Still amused by all the posts declaring that "#Mastodon will never get any traction" because it doesn't have [insert completely unnecessary Twit feature here]. It's like people think Masto just suddenly appeared out of the ether six months ago. It's been here for years, and it's just fine. 😂
Imagine your personal life "getting twit-like traction" in a similar way, and at 7am you find a 1,000 people talking, screaming, defecating, etc. in front of your door. You stretch out, still sleepy and on outgoing breath say "Ahhh, traction. Nice, let the day begin"
https://janerationx.me/@j I am definitely on the side that wants and thinks some of those features would be a net positive, but, yeah—what you said. There has been huge growth in both membership and developer interest in the last year, without those features. Mastodon has proven it can grow and thrive either way.
@YoSoyFreeman Same! I was on Twitter about 12 years altogether, on three different accounts, one of which had over 1,000 followers. There was nowhere near the engagement I get here. It's all numbers on Twit. No human factor.
@j I have a feeling it takes people who sign up after they got frustrated with the birdsite 6-9 month to detox and fully understand that they are not on the hellsite anymore, but somewhere else entirely.
@Blue That's a good point. I wasn't talking about them, though; more about people who don't know anything about Masto acting like it didn't exist before they showed up.
@j I think many who joined mastodon liked twitter before Elon took over and it worked for them. They brought their habits and experiences and initially feel mastodon doesn't work well and is empty.
They get messages from people they don't know from twitter and who give them advice they don't like, so they offend them by complaining or making demands. Which makes their start harder, because no long term fedizen wants to suggest following someone with insufferable behavior to their friends.
They follow their old twitter friends with similar expectations and behavior and understandably conclude mastodon must be new, because they create a bubble that excludes long term fedizens.
@Blue Exactly this. I also think a large problem is people wanting a direct replacement for Twit, and there isn't one. There's similar functionality, but Masto (and the other Fedi services) and Twit are different things.
@j I don't know where the idea of "masto is an alternative for twitter" came from. I think the line is deceptive, but it has been repeated over and over again everywhere. As you said the websites and apps look similar, but that's it.
The combination of people leaving twitter, because it got worse and mastodon (not the other fedi services) intensely promoting itself as an alternative to twitter was a bad move for the fedi. I am happy about many new people here, I'm not happy about the deception.
I'm also not happy about the dominance of mastodon in general and mastodon.social in particular. I think diversity and decentralization should remain main principles of the fedi. Communities of various sizes that can interact with each other without one dominating place. mastodon social and its team is accumulating enough power to break the fedi.
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