The link is to a GitHub discussion, where gargron shuts down a discussion because he’s made a unilateral decision and then locks the thread to avoid debate.
On its own, it might not seem like much. Someone’s gotta make the decisions, right!? Except that this is a pretty dramatic shift for mastodon (leaning into search more) and the main ask was to provide two options rather than roll multiple things into one, which is pretty reasonable. Plus, why not get user feedback? Mastodon has plenty of users after all? Add to this that the main masto instance intends to federate with meta’s threads and gargron has signed an NDA, and the tin foil hat starts to come out.
Alone, not much of a big deal, but it’s an insight into why people find masto devs difficult (AFAIU).
EDIT: woah … downvotes straight off of the bat … which is fine … but honestly, I’m not sure why the downvoting … this was just an example of something some might find problematic … feel free to discuss.
He is a bit problematic. It always seems to go that way with him too. People were averse to quote toots, and most of his userbase are Twitter refugees that left early because of things like doxxing. But Gargron just toots “nah, I’m happy to add quote toots”. He probably lacks something in the way of caring about what people were attracted to in the first place. Maybe he’s just lumbering thoughtlessly in general - the whole extinct elephant theme in itself.
I said it elsewhere, but it may be the case that mastodon was lucky to be at the right place and right time, but he thinks it’s success is entirely due to his decisions and beliefs. If so, IMO, there’s not much hope, as that kind of confidence can only be dislodged by failure.
Hate to be the one to draw a parallel, but this is the same mindset Spez has and why he justifies the choices he made with Reddit.
He wasn’t happy to add quote toots, though. There’s a whole Mastodon mythology built up around quotes.
Then the Elon account boom ended, and suddenly he was happy to do it.
Hes happy to do whatever gives him positive attention.