Almost everyone who says "Mastodon didn't work for me" on Bluesky seems to have posted only "me me me" stuff for months (if that) on Mastodon, followed about 10-20 people, never replied to anyone and then gave up because "nobody there, it didn't fly".
It seems there is a big misunderstanding how this free and healthy social media works. We are not here for the easy wins, likes, shares and dopamine spikes. We are here because we accept the fact we are not part of the commercial hype machine. We choose natural engagement over spoiling algorithms, we choose conversation and meaning in our social media. At least that is how I see it.
@discojesus Yes, humans need dopamine to enjoy themselves. This feels contradictionary to what I just posted about, but I'm not saying it's fully a bad thing, but only that it's not the number one motivator like it too easily is on the other social media sites.
@rolle hey I get chemically rewarded from conversations on here. I just had to quit the other places before I actually felt anything. Feels like a cleaner hit somehow. Like I don't feel so bad after scrolling on masto
@rolle
discoverability on mastodon is not great at all > lashing out against people who left mastodon because of its less-than-okayish search function only underscores that leaving that platform might be advisable: things must improve on the fedi
@rolle yeah, they look for engagement while mastodon (and the fedivers) is about interaction!
But I think it is also because they aren't told those differences, and just think that every social media work the same and have the same goal in mind :ablobcat_happypaws:
@rolle Mastodon has become my preferred and main platform for a while now, I use other social media as well, but Bluesky never worked for me.
For what I need from a platform the Fediverse is by far the most promising. That said, I feel that the wording of this post is overgeneralizing, specifically saying "almost everyone" seems to either ignore or dismiss the very valid points of Black people, women, and other marginalized groups who have had negative first experiences upon joining.
Mastodon is a platform of hundreds of thousands of active users, you cannot by any logic vouch for such a large number of strangers and dismiss everyone who has found that the platform wasn't for them as egocentric people who are not willing to adapt.
Yes there is a much healthier community here overall, but there is sexism, there are reply guys, there are tech bros who will pop up with condescending points. Generally wherever a large number of humans exist you will find a variety of behaviours, not all of them positive.
Painting an almost utopic picture of a platform by accusing almost everyone who couldn't find their place here for being an obnoxious clout chaser who feeds the machine, not only dismisses the real experiences of marginalized people, alienating folks who had a bad first experience even more, but it also denies Mastodon as a community the opportunity for self reflection that will help it grow further and become more welcoming.
@fringemagnet It is meant to say "Almost everyone I personally have seen". I thought it goes without saying that this is MY personal experience. Who am I to say EVERYONE explicitly are like that.
@rolle the funny thing is, this is also true in reverse - a lot of people sign up to Bluesky, only check in occasionally, don't interact with anyone and then say "nobody there, it didn't work for me"… That's the thing with new social networks - since there's no "Trending" or "For you" that pushes some random content at you, you have to put in some work before the new place starts "working" for you. Same here and there.
@rolle Well said. I find I get much better interaction to posts on Mastodon than I did on Twitter. I follow lots of people here, reply to posts, and boost plenty of posts. If you make an effort, it works well.
@marshalla99 I do not and I’m not talking about that. In fact, the Fediverse doesn’t have to ”win” anything. We are not part of the race. That is more of the thing of those commercial social medias.
@rolle Can I ask what method you used to assess this?
Like, did you collect statements about this elsewhere and then follow them back to Mastodon accounts, which you then evaluated for content and follows?
@kissane Not very thorough assesment or any concerete research behind it, just my observation based on some dozens of accounts. I first read the statement on Bluesky (”Mastodon didn’t work for me” or similar) and then check their Mastodon account and see the state of it.
@rolle America has turned into a "Me, My, I " society. Yes, me ... me ... me. We have turned into greedy, spoiled little children wanting only what we want as individuals and NOT considering the bigger, world wide picture that we need to consider. From voting INTELLIGENTLY to global warming, we need to get our heads out of our ass !!
@rolle A toot being boosted around recently had someone summarizing the social media sites and concluding that while he liked mastodon best "it seems a pretty quiet." Checking his account he was following nine people!
I guess the msg isn't getting across to some that there's no algorithmic feed-stuffing here – it's who you follow and that's it.
I suppose for me my birdsite use had only ever been with chronological mode, so I had no other expectation here. Shifting over was seamless.
@rolle Healthy social media is a good choice in words. I find Mastodon less addictive than Reddit or Instagram to be honest. I hope fediverse will replace the large social media corporations, and we will have a more healthy internet future. It's good to have this place more of a discussion forum rather than a more toxic like-driven environment. This form of a social media is truly a real social media, where people SOCIALIZE more. Social media isn't the problem, it is the bad system of it.
@rolle It's always popular to puff up about this place by denigrating those who chose that place.
The reality is, Mastodon growth and use has slowed considerably. We should take lessons from those who left instead of finding reasons to dismiss them.
@rolleLook at those people over there. They came here first but never understood what it takes to become one of us. Perhaps we're all the better for them leaving. They didn't even try!
My perspective is, we have something useful to learn from those who blew out of here. Listen to them.
@rolle As soon as you have managed to build a network, the likes, shares and dopamine spikes will come (I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing). But without the algorithm it takes more work to build one.
@MBrandtner Yes, humans need dopamine to enjoy themselves. This feels contradictionary to what I just posted about, but I'm not saying it's fully a bad thing, but only that it's not the number one motivator like it too easily is on the other social media sites.
@rolle How many times have people arrived to Mastodon and complained "It's dead here", then I'll ask how many people do you follow? It's usually under 10. On Twitter you didn't have to follow. The algorithm filled your timeline, and following the wrong person could be dangerous. Honestly I wish the onboarding process just made you randomly follow twenty people right off the bat.
@mike@rolle 💯 I think one of the biggest hurdles here is that it’s counterintuitive for people used to other social media to follow more than a few friends and a few “blue checks” and Mastodon works best by casting a wide net. I go into it here on #3
@rolle Mastodon seems to be much better for actual "peer to peer" discussions. Bluesky on the other hand works quite well to replace the twitters "Check what these public personas are chatting about" function. Although we shall see how well B survives the incoming hordes of normies&trolls.
@rolle One of the quite annoying issues if one tries to create a new account on Mastodon is the bad interactions with the servers, and trying to find the "popular accounts", especially as viewing who people are following can be hard, so re-creating follow networks takes a ton of effort.
Following from other instances may not be displayed.
Is really annoying message, and going to original instance -> copying usernames from there to follow them is not a great workflow.
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