Every day I’m more convinced that the Fediverse’s slow mainstream adoption isn’t really about usability.
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Every day I’m more convinced that the Fediverse’s slow mainstream adoption isn’t really about usability.
People say it’s because it’s hard to join, the terms are confusing, or the apps aren’t polished enough. Maybe a little. But honestly… look at the platforms people already use.
Finding anything on LinkedIn is painful.
Trying to locate the original video on TikTok is a scavenger hunt.
Facebook is still full of weird bugs and odd UI choices.
Instagram hides posts behind algorithms.
Twitter/X constantly changes the rules of engagement.None of these platforms are exactly “easy.”
People stay because their friends are there. Because the big creators are there. Because that’s where the conversation already lives.
And, if we’re honest, because these platforms are engineered around a very effective reward loop: notifications, likes, infinite scroll. A dopamine machine. You learn the confusing terms and awkward interfaces because there’s a constant reward for doing so.
So yes, making the Fediverse easier to join absolutely helps.
But what would help even more is something simpler:
more mainstream, recognizable, official accounts showing up here.That’s how networks grow.
People follow people not platforms. -
Every day I’m more convinced that the Fediverse’s slow mainstream adoption isn’t really about usability.
People say it’s because it’s hard to join, the terms are confusing, or the apps aren’t polished enough. Maybe a little. But honestly… look at the platforms people already use.
Finding anything on LinkedIn is painful.
Trying to locate the original video on TikTok is a scavenger hunt.
Facebook is still full of weird bugs and odd UI choices.
Instagram hides posts behind algorithms.
Twitter/X constantly changes the rules of engagement.None of these platforms are exactly “easy.”
People stay because their friends are there. Because the big creators are there. Because that’s where the conversation already lives.
And, if we’re honest, because these platforms are engineered around a very effective reward loop: notifications, likes, infinite scroll. A dopamine machine. You learn the confusing terms and awkward interfaces because there’s a constant reward for doing so.
So yes, making the Fediverse easier to join absolutely helps.
But what would help even more is something simpler:
more mainstream, recognizable, official accounts showing up here.That’s how networks grow.
People follow people not platforms.What if it didn’t matter if the Fediverse grows slowly instead of quickly? What if that was better?
I would like to see more of my friends here, for sure. A handful of them anyway. The famous people, with the loud voices, not so much. The longer they stay away the longer I can enjoy the lady in Sweden whittling spoons from a piece of birch.
And I definitely don’t want this little corner of the internet to turn into a dopamine factory. That’s why I’m happy here, and not over there.
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What if it didn’t matter if the Fediverse grows slowly instead of quickly? What if that was better?
I would like to see more of my friends here, for sure. A handful of them anyway. The famous people, with the loud voices, not so much. The longer they stay away the longer I can enjoy the lady in Sweden whittling spoons from a piece of birch.
And I definitely don’t want this little corner of the internet to turn into a dopamine factory. That’s why I’m happy here, and not over there.
@ewen @mapache I completely agree.
This place is a refuge for me, my mental health is much improved since leaving the commercial data silos.
I remember the brief period when some of the most prominent Left-leaning British political activists (People like Femi, SuperTanski, SteveBray, etc) came over here, and expected everyone to love them the way they did on Twitter.
But they refused to engage, with their fiollowers, only with those they deemed worthy (each other), then flounced out declaring it was dead and went back to Twitter, where they carried on complaining about, erm, Twitter.
I've heard anecdotal stories about US activist-celebrities doing the same thing, which always leads me to doubt their credibility - are they doing this because they believe in their declared activism, or because they are building a brand?
Hint - it's the brand, it's always the brand.
Whereas here, it's always the connections and interactions, as well as the cat/dog/Moopsy pics, the almost indecipherable memes, the hashtagHashtagGames, and the community building.
The longest-running attempt to build a Twitter-style brand I've seen here is George Takei, which most people seem to ignore, and with good reaso - his team mostly post links to articles which are little more than a bit of text and a seemingly endless array of Twitter posts they have ifted.
Yeah, I don't need or want the big names here. -
Every day I’m more convinced that the Fediverse’s slow mainstream adoption isn’t really about usability.
People say it’s because it’s hard to join, the terms are confusing, or the apps aren’t polished enough. Maybe a little. But honestly… look at the platforms people already use.
Finding anything on LinkedIn is painful.
Trying to locate the original video on TikTok is a scavenger hunt.
Facebook is still full of weird bugs and odd UI choices.
Instagram hides posts behind algorithms.
Twitter/X constantly changes the rules of engagement.None of these platforms are exactly “easy.”
People stay because their friends are there. Because the big creators are there. Because that’s where the conversation already lives.
And, if we’re honest, because these platforms are engineered around a very effective reward loop: notifications, likes, infinite scroll. A dopamine machine. You learn the confusing terms and awkward interfaces because there’s a constant reward for doing so.
So yes, making the Fediverse easier to join absolutely helps.
But what would help even more is something simpler:
more mainstream, recognizable, official accounts showing up here.That’s how networks grow.
People follow people not platforms.> @mapache@hachyderm.io said:
>
> Finding anything on LinkedIn is painful.
> Trying to locate the original video on TikTok is a scavenger hunt.
> Facebook is still full of weird bugs and odd UI choices.
> Instagram hides posts behind algorithms.
> Twitter/X constantly changes the rules of engagement.Is this the case because the sites were built from the ground-up to be poor, or was it a result of enshittification after-the-fact?
The assumption still holds true that sites become popular because they serve a need… they do something well enough that users go to it for lack of a better option.
I think the limiting factor toward mainstream adoption is not merely that ActivityPub implementations are better than alternatives, but they are not 10x better than alternatives. Usability fixes are one aspect, we need to keep outpacing the competition.
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