Folks, we are NOT doing this right if Elmo's cosmic screwups are no longer resulting in waves of new Mastodon signups. Folks like @Gargron need to be listening to folks like @kissane about how to break down the technical barriers and discourse behaviors that are repelling users, both before and after they join.
@KeithAmmann Most of my family don't know what #Mastodon is. This isn't a failing of the platform... but an OSS project & a bunch of instance admins mostly doing this for free... don't have the marketing budget that Bluesky & Threads have. Not to mention being able to target ads at their existing users (Meta).
Mastodon needs to improve, of course. But if not having millions of marketing dollars is "doing it wrong"... that's unfair.
@syntaxseed@KeithAmmann
Also let me add this too that quantity isn't everything. Social medias usually do everything they can to gain as many users as they can to increase their value and subsequently their profit.
That's not what matters here. You might gain less followers here than on other platforms, but you get much more interaction from them.
I think we should focus on quality instead.
@KeithAmmann I need to look at that because I am bouncing off this platform. Been trying, but it just doesn't seem to mesh with how my brain wants to consume this stuff.
@TuckerAuthor Meanwhile, I'm kind of bouncing off Bluesky because 80 percent of the talk there right now is about what's going on with Twitter. 🙄 But also because I noticed a big drop in participation there after it alienated Black users with its content moderation screwup and subsequent reluctance to apologize for it.
If the TTRPG crowd is going to flock to Bluesky but then go silent, as it did on Mastodon, what's the benefit of being on Bluesky?
@KeithAmmann@TuckerAuthor overall I’m onboard with what you’re saying in this thread Keith, but I have to disagree that the TTRPG crowd is silent on Mastodon. It’s not as diverse as it should be for sure, and it’s still missing people I wish were here, but it’s definitely not quiet here. There’s way more discussion going on than any person could possibly keep up with. A lot of people did make accounts and then stop posting on them, but many made accounts and are still here, posting all the time
@bwebster@TuckerAuthor No, there is definitely a vocal group here, and I'm grateful for that. In particular, I'm grateful that I'm hearing more often from voices that were sometimes lost in the roar on Twitter. To new acquaintances! 🥂
But the people who were my mutuals on Twitter, the people I went out of my way to say hi to at cons and vice versa—very few of them are active on Mastodon. I could count them on my fingers. Some pop up to say something once in a while. Most don't.
@KeithAmmann@slyflourish I just think the issue with Mastadon is it's not user friendly... or at least not when compared to other social media platforms.
It feels like you need to actually spend some time to learn and workout how it works, what all the things do... and all the servers feel disconnected and doesn't feel intuitive.
People, even enlightened TTRPG players want east of use, this platform isn't that. I've not tried Bluesky but if it's gaining traction, ease of use could be why.
@rivetgeek@Drazimo@KeithAmmann Being my own algorithm is the reason I stay on Mastodon. If you follow 50 hashtags and a few hundred people, you will have more content than you can keep up with.
The piece that needs to be learned is just that, but I agree that Mastodon could do better getting that message out.
If you are looking for a community to share interests and discuss things, mastodon is pretty great. If you are looking for passive eyeballs to sell things to, maybe it is not.
@KeithAmmann@TuckerAuthor I'm a relative newcomer to the TTRPG creator space, but I can say as someone who just "lucked out" (ha!) picking Twitter, and then trying to migrate here, that you can hate algorithms all you want, but without it:
(a) I can't see anyone, and no one sees me;
(b) Even if I could otherwise see you, I am flooded with non-TTRPG posts because people boost whatever they feel like.
I'm open to "you're doing it wrong" but so far it's just not fun here
@KeithAmmann the chasey nature of the RPG influencer sector seems to be part of this. They constantly jump to a platform and abandon it in a couple weeks.
So right now Bluesky is their thrust. They'll give up, just like they did with Hive, Spoutible, Mastodon, Post, Threads.
@KeithAmmann I think some of that is the fault of the influencers. They want immediate transference of their clout to a new platform without doing the work.
Which is why they absolutely adore Threads. They don't need to do anything because there's already an audience.
@bedirthan@KeithAmmann I'm not here to be an influencer, but I'm learning to identify them as users who don't respond or follow back, and invariably complain.
I find it perfectly reasonable that wannabees can go wherever they get that instant gratifeels. I'm happy to be in the other camp and have a place relatively free from the hype.
@bedirthan@KeithAmmann This. So many of the high-profile TTRPG crowd has spent ever since November desperately seeking Twitter 2nd Edition, and it's incredibly frustrating - not least because the "failure" of each platform has been in part a self-fulfilling prophecy. It sucks to have to do the work again in a new place, but that's how it works.
@LeviKornelsen@bedirthan@KeithAmmann Bluesky is actually really small in terms of users and posts, like surprisingly so given how much you hear about it.
@LeviKornelsen@bedirthan I would like it not to be "just as it is now." For one thing, compared with pre-Elmo Twitter, both my feed and my followers are overwhelmingly white and male. That's not a function of whom I'm following, BTW; it's a function of who's present and posting. I don't consider that "fine."
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