Any platform that supports free speech should have a content warning system, much like what Mastodon offers. I bet Musk won’t implement it, because his snowflake fans would find this kind of free speech disturbing (and he’s afraid of it).
Mute people for a while
Sometimes a person you like to follow comes in a mood. You don’t want to unfollow them, but you also don’t want to deal with what they’re currently yelling about. Maybe they talk endlessly about a movie you’ll never see. Maybe they’re live-tweeting a sporting event, or maybe they’re fussing over something political. On Twitter, you don’t have many options: you can unfollow, mute, or block them. However, all those changes are permanent.
Mastodon lets you mute people for a set amount of time – anywhere from five minutes to seven days – enough time for the person to process what has been posting to them so much at the moment. It’s a great compromise and Twitter should add it.
An easier verification process
The purpose of Twitter’s verification system, at least in the beginning, was to confirm that a particular account was actually controlled by a particular politician, celebrity, journalist, or organization. However, the system for getting the checkmark was opaque, making the checkmark something of a status symbol. That said, Musk’s early attempts at “reform” mostly just created a spammer’s haven.
Mastodon, meanwhile, has a system that enables fast verification without any overhead. Basically, if you link to your Mastodon account with the “ref=me” tag on your website, Mastodon will emphasize that you manage the site on your profile. This gives people a quick way to confirm your identity without creating a lot of work for moderators. Twitter could do worse than copy this strategy for “official” accounts. However, Elon Musk will not implement this, possibly because he wants you to pay for verification while calling it democratic.
A (free) edit button
Twitter users want an edit button. They can get one if they are willing to pay $8 a month. Mastodon users get an edit button for free. However, Elon won’t offer this, probably because he likes money more than you.
Actual support for external customers
The best way to use Twitter used to be with third-party clients, which generally offered a much smoother and customizable experience than the official Twitter app and website. TweetBot, for example, is a much nicer way to use Twitter on a Mac than anything made by Twitter. The problem: Twitter severely restricted its API a few years ago, limiting the kinds of things external customers could do. You can’t get notifications for likes or retweets. Polls are simply broken. I could go on.
Mastodon does not have this problem. External clients can do everything – and in some cases even more – than the official website and applications can. It’s refreshing and something Twitter should be doing to reward its power users. However, it won’t. Because …
Follow hashtags
On Twitter, you can follow accounts and search for hashtags. Mastodon allows users to follow an entire hashtag so that all related posts appear on your home screen. I don’t know if Twitter should add this, but a lot of people like it, and it’s a really great way to find people who post regularly on the topics you’re interested in.
No ads or subscriptions
City squares are accessible to everyone. They do not charge for access and they are not covered in advertisements. Sure, there might be a business or two next to the town square, and there might be a few walls covered in flyers for punk concerts, but for the most part, a town square is primarily a non-commercial space. Twitter, if it really was a town square, would be like this. Mastodon already is. There is no company involved with Mastodon – it is an open source program owned by a non-profit organization. The network is run by volunteers who set up servers for their friends and communities. Anyone can set up a server and connect to all the others, and moderation is done by volunteers.
I don’t think Elon Musk is going to make Twitter free and non-commercial. It’s a business and he’s a businessman – not an engineer, not a free speech advocate, and not one who ultimately cares about the community regardless of his public statements. He is a money man who loves money and would like to have more of it (even though the money he currently has clearly doesn’t do much for his mental and emotional health).
And that’s the problem: a city square cannot be a business by definition. It must be a space owned by the people. That’s what an Elon Musk Twitter can never be, and what Mastodon already is. I wrote about how to get started with Mastodon, so check that out if you’re curious.
