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The problem is discoverability. Social sites will always trend towards fewer major players, because people want to be heard. Tech like Mastodon, which tries to

by sgc 4y ago

The problem is discoverability. Social sites will always trend towards fewer major players, because people want to be heard. Tech like Mastodon, which tries to promote plurality, needs to deal with the discoverability mammoth in the room, or it will never seriously take off.

turnsout 4y ago
I think that's fundamentally a centralist mindset… It doesn't matter if Mastodon as a whole never attracts 1B people, as long as your instance is a thriving community. You may not want 100,000 people to "discover" your tight-knit Discord.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago
  So it's not a Twitter replacement then?
  - turnsout 4y ago
    Right, as I said in my original comment, there is no "one" Twitter replacement.
    - MichaelZuo 4y ago
      So there is no Twitter replacement? Why add the "one"?
      - turnsout 4y ago
        The “one” is to emphasize that Twitter users have left for a variety of other platforms. There is no widely accepted replacement for Twitter. Not sure how many other ways I can rephrase this?
        MichaelZuo 4y ago
        > The “one” is to emphasize that Twitter users have left for a variety of other platforms. Emphasizing to who? I don't think anyone on HN genuinely believes the entire cohort of users that left migrated to a singular alternative.
- sgc 4y ago
  That is not the way the history of online social networks has played out. It seems pretty well established that most people want to be where all the action is, and that niche groups will never be the primary form of social interaction, even if they will always have a role to play, that will be bigger or smaller at various times. I am not making a qualitative judgment, just stating what to me is an established social fact. I personally avoid almost all social networks - especially fb, twitter, insta, and tiktok. But most everybody gravitates to them for various reasons, and have always sought out these big sites as far as I have seen.

by sgc 4y ago

turnsout 4y ago

I think that's fundamentally a centralist mindset… It doesn't matter if Mastodon as a whole never attracts 1B people, as long as your instance is a thriving community. You may not want 100,000 people to "discover" your tight-knit Discord.

MichaelZuo 4y ago
So it's not a Twitter replacement then?
- turnsout 4y ago
  Right, as I said in my original comment, there is no "one" Twitter replacement.
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    So there is no Twitter replacement? Why add the "one"?
    - turnsout 4y ago
      The “one” is to emphasize that Twitter users have left for a variety of other platforms. There is no widely accepted replacement for Twitter. Not sure how many other ways I can rephrase this?
      - MichaelZuo 4y ago
        > The “one” is to emphasize that Twitter users have left for a variety of other platforms. Emphasizing to who? I don't think anyone on HN genuinely believes the entire cohort of users that left migrated to a singular alternative.
sgc 4y ago
That is not the way the history of online social networks has played out. It seems pretty well established that most people want to be where all the action is, and that niche groups will never be the primary form of social interaction, even if they will always have a role to play, that will be bigger or smaller at various times. I am not making a qualitative judgment, just stating what to me is an established social fact. I personally avoid almost all social networks - especially fb, twitter, insta, and tiktok. But most everybody gravitates to them for various reasons, and have always sought out these big sites as far as I have seen.