Ask HN: What key feature(s) is missing from Mastadon?

* Global search * Short usernames

Also:

* very few interesting accounts from Twitter are available on Mastadon * the “Elon bad” tribe who spend their time on Mastadon moaning about Elon and his companies.

For me it's search. I loved search (and search operators) on Twitter. Used it heavily to curate my twitter lists, to only get tweets pertaining to topics I was interested in.

When many tech folks began moving to Mastodon, I also decided to kick the tires to see what all the buzz is about. But I got tired of sifting through unrelated toots from people to find technically relevant ones.

Now, I know proper search support will never be added to Mastodon, so I don't plan to use it. I understand their reasons for it, but it's not for me.

Thankfully twitter for other topics I am interested in seems largely untouched.

There are none. There are no Twitter features that I miss on Mastodon.

What I miss are the variety of users on the former that aren't on the latter. That's the only real difference between the social media services I use a lot and those I rarely use. The people and ther work makes it valuable or not valuable.

You need to start at a higher level - before asking what features are missing, ask what problem Mastadon is solving. I haven't joined because I don't have an problem that it solves.

Search.

On verification you can verify to a url.

  > For me, it’s mainly that I can’t find or verify that accounts I have found are run by the entity I intended to follow…not saying I’m pro-blue checkmark, but checks are a thing.

This already exists. If people include their website or Github URL in their profile, and they have their Mastodon account listed on their website, it will automatically verify them.

  > Name the key feature or shortlist of features that is currently missing from Mastadon that if added would cause you to fully-migrate or dramatically increase usage?

I think what turns me off from Mastodon is that it's mostly a monoculture. If you say something that doesn't agree with the dominant politics of the Mastodon community, you are going to have problems.

I am politically-moderate (from a US viewpoint), but any instance that is remotely right-wing is blacklisted on the several Mastodon instances I've checked, effectively shunning them from the Fediverse. I personally enjoy reading stuff that challenges my beliefs.

Another thing that keeps me from Mastodon, is that when I do occasionally checked my rather curated list, it's still just a bunch of complaining. Complaining about Elon, Twitter, about political events, etc.

Ironically, and despite Elon's best efforts at destroying Twitter, I find it much more diverse and useful. Much of the whining has disappeared and, for the most part, I'm getting better content. That said, I question how much longer Twitter will exist and/or be relevant.

PS: Feel free to recommend me tips/follows.

All I want is for people to spell it correctly

A URL? mastadon.com goes nowhere

That you don't own your identity and history, it can be deleted on a whim of a local instance administrator. Basically that it's not Nostr, but Nostr even less popular than Mastodon.

I don't like the chronological timeline. It favors those who post the most instead of surfacing the most interesting content.

I want an algorithmic timeline, but I want one that works for me and not for the bottom line and KPIs of the company.

I kinda wanted to try mastodon, but gave up at the part where I'd have to choose a server. I'm still postponing researching which server I should join. And, well, everybody except one or two people are still on twitter and I don't miss them very much.