This is what I don't understand: When people mark a post as public and discoverable, meaning Google and Bing and such can already find and index it, why would one need to opt-in to making it available via Mastodon search? Isn't that what Unlisted is already for?

[–] stad@m.stad.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@woelkchen @andypiper Consider it a compromise, given how many people were dead set against *any* search.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not on Mastodon, why were people against search?

[–] stad@m.stad.social 7 points 1 year ago

@SorteKanin Some people object to any feature they have seen be abused on Twitter, whether or not it also has legitimate uses. And as it turns out almost any feature *can* be used to harass. If you want to just have your own little space, search allows bad guys to find you. It of course allows good guys to find you too. Some still do not think that's a worthwhile tradeoff (I don't agree, and I think it's futile, and I support search, btw.)

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I’m not on Mastodon, why were people against search?

Probably because they are illiterate about very basic concepts on the internet.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Consider it a compromise, given how many people were dead set against any search.

But public posts are already searchable because they are public. That's what all public posts on the internet are. They are visible to Google and Bing. Defaulting to not make public posts searchable from within Mastodon just drives people to proprietary search engines.

[–] stad@m.stad.social 5 points 1 year ago

@woelkchen I didn't say it was logical, but that doesn't stop a lot of people from objecting.

And I agree it just drives people elsewhere.

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