With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!!
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
Maybe change the name Mastodon to something lighter.
Compare the mental image Mastodon produces to TikTok, Twitter, BlueSky.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz i think at heart, most people don't want to out in that much effort to lurk. I wonder what proportion of social media use is passive consumption.
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@taylorlorenz honestly? The chance of becoming a famous and/or wealthy internet influencer is much lower here. I think that is a big deterrent for people, whether they're willing to admit it or not.
As for what can be done about that? Nothing, really, because I think that's what makes it so appealing to the rest of us.
@brandonscript @taylorlorenz This is the one angle that I'll agree that it ain't broke so don't fix it. Mastodon is designed to resist viral posts. I have *conversations* on Mastodon. On Twitter, I ~performed~, and the same is true of Bluesky because it was deliberately a Twitter clone.
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@taylorlorenz Have you heard/read about the Forkiverse? The Mastodon server started by three popular podcasters that has grown to almost 10k members in just about two weeks.
I actually put together https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/fediverse-an-overview-for-community-organizers/ using it as a case study, hoping to maybe start reaching out to people who already have a following and could be interested in replicating this experiment.
Once influencer realize that an own instance as a paid subscription service for their fans means income, the fedi becomes a rocket that goes of like "a divers fart".
Imagine Taylor swift charging the price of a cheeseburger a month for having a profile on social.taylorswift.com being able to get exclusive content by following her #castoPod podcast server cast.taylorswift.com?
Years ago hosting an instances was complicated, today you get it with a few clicks.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz I love Mastodon and I completely agree with you about decentralization being the way to go. People are fiercely addicted to the big apps, and for good reason, so I can't push. I just float the idea and let them consider it.
It may be partly a matter of critical mass, partly because it's too different, but perhaps it's also because Twitter-like apps like Mastodon just aren't everyone's cup of tea. So I've started matching their style: Loops for TikTok fans, Pixelfed for Instagram fans, etc.
The fediverse is still pretty young so I'm excited to see it grow.
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The first hurdle for a new user is deciding on what server to join, without knowing what that means or how to decide between them.
Second, they have to figure out who to follow and how to curate their feed to the point where it's rewarding, before losing interest.
Third, Mastodon doesn't have communities / groups, which is what a lot of users use especially Facebook for.
Fourth, the tools for discoverability are weak. Sure, there's /explore and hashtags, but not much else.
@skjeggtroll @taylorlorenz I do not disagree with you broadly speaking, but the one thing I will say is that we do have communities in the form of your instance's feed, which is why it would be great if there were a truly user-friendly way to match people to instances.
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@taylorlorenz I feel like the only way left is to set up huge armadas of influencer bots from the established social networks to draw people in and then delete them all once we've reached a certain threshold of network effect.
We have a winner
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@taylorlorenz I love this app. When I tell other people about it they say the image it conjures up is massive, slow and extinct and that's not instantly appealing. You have to get to know this place. The exploration, the finding and discovering is what's so exciting. But it's not a shiny bauble.
@Jude_theone479001 @taylorlorenz This is very well said. It does actually take work to *build* your place, here, and that's rewarding in a way that "user friendliness" often is not.
I will say this, though: Bluesky users created "starter packs" and block lists and stuff like that, partly because, like Twitter before it, at least at first, when users innovated (eg, hasghtags), the admins embraced it. I'm not seeing that on Mastodon. I do hope the new governance model makes that better.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz The majority of people can not and will not accept anything that frees them from conformist slavery. They never have, and never will. We'll always be cursed by kings, churches, record labels, whatever force there is that allows people to be conformists. It's literally what most people want.
This sort won't try Mastodon any more than they would stop buying number one records or skip watching the Superbowl even if they don't care about football.
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@bitpickup @futurebird @IveyJanette @taylorlorenz
ButBlack users still consistently report hostility
@NickGates @bitpickup @futurebird @IveyJanette @taylorlorenz Yup. Generally speaking, if there are no Black people in your space, then you have not made a space in which they feel welcome. That's not on them.
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@mzedp @taylorlorenz which is also my favorite thing about it
Well, lot's of positive things that make the fedi is that it isn't mainstream ..
Always remember, the biggest celebrity has it's own mastodon server spreading asocial truths. And guess what, he not only doesn't federate, if he would, he'd be as blocked as gab by the rest of the community.
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#fediTips
> What could be done to .. increase the user base ..?Our problem @taylorlorenz?
The fact that influencer like you refuse to setup their own instances.You can do that with a few clicks from where you are right now, for example with @mastohost and offer your followers a profile on your server. They become your community member, supporting your work with a modest yearly fee.
And don't go big is beautiful!
Exclusiveness is key and moderation the bottle neck of healthy social media.@bitpickup @taylorlorenz @mastohost
"refuse" ?
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The lack of an algorithm is the biggest advantage and the biggest disadvantage - it makes it hard to discover new content and people to follow. I know people are working on "starter packs" for Mastodon like they have on BlueSky, which I think will help.
But I wonder if we could find other ways to make discovery easier - a "followed by people you follow" or "favorited by people you follow" feed, or something. Also, I wonder if the interface shouldn't suggest boosting a post when you favorite it... We need more people boosting more stuff, with no algorithm.
You have to follow 200+ people to get a decently full feed on Mastodon, and everyone has to boost a lot. Reducing the effort required to do those things would increase engagement on Mastodon, I'm pretty sure.
@marymessall @taylorlorenz Following hashtags really should be packaged as less technical and more fun. As in, "here are some keywords, tap the ones that interest you!" and then automate that so that they're following those hashtags.
Also, for the love of GOD, make it so I can follow a hashtag in a list. I *need* an exclusive #Linux feed to escape the world.
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@taylorlorenz Also, specifically for TikTok users, we actually do have a federated alternative, not sure if you heard of it, https://joinloops.org?
I wonder if Mastodon's reputation has been too tarnished by all the gatekeeping and scolding. Maybe we could get more people into the fediverse sneakily through another platform?
@stefan @taylorlorenz I have the feeling that some ppl were afraid of the new, "fragile" Fediverse to get overrun/"destroyed" by asocial behavior. And then got a bit overprotective, like parents.
Maybe it's just me and my bubble, but I have the feeling that such behavior might have toned down a bit? -
With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
My own take is that the US fascists consolidate power to the point that every US-based social media platform turns to shit so people will flock here.
I've got half a dozen news articles of that happening right now, and it's going to get much worse before November.
We warned this would happen.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz Its own community. The purity tests they demand are impossible for the masses. Just look at what happened when Instagram federated.
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@taylorlorenz joining is genuinely as easy as joining Twitter so I also don’t get it. Also regarding users having different servers they all seem to understand that when it comes to email. No one worries about emailing from gmail to outlook or whatever.
So I’m right there with you. I truely don’t get it. It just needs more people. I also suspect people LIKE the algorithm and miss it. I always tell people this is just Twitter before the algorithm.
@jsatk @taylorlorenz The signup contains a step that, while not actually difficult, is not presented in a way that's recognizable to users, and that's what makes it "hard." People are hesitant about the unfamiliar. There's a way to present that so it feels like tapping on icons that represent your interests or whatever. That's a "UX" issue that could be solved, IMO.
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@bitpickup @taylorlorenz @mastohost
"refuse" ?
@OrionKidder
> "refuse" ?As of now, apparently.
Provokative wording creates engagement with the content.
I mean, hand me the key's give me the permission and I'll handle the rest @taylorlorenz!
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@stefan @taylorlorenz I have the feeling that some ppl were afraid of the new, "fragile" Fediverse to get overrun/"destroyed" by asocial behavior. And then got a bit overprotective, like parents.
Maybe it's just me and my bubble, but I have the feeling that such behavior might have toned down a bit?@T_X @stefan @taylorlorenz I was here during the migration, and I'd agree. It's also the case that new users occasionally acted like the bad kind of tourist: "Why isn't this place just like home?" That clash was a big part of the problem.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz Do you find enough audience here to engage with?
