this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Which accessibility standards does Mastodon break?
Oh boy, where do I even begin:
Federation. People have no idea what it is, which means that they have to familiarize themselves with all these technical concepts just to create an account.
Servers. Most mastodon servers are locked, and you have to petition the admins to let you in, which often implies waiting more than a day. In other sites, you can create an account in 5 seconds, so mastodon is at a disadvantage.
Lack of an algorithm. This implies people won't see the content they like, which means they have to go and actively look for content. Most people don't want to spend time doing that, they just want to log in, laugh at funny memes ans look at pretty pictures.
3 is a feature to me. The "algorithms" seem to create bubbles, and I want to decide myself.
and bluesky doesn’t have a default algorithm either, but allows you to subscribe to algorithms created by other people
being able to choose how the information is presented is the way
That seems like a good way, to give the user the option. In your opinion, are these algorithms transparent enough to understand or even verify for regular users?
yes and no… essentially they’re http services that people run, so they can either be closed or FOSS… i could see a future where there’s like those 1-click “run on ” on github pages and you can audit the code if you want, and self host
they call them “feeds” if you’re interested in going deep
Some people want to make social media account to browse illustration or photography.
Unfortunately, that's not doable on fediverse. You follow anyone, and suddenly your feed filled with content that you are not interested in. Example: your favourite artist also post a lot of game screenshoot, but you're not interested in the games. You just want to see the illustration.
You can follow hashtags and also block them.
The same is true for Bsky but people don't complain about it there. It asks you what server you want when you sign up, etc., which is what people complain about in the Mastodon journey.
Most people aren't on locked servers. By which, I mean the majority of mastodon users are on the .social instance which is the default when you sign up on the official app/site and is open to anyone.
Not an accessibility issue.
Are we sure that the people that complains about "what's an instance?" don't have an agenda?
I'm pretty sure Mastodon is made of algorithms, mate
This is exactly the dismissive attitude that has shaped Mastodon development, and why it will never have broad appeal to replace any traditional social media.
The much, much bigger issue is people just flocking to where there's the capital for marketing. The feature sets/philosophy could be precisely 1:1 swapped and people would still end up on the platform with all of the money to throw around.
So, you don't know what accessibility standards are. You're just using a term, "accessibility", to mean "the way that I want it to work".
and you’re just using the term accessibility to mean a11y… the word accessibility is far broader than simply accessibility standards for people with disabilities