Jupiter Rowland

2024-02-18 09:56:16

Yes, it's that bad

I've read an interesting comparison the other day: Mastodon is the Internet Explorer 6 of the Fediverse.

It's underwhelming. It's underequipped. It lacks features that are standard just about everywhere else. It's actually hopelessly outdated. In fact, it's even insecure, also due to how it lacks security features that competitors have readily available. And it ignores officially defined standards and tries hard to force the whole {Fediverse|Web} to adopt its own non-standard solutions instead.

At the same time, however, for many many users, it is the {Fediverse|Internet}, full stop.

For the vast majority of {Fediverse|Internet} users, it was the first {Fediverse project|Web browser} they came across because that's what they were mouth-fed when they started with the {Fediverse|Internet}. For quite a long time, it was the only {Fediverse project|Web browser} they even knew existed, and for many, it still is. Alternatives are only known to and used by the tech-savvy, and they're also the only ones who are aware of how dangerously lacking it is.

Thus, it has vastly more users than all its alternatives combined. Its market share is such that its developers don't even have to care for standards compatibility or what advantages the competition has. They can force their way upon everyone and everything.

Even many websites are built hard against only {Mastodon|the Internet Explorer} and malfunction or completely refuse to work with any of its alternatives, not seldomly because their developers don't even know that alternatives exist. And few developers dare to build {websites|Fediverse projects} only according to {HTML|ActivityPub} standards, even if that means breaking compatibility with {Mastodon|the IE6}.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Comparison #Fediverse #Mastodon #NotOnlyMastodon #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse #FediverseIsNotMastodon #InternetExplorer #InternetExplorer6 #IE6