In case it helps you understand: barriers of entry to Mastodon, from my perspective as an ex-Twitter user and current Bluesky and Mastodon user (note it took me 4 tries over 5 years to actually "enjoy" Mastodon)
Lack of content discoverability: Bluesky has programmable feeds and starter packs (although the latter is pretty flawed), Twitter has The Algorithm. When you first create a Mastodon account, you're not given much.
The primary reason Mastodon "stuck" with me on the 4th go around was this. I manually imported a bunch of my connections from Bluesky.
Choosing the right server: on all my previous attempts, I was overwhelmed by server selection and went with generic all-purpose instances. Having a local timeline with things that might actually interest you is very helpful.
The network effect: I don't think I really have to elaborate on this one
Bonus things that probably don't serve as barriers to entry but are real issues for active users:
Lack of features: it's not possible to search for posts on ActivityPub at any reasonable scale. I don't know all my Mastodon lore and think I've heard that search was intentionally not made good in the past for privacy or something, but if you're posting something on the "blast my posts everywhere" protocol, well... it's still out there.
There's also no quote posts, which haven't been implemented for similar privacy/anti-harassment reasons. But instead, other software like Pleroma works around this by simply giving a link to the original post—the worst of both worlds, bad UX and not even an option to attempt to detach or prevent quotes.
Fedi meta / sudden defederations: If you picked the wrong server—or any of your friends did—and you end up with a tempermental admin, you could unexpectedly lose contact with each other due to defederation, and you might not even notice.
This is not to say other platforms are perfect. There are plenty of things I don't like about Bluesky. This comment is specifically about Mastodon.
While you didn't name names of what app you were using for streaming, I just got into a similar situation with my dorm and what I found worked was using wired ALVR for my streaming. Not wireless, but good, long right-angled USB-C cables don't cost a fortune. https://github.com/alvr-org/ALVR/wiki/ALVR-wired-setup-(ALVR-over-USB)
I'm at college right now, which is a 3 hour drive away from my home, where a server of mine is. I just have to ask my parents to turn it back on when the power goes out or it gets borked. I access it solely through RustDesk and Cloudflare Tunnels SSH (it's actually pretty cool, they have a web interface for it).
I have no car, so there's really no way to access it in case something catastrophic happens. I have to rely on hopes, prayers, and the power of a probably outdated Pop!_OS install. Totally doesn't stress me out I'll just say I like to live on the edge :^)
I don't know the specifics behind why the limit is 72 bytes, but that might be slightly tricky. My understanding of bcrypt is that it generates 2^salt different possible hashes for the same password, and when you want to test an input you have to hash the password 2^salt times to see if any match. So computation times would get very big if you're combining hashes
I'm sure a lot of forks will pop up right around this time. I'll be less skeptical of them once I see actual commits made to the codebase instead of things like just changing the readme
I hate to be that guy, but it doesn't seem like there's anything to this fork. At least a few links in the README don't work, and the domain for the "email" is actively for sale. The owner of the repository doesn't seem to have any real previous projects on their GitHub account.
I can understand that it's a new fork, but in my mind you'd want to at least make sure the Readme is... passable before you spread the word and make a Patreon for the project.
EDIT: The Patreon link has been removed since I made this comment. I'm still incredibly skeptical of the project though
The brief explanation is that Nitter worked by creating "guest accounts", which were a leftover from when you used to be able to use the Twitter mobile app without an account. After creation, these accounts lasted for a month. The time since the ability to create these accounts was removed is nearing (has reached?) a month
I think what was meant here is that it won't run apps designed for the Oculus Quest lineup (which is based on Android), not the actual Facebook application
It's not exactly the same, but I can vouch for StreetComplete being an incredibly good/similar game. You walk around the real world, and the app points out missing data in OpenStreetMap that you can fill in easily. You get the dopamine of a number going up, help dethrone proprietary map dominamce, and get some good excercise in in the process.
In case it helps you understand: barriers of entry to Mastodon, from my perspective as an ex-Twitter user and current Bluesky and Mastodon user (note it took me 4 tries over 5 years to actually "enjoy" Mastodon)
Bonus things that probably don't serve as barriers to entry but are real issues for active users:
This is not to say other platforms are perfect. There are plenty of things I don't like about Bluesky. This comment is specifically about Mastodon.
Replace "x.com" in the URL with "xcancel.com" to see context, replies, chronological user tweets, etc. It's a Nitter instance that still works.
Hadn't heard of pikvm before. Will keep that in mind, thanks!
While you didn't name names of what app you were using for streaming, I just got into a similar situation with my dorm and what I found worked was using wired ALVR for my streaming. Not wireless, but good, long right-angled USB-C cables don't cost a fortune. https://github.com/alvr-org/ALVR/wiki/ALVR-wired-setup-(ALVR-over-USB)
I'm at college right now, which is a 3 hour drive away from my home, where a server of mine is. I just have to ask my parents to turn it back on when the power goes out or it gets borked. I access it solely through RustDesk and Cloudflare Tunnels SSH (it's actually pretty cool, they have a web interface for it).
I have no car, so there's really no way to access it in case something catastrophic happens. I have to rely on hopes, prayers, and the power of a probably outdated Pop!_OS install. Totally doesn't stress me out I'll just say I like to live on the edge :^)
What's Reddit?
I don't know the specifics behind why the limit is 72 bytes, but that might be slightly tricky. My understanding of bcrypt is that it generates 2^salt different possible hashes for the same password, and when you want to test an input you have to hash the password 2^salt times to see if any match. So computation times would get very big if you're combining hashes
bcrypt has a maximum password length of 72 bytes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bcrypt#Maximum_password_length
Good to know! I suppose it makes sense for the smaller registries to be a little shadier.
While I do agree that this is bad, I'm a little confused—what does this have to do with dead internet theory? Doesn't that relate to users being bots?
I'm sure a lot of forks will pop up right around this time. I'll be less skeptical of them once I see actual commits made to the codebase instead of things like just changing the readme
I hate to be that guy, but it doesn't seem like there's anything to this fork. At least a few links in the README don't work, and the domain for the "email" is actively for sale. The owner of the repository doesn't seem to have any real previous projects on their GitHub account.
I can understand that it's a new fork, but in my mind you'd want to at least make sure the Readme is... passable before you spread the word and make a Patreon for the project.
EDIT: The Patreon link has been removed since I made this comment. I'm still incredibly skeptical of the project though
The brief explanation is that Nitter worked by creating "guest accounts", which were a leftover from when you used to be able to use the Twitter mobile app without an account. After creation, these accounts lasted for a month. The time since the ability to create these accounts was removed is nearing (has reached?) a month
This guy goes by the name Skweezy Jibbs, and he's actually a comedian! Look him up if you don't know him, he's done some pretty funny stuff. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/skweezy-jibbs
Lsen -> "Listen [,]"OlsenFish -> "I'll send fish"
Edit: No, it's just the OlsenFish. The "Lsen" I thought I saw at the top was part of "Olsen", my vision failed me again >_<
I think what was meant here is that it won't run apps designed for the Oculus Quest lineup (which is based on Android), not the actual Facebook application
I assume the console / game store pays for the bandwidth, not them. No skin off their back
I believe the name is using Unicode Regional Indicators for something other than their intended purpose. Not sure of the specifics though
StreetComplete is Android only, but last I heard Go Map!! for iOS was trying to add a similar "quest" functionality to that found in SC.
It's not exactly the same, but I can vouch for StreetComplete being an incredibly good/similar game. You walk around the real world, and the app points out missing data in OpenStreetMap that you can fill in easily. You get the dopamine of a number going up, help dethrone proprietary map dominamce, and get some good excercise in in the process.