3 ms·

Both are informed by their general audience. Mastodon has yet to make a big splash outside of highly insulated niche and/or politically charged circles. Mastod

Both are informed by their general audience. Mastodon has yet to make a big splash outside of highly insulated niche and/or politically charged circles. Mastodon simply can't reach the heights that Twitter can currently, its userbase is unlikely to be helpful to that end, as are its anti-indexing/search policies, which also make it a haven for many deeply unsavory activities.

Kye 4y ago
>> "Mastodon simply can't reach the heights that Twitter can currently, its userbase is unlikely to be helpful to that end" People always present this like it's a failing. But it doesn't actually matter if the specific communities you want there are present in sufficient number. Eugen might be all about competing with Twitter, but he only speaks for the non-profit, not for the entirety of Mastodon, and certainly not for the popular forks or compatible AP platforms. If you can't find your people, you have two options: convince them to come, or accept it's not for you. Or if you've found the wrong people, that's on you to fix or move on from. It's not trying to splash, or be big. No more than Fidonet was. You're looking at it like it's a Compuserv or AOL with a profit motive or need to grow. A handful of thousand-user furry instances is plenty for people who come there for that. You are of course welcome to come in and try to build a branch of the fediverse that has growth as its aim, but you have to understand that isn't universally shared and will likely see your realm muted or blocked by people who just want to browse #FursuitFriday without the trolling and spam that happens on Twitter. Mastodon, the community as it is, not the project, is not looking for a to-the-moon growth chart in the lead up to a liquidity event. It doesn't care that corbulo on Hacker News can't find their people without doing the work to bring them. It's happy, stable, and self-sustaining as it is. >> "as are its anti-indexing/search policies, which also make it a haven for many deeply unsavory activities." I don't see those instances because they're muted and blocked in my spaces just like your Twitter replacement would be.
- corbulo 4y ago
  The reason why Twitter is interesting is precisely because it reached that critical mass where everyone jumps in. It's a terrible social media site without it. There's always value to niche forums, but that was my point from the beginning. The value is driven down by its audience, which is seemingly mostly obsessivists, contrarians, and creeps with genuine interesting content silo'd off somewhere.

Kye 4y ago

>> "Mastodon simply can't reach the heights that Twitter can currently, its userbase is unlikely to be helpful to that end" People always present this like it's a failing. But it doesn't actually matter if the specific communities you want there are present in sufficient number. Eugen might be all about competing with Twitter, but he only speaks for the non-profit, not for the entirety of Mastodon, and certainly not for the popular forks or compatible AP platforms. If you can't find your people, you have two options: convince them to come, or accept it's not for you. Or if you've found the wrong people, that's on you to fix or move on from. It's not trying to splash, or be big. No more than Fidonet was. You're looking at it like it's a Compuserv or AOL with a profit motive or need to grow. A handful of thousand-user furry instances is plenty for people who come there for that. You are of course welcome to come in and try to build a branch of the fediverse that has growth as its aim, but you have to understand that isn't universally shared and will likely see your realm muted or blocked by people who just want to browse #FursuitFriday without the trolling and spam that happens on Twitter. Mastodon, the community as it is, not the project, is not looking for a to-the-moon growth chart in the lead up to a liquidity event. It doesn't care that corbulo on Hacker News can't find their people without doing the work to bring them. It's happy, stable, and self-sustaining as it is. >> "as are its anti-indexing/search policies, which also make it a haven for many deeply unsavory activities." I don't see those instances because they're muted and blocked in my spaces just like your Twitter replacement would be.

corbulo 4y ago
The reason why Twitter is interesting is precisely because it reached that critical mass where everyone jumps in. It's a terrible social media site without it. There's always value to niche forums, but that was my point from the beginning. The value is driven down by its audience, which is seemingly mostly obsessivists, contrarians, and creeps with genuine interesting content silo'd off somewhere.