I like the small social network vibe because it reminds me of the old BBS days. I think social networks thrive with some form of exclusivity to keep them stable

I like the small social network vibe because it reminds me of the old BBS days. I think social networks thrive with some form of exclusivity to keep them stable - Facebook started by requiring your college email address and BBSes were limited by the range of your area code (or else you would suffer long distance calling fees). A network of 50 friends is interesting, Mastodon seems to group by interest or topic which is interesting, but there was something special about the local boundaries of BBSes that created interesting dynamics and let you see the same people on different boards and in different contexts, all from the same small-ish pool of people. It was a great mix of self-selection (which BBSes I chose to visit, the personal variations available) and forced interaction (who else would visit them and why).