Probably like a number of users here, I used mastodon "before it was cool" -- and it was never in reality an "alt twitter", it was its own microblogging service

Probably like a number of users here, I used mastodon "before it was cool" -- and it was never in reality an "alt twitter", it was its own microblogging service, with niche communities, and with its own set of pros and cons. IMHO the hopes of an influx of users to make it the next Twitter doesn't change the fundament of what Mastodon represents. The author's statement that Mastodon's CEO has "no plans for monotization [sic]" does not, in my take, reduce the benefits of open-source & federated communities one iota.