProto. Not sure if ICE is going to do anything with that list, but I'd rather not be on it.
@stefan BlueSky has 4 Million active monthly users too. Lot of Gaming, Cats. And they cracked down on the hate. The moderators issued warnings about that and it slowly stopped. Companies do not like hate, they know people from all demographics use their product. That is something hateful people don't realize.
@MissWarcraft I think it's a combination of the fediverse attracting a more techy, less socially adept crowd, with no tools for defending against harassment and unhelpful comments.
There was a hope that at least some of it was due to Mastodon not showing all replies, so people would keep piling on, but I am not sure that was really the problem.
BTW, a โcitizen-onlyโ network developed and controlled by a state actor sounds pretty dystopian to me. Yet people are actively advocating for it โฆ
Ugh, I - as an American citizen - am so jealous. I have never in my thirty-year career in IT/Technology seen any unit of the American government make a non-terrible software/solution recommendation.
one cannot blame them at all. Facebook, X, Instagram, and similar platforms owned by large IT companies rely on ease of use and comercial stuff to remain popular.
For good, alternatives like Mastodon remain social because they rely on recommendation rather than profit.
I try to carry my friends here, while looking for new ones (the second, being the easier).
@xinit gosh I hope thatโs not what they meant. Maybe the social media manager was just a bit too excited about mastodon and looking for a way to promote it.
@xinit I know I know. To be honest, I didnโt notice that part when I first read the comment, and slightly cringing about the phrasing now. When you handle thousands of comments per day your brain gets a bit muddled. So I kind of hope people stop noticing. ๐คฃ๐
@EUCommission How about updating the UE Commission web site to include a link to Mastodon then? I know a link to Mastodon is present on the Social Media Channels page, but it would fit way better on the front page.
@szkodnix any opportunity to promote Fedi (Although on second reading I admit that could have been better phrased, they are asking for an EU-only platform and Fedi is global...)
I imagine some genius is sure that The Solutionโข is to federate all of Facebook to fediverse.
Let's find that person and make sure they can never reproduce. It'd be worse than when AOL turned loose all their mouthbreathers on Usenet decades ago.
@pini @EUCommission it makes no sense to me why X icons are plastered all over EU websites and hardly any Mastodon icons. Glad there is a reply to a post like this the odd time, but it would be hugely more impactful if all EU institutions replaced all X icons on all official websites with Mastodon icons. An icon on a website is marketing for a platform. Why don't you #SwitchTheIcons ?
@leavex Late 2024 I attempted to show Fediverse to a guy who is (or was?) maintaining a page. "Baitman, clickbait justice warrior" - I translated the Italian name. Well, this guy was complaining of the algorithm always putting that page in danger as he was inviting to fight clickbait and disinformation. I suggested him to have another service in addition to Facebook and Twitter. The Fediverse. Well, his readers treated me as a spammer. So I said, I'm not Jesus. I'm not the preacher who goes to sinners to give them an alternative. Let them go to hell and swim in the mud, if they want to.
At the same time it's interesting, that they sell the Fediverse as a โEuropeanโ thing. While certainly quite a lot of developers are from Europe, that has never been the point, right?
Lucien
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to Lucien • • •I know, I know...
When I first started (a week ago), I struggled with understanding the federated nature.
But I just put out a post to ask questions, and people explained things to me, and I was amazed with the awesome community out here!
Lucien
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •I agree ๐ I ended up on Reddit rabbit holes and documentation pages to learn some things. This user type will however not search and if they can't ask their friends or family for help, they give up.
Still, steps are taken to make this process more user friendly, which is great!
Hannah Grace
in reply to Lucien • • •And: usually you have to hear about a new product a number of times before you try it out. So, many baby steps, one big goal.
reshared this
Oblomov e Eye reshared this.
Lucien
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •GunChleoc
in reply to Lucien • • •@lucien Facebook users might also be more comfortable with Friendica rather than Mastodon.
Maybe collaborate with Friendica developers to get a good beginner's guide for Facebook users going?
When working on such a guide, it's always good to have the view of somebody completely new to the software like yourself.
Dmian ๐ช๐บ
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •always tired
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •jz.tusk
in reply to Lucien • • •@lucien
The Fediverse has a great collection of techies creating the protocols and infrastructure. What we're missing is the folks helping regular people use it.
Hopefully folks like Hannah will start creating that layer. Not just through advocacy, but by hiring staff dedicated to helping people use it.
Hannah Grace
in reply to jz.tusk • • •I think Hannahs like Hannah Aubry (@haubles) are key to bringing the most important aspect of the Fediverse front and centre: the community vibes. ๐ ๐
casey is remote
in reply to Lucien • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to casey is remote • • •for me, it took some time to get used to the federated nature.
For example, if I am on my EUPolicy server and I open a link to a mastodon.social profile, I won't be logged into my EUPolicy account and can't directly interact. I have to find them in my search bar. It's not a huge thing, but it lead to some hang-ups.
I was shameless enough to admit I was struggling with this, and people in the comments just walked me through the process. Good community here.
Lucien
in reply to casey is remote • • •@realcaseyrollins this are the top ones that I observed:
- Server selection onboarding. This is number one, you'll find plenty of posts online with confused users. Though Mastodon works on improving it soon it seems.
- Limited search and discovery (bottlenecked by the server)
- Broken uploads because of dead CDNs
- Confusing 'DM' feature
These all make sense to me and are ok, but casual Joe will struggle.
Hannah Grace
in reply to Lucien • • •@lucien @realcaseyrollins
Yeah, I have to say the "private mentions" are interesting. I like that I can take a discussion from public to private within the same thread.
I like the private mentions, but they aren't DMs.
And maybe it's ok not to have DMs for now?
casey is remote
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to casey is remote • • •Well, in my view, DMs would land in an inbox, and create a continuous back and forth between two people.
If I stopped answered to your DMs, you would notice next time you opened your inbox.
Private mentions happen in threads under posts. When I stop answering there, you probably wouldn't notice.
I phrase it like this, because as a girl on the internet... I CAN get creeps in my DMs. So maybe I like that things are a bit more... decentralised here. Makes sense?
Lucien
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •@realcaseyrollins and to your point, that's probably a good reason for not having fully fledged 'DMs'.
I also don't like people popping in my inbox uninvited...
casey is remote
in reply to Lucien • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to casey is remote • • •casey is remote
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Renaud Chaput
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •@realcaseyrollins@noauthority.social @lucien
Hannah Grace
in reply to Renaud Chaput • • •Lucien
in reply to Renaud Chaput • • •benny
in reply to Lucien • • •always tired
in reply to benny • • •@benny @lucien
But is UX better there now?
I can only speak for Bluesky and on mobile it's horrible.
Raptor
in reply to always tired • • •Mina
in reply to Raptor • • •@raptor85
I shall rememberยน the phrase "people often mistake familiarity for ease".
I have explained it (or tried to) to so many people in many word, and this summarises it neatly.
Cheers!
ยนi.e. "shamelessly steal"
@project1enigma @benny @lucien @hpod16
GJ Groothedde ๐ช๐บ
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Mostafa Hussein Omar
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to Mostafa Hussein Omar • • •Yeah, what the Commission answered here isn't quite what they asked.
But with a generous reading, still an opportunity to promote the Fediverse.
always tired
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •@moftasa
I read it like the person who asked wanted a silo while the EU Commission social media people answered with the actually open alternative. Like even if there were Fedi servers that allow only people verified to be EU citizens (or residents), one could still interact with all the world across servers.
Pino Carafa
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •marzuq mรคrzenbecher
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
Unknown parent • • •Are we just tagging other Hannahs now? ๐ ๐
emilianosandri
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Miss Warcraft
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to Miss Warcraft • • •I also think that Mastodon just doesn't have a large marketing budget, that would be useful to get people on board.
That, and I think the initial step of choosing a server can be offputting
Miss Warcraft
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to Miss Warcraft • • •I see what you mean. I think. Actually, wait, what do you mean you are locked into a server? If I follow you, I see your posts, regardless of what server I am on, no?
PS: For the Horde! ๐ค ๐
GunChleoc
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •@MissWarcraft Have you tried using filters to get most of the US politics off your timeline? fedi.tips/filtering-your-timelโฆ
Also, hashtags are your friends, follow lots of those.
Filtering your Mastodon timeline to automatically hide posts containing certain words, phrases, hashtags, links or emoji | Fedi.Tips โ An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tipsMiss Warcraft
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Seppo Raudaskoski
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Miss Warcraft • • •@MissWarcraft Where is this data from?
fedidb.com shows a bit over 1 million active accounts across all of the fediverse.
@hpod16
Miss Warcraft
in reply to Stefan Bohacek • • •Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Miss Warcraft • • •@MissWarcraft Ah, okay, it's referencing old data from mastodon-analytics.com/.
Thank you!
@hpod16
Mastodon Analytics
Mastodon AnalyticsMiss Warcraft
in reply to Stefan Bohacek • • •Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Miss Warcraft • • •@MissWarcraft Maybe, but I don't think so. Political content seems to do really well on Bluesky, I see a ton of it getting shared widely.
I think it's just the toxic culture here. I've seen so many people driven out. There are too many self-righteous, gate-keepy people. On Bluesky, you can at least lock your replies, no wonder people feel safer there.
Compare the drop-off on mastodon-analytics.com vs bluefacts.app/bluesky-user-groโฆ.
@hpod16
Mastodon Analytics
Mastodon AnalyticsAetherial
in reply to Stefan Bohacek • • •@stefan
@MissWarcraft @hpod16
Bsky is also the platform that verified ICE. Hard pass.
Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Aetherial • • •@postpunkmusic
This might be a small distinction to some, but personally, I think it's a good thing that they verified the account, so that people know whether to report them for what the organization is doing versus for impersonation.
To me, a much bigger problem is that they are actually hosting that account. Why is that even necessary if Bluesky/Atmosphere is meant to be decentralized?
Either way, agree on the hard pass though.
@MissWarcraft @hpod16
Hannah Grace
in reply to Stefan Bohacek • • •Well, at least ICE's presence on BS gave us this piece of news: techcrunch.com/2026/01/20/ice-โฆ
ICE becomes one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky after its verification | TechCrunch
Sarah Perez (TechCrunch)Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Yeah, but not a huge fan of people's blocks being public on Bluesky/ATProto. Not sure if ICE is going to do anything with that list, but I'd rather not be on it.
@postpunkmusic @MissWarcraft
Hannah Grace
in reply to Stefan Bohacek • • •Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Yep, that's how we know who the most blocked accounts are.
clearsky.app/icegov/blocking/bโฆ
More details:
docs.bsky.app/blog/block-impleโฆ
@postpunkmusic @MissWarcraft
ClearSky
clearsky.appMiss Warcraft
in reply to Stefan Bohacek • • •Stefan Bohacek
in reply to Miss Warcraft • • •@MissWarcraft I think it's a combination of the fediverse attracting a more techy, less socially adept crowd, with no tools for defending against harassment and unhelpful comments.
There was a hope that at least some of it was due to Mastodon not showing all replies, so people would keep piling on, but I am not sure that was really the problem.
stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/1โฆ
@hpod16
Stefan Bohacek
2026-01-09 19:21:39
Leave X - Protect Democracy
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Darkoneko
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to Darkoneko • • •always tired
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •@darkoneko
In this case I'm not against this kind of answering only half the question tbh.
My online world would be poorer without seeing people from all over the world. Including the cool kind of people from the US.
aria
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Ryek Darkener
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Leander Lindahl
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Petr Skรกla
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •๐น Jakob Givoni
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •disorderlyf
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Michael Gisiger
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Michael Brandtner
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Pierre Pebble
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •xs4me2
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •LฮX/NรVฮ ๐ช๐บ
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Ho Ho Ho Like The Slur
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hermannus Stegeman
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •hiphopheaven
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Jiลรญ Fiala Total Landscaping
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Adam Williams
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Ugh, I - as an American citizen - am so jealous. I have never in my thirty-year career in IT/Technology seen any unit of the American government make a non-terrible software/solution recommendation.
๐ Well don.e
Dan E P
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •one cannot blame them at all. Facebook, X, Instagram, and similar platforms owned by large IT companies rely on ease of use and comercial stuff to remain popular.
For good, alternatives like Mastodon remain social because they rely on recommendation rather than profit.
I try to carry my friends here, while looking for new ones (the second, being the easier).
xinit โ / ๐โ๐ฅ
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to xinit โ / ๐โ๐ฅ • • •Maybe the social media manager was just a bit too excited about mastodon and looking for a way to promote it.
xinit โ / ๐โ๐ฅ
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •To be clear, the EU Commission is fine, it's the redacted person demanding the 'citizens-only' one that reads oddly to me.
I might just be cynical ๐
Hannah Grace
in reply to xinit โ / ๐โ๐ฅ • • •Toni Aittoniemi
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Pini
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •I know a link to Mastodon is present on the Social Media Channels page, but it would fit way better on the front page.
Rob ๐ณ๏ธ๐ Rartsy Humanist reshared this.
Niavy
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •ArteliaDragon
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Maike Kรผper
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •MeaningfulBits
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •ity [unit X-69] - VIOLENT FUCK
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •I can't tell what to think
Is this where all of those that think the EU is any different from the US are coming from
Robert "Szkodnix"
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Hannah Grace
in reply to Robert "Szkodnix" • • •(Although on second reading I admit that could have been better phrased, they are asking for an EU-only platform and Fedi is global...)
Mycotropic
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Do European universities host instances? I've tried to get mine to host one for staff/students and faculty but I got nowhere.
The Turtle
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •I imagine some genius is sure that The Solutionโข is to federate all of Facebook to fediverse.
Let's find that person and make sure they can never reproduce. It'd be worse than when AOL turned loose all their mouthbreathers on Usenet decades ago.
Sunny
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Xodus.online
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •tillvu
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Live it! Thanks for standing for the fediverse
Stefan Rolfs
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Author-ized L.J.
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Stefan
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •That's for real, no joke? ๐คฏ
#EuropeanCommission #Fediverse
Tiziano
in reply to Hannah Grace • •Now THIS is a reply!! ๐๐๐
Elena Brescacin
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •I suggested him to have another service in addition to Facebook and Twitter. The Fediverse. Well, his readers treated me as a spammer.
So I said, I'm not Jesus. I'm not the preacher who goes to sinners to give them an alternative. Let them go to hell and swim in the mud, if they want to.
Christian Schwรคgerl
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •David Adler
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •Bowreality ๐จ๐ฆ
in reply to Hannah Grace • • •