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I think that's a narrow perspective. When Twitter was sabotaged, lots of people made noise about moving to Mastodon - but even with all that momentum, the adopt

I think that's a narrow perspective. When Twitter was sabotaged, lots of people made noise about moving to Mastodon - but even with all that momentum, the adoption was less than lukewarm. The issues were not technical, but of usability. The average person is less than interested in the inner workings of a thing, what make a service "better" in their eyes is how easy it is to use. Federated social media is not it.

Xerox9213 3y ago
I think what matters even more to most people is not even how easy it is to use, but who else is using it.
- steveklabnik 3y ago
  These two things are connected: if something is easier to use, it is more likely that the others you want using the thing are going to be on there. Doesn't mean they will be, of course.
hereme888 3y ago
Twitter was sabotaged?
- soapdog 3y ago
  Yes, someone threw a billionaire of mass destruction into it.
  - hereme888 3y ago
    Huh. Per my observation it's doing better than ever. New and better features, more user-hours than ever before, etc.
    - solarpunk 3y ago
      where are you observing this?
      - hereme888 3y ago
        Example of statistics: 22.3% increase in annual traffic (112.9 billion visits in 2023, compared to Instagram - 87.3 billion visits in 2023, and TikTok - 41.8 billion visits in 2023) Example new features/improvements: - Community Notes (huge feature). - Grok AI. - Long form messages. - Open Sourced ranking algorithms. - Monetization for creators. - Audio/video calls. - Job listings/search portal. - Passkey support (at least for iOS) - Upcoming features like money transmissions/payments.
        stephen_g 3y ago
        Biggest things I noticed (and why I hardly use it anymore): - Tweets from a lot of the people I really cared about dried up as people left - Discourse in replies became noticeably worse as low-quality replies were brought to the top because the poster had paid for “verification”, when most of these posts would probably have been (and rightly so) under the ‘more replies’ section before due to how low-quality they were.
        anileated 3y ago
        > - Community Notes (huge feature). Twitter’s Community Notes may sound nice in theory, but with the current botched implementation it’s just another vector to spread misinformation, now labeled as “context” and made harder to disregard. Of course, Birdwatch existed since before Musk, so I don’t blame him for inventing it, only for pushing ahead with it. What Musk could’ve done is apply the same algorithm (that Twitter now uses to choose which community note to show) to sorting replies. Of course, that would defeat the point of blueticks paying 8 bucks to get on top of replies, and Musk wouldn’t be able to keep the lights on now that the big advertisers left.
        hereme888 3y ago
        Idk. Community Notes, in my observation, is amazing in both theory and practice. Just yesterday I get a notification of a tweet I "liked" getting community-noted. I checked it, and found the original tweet was inaccurate. I've seen some notes I don't agree with, and I simply vote accordingly. Twitter never had such a widespread feature before where users had the power to fact-check others, even Elon Musk and Joe Biden themselves.
organsnyder 3y ago
I wonder how much of the narrative about Mastodon adoption (or the lack thereof) was that professional content creators didn't know how to adapt their Twitter workflows to it. It's definitely retained a mostly non-commercial flair, which makes me think people have had a hard time monetizing it. The community I've found on Mastodon has been incredible—I'm reminded of early Usenet days.
- candiddevmike 3y ago
  Which Mastodon instance are you on?
  - organsnyder 3y ago
    I'm on Hachyderm. I'm sure instance choice makes a difference in one's experience.
    - wkat4242 3y ago
      Yes it does. That's why the instance choice isn't a burden but such a huge strength. If we could choose Twitter instances everyone who cared would have simply switched to the one without Elon and there would have been no problem.

Xerox9213 3y ago

I think what matters even more to most people is not even how easy it is to use, but who else is using it.

steveklabnik 3y ago
These two things are connected: if something is easier to use, it is more likely that the others you want using the thing are going to be on there. Doesn't mean they will be, of course.

hereme888 3y ago

Twitter was sabotaged?

soapdog 3y ago
Yes, someone threw a billionaire of mass destruction into it.
- hereme888 3y ago
  Huh. Per my observation it's doing better than ever. New and better features, more user-hours than ever before, etc.
  - solarpunk 3y ago
    where are you observing this?
    - hereme888 3y ago
      Example of statistics: 22.3% increase in annual traffic (112.9 billion visits in 2023, compared to Instagram - 87.3 billion visits in 2023, and TikTok - 41.8 billion visits in 2023) Example new features/improvements: - Community Notes (huge feature). - Grok AI. - Long form messages. - Open Sourced ranking algorithms. - Monetization for creators. - Audio/video calls. - Job listings/search portal. - Passkey support (at least for iOS) - Upcoming features like money transmissions/payments.
      - stephen_g 3y ago
        Biggest things I noticed (and why I hardly use it anymore): - Tweets from a lot of the people I really cared about dried up as people left - Discourse in replies became noticeably worse as low-quality replies were brought to the top because the poster had paid for “verification”, when most of these posts would probably have been (and rightly so) under the ‘more replies’ section before due to how low-quality they were.
      - anileated 3y ago
        > - Community Notes (huge feature). Twitter’s Community Notes may sound nice in theory, but with the current botched implementation it’s just another vector to spread misinformation, now labeled as “context” and made harder to disregard. Of course, Birdwatch existed since before Musk, so I don’t blame him for inventing it, only for pushing ahead with it. What Musk could’ve done is apply the same algorithm (that Twitter now uses to choose which community note to show) to sorting replies. Of course, that would defeat the point of blueticks paying 8 bucks to get on top of replies, and Musk wouldn’t be able to keep the lights on now that the big advertisers left.
        hereme888 3y ago
        Idk. Community Notes, in my observation, is amazing in both theory and practice. Just yesterday I get a notification of a tweet I "liked" getting community-noted. I checked it, and found the original tweet was inaccurate. I've seen some notes I don't agree with, and I simply vote accordingly. Twitter never had such a widespread feature before where users had the power to fact-check others, even Elon Musk and Joe Biden themselves.

organsnyder 3y ago

I wonder how much of the narrative about Mastodon adoption (or the lack thereof) was that professional content creators didn't know how to adapt their Twitter workflows to it. It's definitely retained a mostly non-commercial flair, which makes me think people have had a hard time monetizing it. The community I've found on Mastodon has been incredible—I'm reminded of early Usenet days.

candiddevmike 3y ago
Which Mastodon instance are you on?
- organsnyder 3y ago
  I'm on Hachyderm. I'm sure instance choice makes a difference in one's experience.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    Yes it does. That's why the instance choice isn't a burden but such a huge strength. If we could choose Twitter instances everyone who cared would have simply switched to the one without Elon and there would have been no problem.