To be honest I like the idea of being able to move my account from a server which is offline to a different one. We should have it with ActivityPub too.
To be honest I like the idea of being able to move my account from a server which is offline to a different one. We should have it with ActivityPub too.
I mooched over to Twitter yesterday to gawp at the car crash, and saw a number of people begging for Bluesky invites. And all I could think is that Mastodon is right there already, working essentially the same way…
but no one uses Mastodon and also it’s so haaaaaaaaaaaaaard
I “feel” like one of the main issues with foss tools like Lemmy and Mastadon is lack of an advertising budget.
Going to throw a wild guess out there without a lot of supporting data, but I suspect Bluesky has a decent budget for influencers and that’s driving the traffic too.
Just a thought. I’ve been sitting here wondering why most people have not jumped and Lemmy and Mastadon yet. I personally don’t find either platform hard to use or confusing.
A lot of people did jump to Mastodon, and apparently it had had another large influx of users yesterday after all the Twitter shenanigans. Not everyone stays though, obviously.
I think part of the issue some have with Mastodon is the lack of Twitter’s algorithm. It’s absolutely true to say it’s harder to find people and topics to follow on Mastodon for the simple reason that you’re not getting anything shoved in your face, which is a massive plus point for many (myself included) but can also make it appear initially less appealing.
Before algorithms we all used hashtags. Hashtags were very important to Twitter in the before times. That’s how you find topics on mastodon. I have columns set with specific hashtag sets so I can quickly glance at toots about horror movies, birds, retrogaming, etc…
You can also follow hashtags directly in your home feed just like Twitter topics.
It’s really not a difficult thing at all, but people are so addicted to Twitter they always give a halfassed attempt at switching before throwing up their hands.
Before algorithms people said “I don’t get Twitter” and stayed off Twitter. Those same people now just say “I don’t get Mastodon”.
I agree I think once somebody makes an honest attempt at an open non-exploitative content recommendation algorithm, big social’s moat is completely gone. I do think Mastodon’s take that the people are the algorithm is a great alternative, but we definitely need some sort of algorithmic approach in the fediverse.
Yep. Finding new users and Content on mastodon is impossible because the nerds who run it hate THE ALGORITHM and social media addiction. Same reason they held out on basic features like quote tweeting until recently.
Bluesky is basically just OG twitter, plus you can make your own algorithm feeds. It’s cool.
I honestly did not have any issues populating my timeline through use of hashtags and local timelines. Boost-heavy peeps are good connectors as well.
Being able to follow hashtags on Masto is amazing. You find shitloads of good follows by virtue of them just liking the stuff you’re into.
I’m ok with the influencers not bothering with Mastodon, tbh.
I mean, sure they’ll take the numbers with them where they go, but from my own perspective, I’m not struggling to find good people to follow so does it matter to me if the usual celebrities don’t keep getting boosted into my TL all the time?
Mastodon is working fine. There are plenty of people using it. It doesn’t need Twitter’s scraps.
Honestly, from what I can tell, and if I think back to when I jumped over in November, I think it mostly comes down to how much quieter the feed is to start with.
If you think, you’re going from a site with an algorithmically generated feed that’s made to feel intentionally noisy, to a chronological feed that’s only as busy as who you follow. That didn’t bother me too much because 95% of my Twitter intake was done via Tweetbot, which didn’t use the algorithm at all, so Mastodon felt much the same.
But to someone who uses the website, it’s a huge change.
Ultimately - and the same is true here - you can jumpstart your experience by following everything and everyone, then filter out the stuff you’re not so much into. But you need to hang around long enough to see someone suggest that. And that’s where the problem lies.
I deleted twitter ages ago but never jumped to Mastadon because the initial descriptions seemed overly technical and confusing. Like people went out of their way to describe how it was different and unique, making it sound difficult. It was only after the Reddit debacle and trying out Lemmy did I realize it was basically the same thing to an average user. I could get my content drip without specialized knowledge. That makes me consider trying out Mastadon.
I think most people don’t care how they get their memes, just that they get them. That should be the focus, and learning about federated systems is a byproduct.
I tell people that Mastodon is Twitter with an RSS reader mashed in.