People who claim there is no engagement on Mastodon have never posted a photo of a really cute cat and it shows.

[mycotropic@beige.party]

@Beachbum @lemay

cricket appreciates you.

[raven_de_lioncourt@mastodon.social]

@lemay xD I am brand new to the app, but I think the cat thinks is so true anywhere

[yakkoj@fosstodon.org]

@lemay wait we're still hearing this "no engagement" baloney?

I was on Twitter for 14 years, and I've been on Mastodon since 2017, and my own experience is completely different. I got mostly no engagement on Twitter, but I've gotten more genuine interaction on Mastodon in 9 years than I ever got in 14 on Twitter. You just need to not be a garbage person (foreign concept to some, I know...)

[ryan@m29.us]

@lemay This is just a ploy to get people to send you cute cat pics, isn’t it

[danish_akhtar7@mastodon.social]

@lemay

I post the same content on Threads, Bluesky, and #Mastodon, but I get more engagement on Mastodon.

I had great conversations here. The quality of posts and the right hashtags are also important.

[greenpepper22@mastodon.social]

@lemay this really seems like a thinly veiled way to get sent lots of cute cats pictures

[juuhaa@mastodon.social]

@ryan @lemay

https://mastodon.social/@CatsOfYore/116360674881232595

[octaviaconamore@cutie.city]

@MsHearthWitch @lemay bingo, they want to post *at* people (whereas the correct way is to *meow* at people )

[octaviaconamore@cutie.city]

@lemay @alex barring that, just meow at fedi

[introvertcatto@lgbtqia.space]

@lemay true

[grb090423@mastodon.social]

@lemay

This!

Or a garden of flowers. Or a bunch of moss. Or a whole load of lichen on a rock.

[theorangetheme@en.osm.town]

@McRocker @lemay Pumpkin looks like he was the absolute sweetest boy. 🧡

[aliide@mstdn.social]

@lemay or moss!

[electricsheep@livellosegreto.it]

@wallacewords @lemay or moss

[aliide@mstdn.social]

@yakkoj @lemay likewise, but I suspect my twitter account's visibility was screwed, for a few reasons.

[alexadeswift@lgbtqia.space]

@lemay

On Mastodon, if you want engagement just miaow

[serigala_tropis@lgbtqia.space]

@alexadeswift @lemay

[sybren@fosstodon.org]

@lemay even without a cat picture I see more engagement here than on BlueSky!

[giuseppebilotta@fediscience.org]

@lemay I'm not ashamed to confess I've been thinking about adding cat photos to posts where I talk about science because my single most successful post is a random one of a cat on a chat. I expected it to be liked because, I mean, Fediverse and cats of course it's going to make numbers, but I never expected it to get spread so much!

[aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au]

@anne_twain @yakkoj @lemay I get the impression that there's people (especially folks who have a mainstream media presence) who have basically treated Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram as broadcast channels.

They've taken their follower counts to heart, without considering that the number might be inflated by nearly 20 years of dead accounts, bots, scammers, spammers, and duplicates.

They've mastered the art of writing hot takes and rage bait that will get picked up by an algorithm. (This is distinct from information their followers would actually want to share of engage with.)

They don't engage with people by replying to other people's posts or responding to people who reply to their posts.

They don't share of like anyone else's posts.

Then they try the same crap here.

And it predictably falls flat.

Now personally, I've found people on Masto are *more* likely to share engaging, insightful, informative, or funny posts.

But only if they're posts of value, as opposed to algorithm-bait.