I've long seen people question why there's a perception that Mastodon is hard to use.
Let me use a really concrete example I just came across that breaks the maxim "don't make me think":
Bluesky just added keyword muting, and it's way easier than doing it here.
While viewing any feed/post:
Moderation > Muted words and tags > type in word (the focus is in text field, no click required) > hit enter > click back button twice to return to where I was.
Preferences > Filters > Add filter > click in filter name > enter filter name > Click to add filter context > scroll down the page because the keyword field is so far down > click in keyword field > type in word > hit enter > click Back to Mastodon > my feed loads anew instead of taking me back to where I was.
7 clicks, some extra scrolling, and I'm not where I left off.
Yes, the filter feature is more advanced here. But that doesn't have to mean harder to use.
@Brendanjones Different apps make this easier. E.g., using @ivory , you can click and hold over a hashtag, which will cause a pop-up menu to appear in which mute is an option.
@mhucka yes, thanks, I'm aware of 3rd-party apps and web clients. My focus here is on the native Mastodon UX/UI because that's where most new users land.
@Brendanjones yeah lots of small things. I think the default web client UX feels really unstable because of how images load as you scroll.
Also Bluesky has a lot of things that look identical to twitter. Coders underestimate how hard it was for users to learn something like twitter in the first place, the last thing they want is change.
@moh_kohn Yeah I don't think it's surprising at all that many of the most popular Mastodon apps look way closer to Twitter than the default web client UI.
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