"#Mastodon is failing" so hard that #Fediverse just crossed 4mln monthly active accounts (based on the-federation.info). :blobcatgiggle:
This is already slightly more than Nov and Dec #TwitterMigration waves' peaks. And it is still going up.
What I find particularly important is that it seems like a lot of this is not new accounts, but people returning to accounts created before and then left unused.
I expect this to be a more resilient kind of growth. Less of a drop after it peaks.
I learned from the best, the People with Disabilities community here is absolutely amazing in how patiently they engage to help people understand why image descriptions are important. And how to do them well.
If #AltTextAwards are to be a thing, I would ask that they avoid categories that would incentivise people to create #AltText that is useless to people who actually need it.
I think reporting is how we deal with alt text abuse.
I am just happy to just uplift all the awesome. Let's stick to earnestly celebrating the good stuff. I don't think irony works on trolls.
Based on this data — and in a decentralized network data of this sort is never 100% reliable, keep that in mind! — Fediverse has grown by 1.5mln monthly active accounts since July 1st. In a week.
Some of this will be people moving between servers. Some of this will be people dipping their toes in the water and then deciding it's still a bit cold. That's fine.
Growth is not the only metric to measure success around here, and definitely not the most important. But it's not irrelevant either! 😃
@jwildeboer@rysiek For me, the big waves were needed to build a critical mass here. And there is, so I'm sticking around here in this cozy place. And yes, I still have Twitter, and I still check it... and I'm always angry when I leave it!
@rysiek the threads android app has had 10m+ downloads, but I think there's more to your point that new joiners isn't a good metric. The discussions here are more nuanced and judgement on it should be too. It's not the join numbers that matter, it's how many stay. I have no interest in giving Zuckerberg the monopoly threads replacing twitter would grant in the social media market (does anyone see that ending well, especially RE privacy) but most will go where the people they want to talk to are.
@rysiek for sure, though people realizing that you can't delete a threads account without deleting Insta is making a lot of people hesitate & might put the breaks on the initial surge they're seeing. Suck is building a monopoly to lock users in (a la apple) and given the privacy history of FB that makes the meta ecosystem including threads way too hot for my blood, but then, I'm not dependent on insta or FB for my online life. I'm in the "let's watch a little bit before jumping" camp right now.
@DangerHissy@rysiek yeah in my experience people will flock to check out a new thing in huge numbers but threads could be a graveyard in a month or two for all anyone knows
@eniko@rysiek :1000: That's why I'm staying here, at the very least until the jury is in on the privacy and security implications of threads. For me it's not getting onto a new platform that's the problem, it's getting out clean when the novelty inevitably wears off and people move on. Establishing a social network is a long game. Personally I could download all my data and leave the metaverse very easily, I'm not about to tie myself into it without very good reason
@rysiek I am also a returner. When I first created my account (not in one of the Twitter waves), I did not really use it much at first. After some time I also tried Twitter and decided I like Fedi better, returned and stayed. :fediverse: :blobcatbigfan:
@rysiek I think Mastodon is well set up for slow sustainable growth. There will be spikes when something happens in the space, but I don't think we'll see exponential adoption like what's going on with Threads now. But when some of these networks flame out (Bluesky? Post? Twitter itself?) a bunch of those users will find their way over here and the network will grow a little more.
@donmacdonald - honestly, I'm good with that. A lot of people seem to be measuring the success of mastodon by comparing it with the #birdsite and now #threads - but why can't there be a different way?
We shouldn't be so keen to be 'just like x site' - there's a reason the Fediverse exists, it's not right for everyone but then neither are the alternatives.
It's also worth remembering, that centralized social networks count authentication events as "active users" whereas the only activity that can be seen by third-party sites is public/unlisted posts and/or boosts.
UPDATE: The local instance provided a total MAU number that does count authenticated users and can be read by anyone who cares to retrieve the information.
@tcely I don't believe this is correct. The data is gathered by asking instances for their MAU count, and instances are free to count any way they please. I would not be surprised if many instances include login events in this count.
@rysiek
The second wave could possibly be linked with the migration from #reddit to #lemmy .
Hope that this brings enough momentum to establish the fediverse as a proper competitor to closed alternatives.
@orizuru as much as the Threadiverse migration is amazing, it's only on the level of ~150k newly active accounts. 10× less of a bump than this last wave on the Fediverse generally.
@Blackthorn it's not measured by scraping, it's measured based on data made available by your instance. Your instance would count faving, boosting, etc as "active".
@rysiek I did notice a lot of the recent interactions are with people who first made their accounts around 2017-18. Some are about that old initially, but then discovered other instances that were a better fit and decided to move
@rysiek I came in the first wave of #TwitterMigration back in October, and by January had moved mainly to Reddit. I migrated my account in the sprint when mastodon.lol imploded, but didn’t actually start using this again until Reddit immolated in June. So I’m some anecdata for you — hope to stick around this time.
Yep, joined after the Twitter sale, came back because of rate-limiting shenanigans. I'd rather see the Fediverse grow and what it becomes than gawk at Elon's own-goal world cup.
@rysiek These stats will go even more wild once #ThreadsApp joins the #Fediverse as from last time I saw they had something like 75 million users joined already.
@rysiek if you have ever moved house with an overlapping time you can stay in both, even if the new place had everything you desired you can still feel a sense of home in the old place which keeps drawing you back during that period.
@rysiek I'm having an even better experience here than the first round earlier this year. It'll subside but I think we're getting better and better set for improved retention at these high levels as even more niche communities are reaching critical mass for consistent discussions.
Next month will also be a good one for tje-federation as we (hopefully) get mockups for a fresh UI and start so split it even more into a microservice architekture ....
@pino look, I remember fedi when it was a few tiny instances of shitposting diehards. It was great.
But instead of complaining about all the new people, I just have an alt where I only follow and allow follows from my shitposting diehard besties. And so I have my cake and can eat it too — I have my small shitposting fedi of old, and I have the vibrant and populous fedi of today.
There is no algo that forces you to interact with anyone new. You can make your timeline small and cozy. 🤷♀️
@rysiek Sure, you can. I just want to give another perspective to the "hey look how fast we are growing" narrative. It's just a number. Behind the number, a lot of them are here because they got locked out from home, and are waiting here for the new home. It's more than questionable to count them in the same way as the old existing ones, who are here because they explicitly want to. Who explicitly decided to be here in parallel to - or even instead of - their corporate 'social' media accounts.
@pino and some of them will stay for good and make this place a much better place, like some who joined in November and now have no intention of leaving anywhere.
And I believe I make the "it's just a number" point in the other toots of that thread. Might make sense to read it maybe.
@rysiek Yes, you phrase it in much nicer words than I could. But admittedly, there is no strong contradiction between my toot and your other toot. Let's agree on that. ;)
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