We, calckey.social, are now the largest #Calckey server on the Internet.
Currently, 1,056 people have joined calckey.social, and growth continues fast.
This server has only been online since February, but 800 people have joined within the last 2 weeks.
To keep pace with growth, we have added four moderators who will assist us as this server continues to gather interest. Even though we're growing fast, user safety is of paramount importance.
Being the largest Calckey server comes with great responsibilities. We are validating the potential scale of Calckey, while also welcoming new users who have never used the software before.
We, the mod team, embrace this challenge and look forward to continuing to shepherd the growth of this fantastic community!
Part of it that also matters I feel is that it takes a surprisingly long time for a lot of people for the concept of decentralization to really 'click'. Think that contributed quite a bit to where mastodon gets equated with the fediverse for a lot of people, which is not being helped by its dominance in market share. Rise of bluesky is helping break that, but so does pixelfed and now *key.
Honestly, I'd prepare for quite a big inflow of new people. Theres a lot of people on masto who believe in the concept of the fediverse, but havent actually given anything else beyond masto a shot. Now fomo is starting to kick in, and seems like a very large percentag eof that group will wanna try the new hotness
Great news: calckey.social just registered its 1,000th account!
This comes one week after reaching 500 accounts!
This is a major milestone in the growth of the #Calckey community! The enthusiasm for this project is off the charts -- and we're thrilled you've made the server your home on the Fediverse!
NPR is the only major journalism org to have shown a spine in dealing with Musk. So he's threatened to give the NPR username to someone else.
Yet even now -- despite Musk's growing contempt for and acts against journalism -- most media organizations and their employees STILL pour their work and some of their advertising money in to his rancid site.
What will it take for journalists to wake the hell up?
Update on my search for an alternative long-text #fediverse software:
Misskey
I stopped using my #Misskey account first, mainly because #Calckey was the better option between the two which are otherwise rather similar. Misskey also offers only rudimentary account transfer functionality, i.e. import / export data but no account transfer.
From my point of view, at least some account transfer functionality is absolutely essential in the spirit of the Fediverse and I don’t want to be locked into a particular instance, even if it is a reliable one, as I may want to switch to self-hosting at some point.
If you like Misskey, I can recommend misskey.de, maintained by #libranet.de grand master @alfred.
Calckey
Calckey is interesting and quirky, and it has implemented suitable account transfer functionality. The team even work on cross-platform post/toot import which is great. In a somewhat strange move this was deployed into production today, largely untested and broke the calckey.social experience for quite a few users.
The developers are generally very enthusiastic, committed and present in the community which is a great thing.
One other issue, at least in my considerations, was the emoji and #mfm (Misskey Flavoured Markdown) overload - it’s just a little too much if you’re beyond 40, it’s blinking and jumping and rotating and 90ies animated gif-ing everywhere. This functionionality is really being used extensively and whilst you can switch it off in your settings, so the interface will be much quieter, it feels like you shouldn’t, as it is a major part of the Calckey community DNA and people actually want this…
I also noted that the software is a bit beta, updated often, and the deploy method into production seems very progressive (post import function, looking at you…). So if you need a stable, reliable and distraction-free environment for (semi-)professional use or long-form debate, Calckey is probably not the first choice.
I did like the #antennas function, however, which was more usable for me than following single hashtags on #Mastodon or save searches on #Friendica. It is possible to save thematic antennas with multiple keywords and read those as a separate consolidated antenna feed which is convenient and a good way to discover content and users.
I may keep my account for a while to follow the Calckey journey and for the days where I feel like I need more rotating emojis, but won’t use it extensively.
I am on the flagship instance calckey.social and I want to shout out to @atomicpoet who is ever present and the greatest advocate for Calckey.
Friendica
So after testing extensively over the long weekend, I like Friendica the most, although its plethora of functions can be bit of a usability challenge, but it is very powerful and usable for my specific purposes.
I keep discovering functionality which makes this platform the best for my use case. And don’t get me even started on the thread view - this is by far the best, most readable and well rendered implementation of threads I have seen across the #Fediverse applications I have tested, ideal for long-form debate.
There’s also a mobile app in development, shout-out to @hankg to put me on the TestFlight. This looks very promising and will be key to bring more users to Friendica - and also keep them there, using it with a well-designed, simplified interface. So far, and for me, the web browser on a PC or a tablet seems to be the best option if you want the full Friendica experience.
So, I will stay on here for long-form writing, groups, debates and keep my #Mastodon account in parallel. I may consider self hosting Friendica and #Pixelfed at some point in the future but this remains to be decided.
With my Friendica account, I am on venera.social, a reliable server run by @alfred as well.
Feel free to connect on Friendica or Mastodon, if you wish.
Thanks for reading!
PS: Please note - no character limit and basic markdown formatting, that’s what I am here for. 😀
If you only allow celebrities, certain classes of journalist, etc. onto the platform as creators and the 'regular people' to consume until you're 'stable enough for capacity testing' you build in a group that has a head start.
Worked for Gmail, Facebook, etc. People enjoy feeling exclusive, look at how quickly they moved away from the checkmark once it was obtainable by 'regular' people.
The re-brand of the Fediverse as "Mastodon" has created big problems -- problems that were both predictable and preventable.
For one thing, the honeymoon period for Mastodon is over.
People aren't willing to ignore its flaws anymore because it's the one alternative to Twitter that has traction.
Now people want creature comforts.
But guess what? Because the entirety of the Fediverse is branded as "Mastodon", people are more likely to migrate to Bluesky than elsewhere on the Fediverse.
@atomicpoet I think the entire fediverse project needs to be reframed to get people out of this mindset that we're trying to build another Twitter. I don't much care if the masses ever care for the Fediverse. In fact, I'd be thrilled if they stayed away. I think we need social media that serves the people who care. About anything. If that sounds a bit elitist, well, perhaps it is. But so what? Is there some law that says we have to pretend everyone's voice has similar value? Spoiler. They don't.
When you write hashtags that contain multiple words, make the first letter of each word a capital letter, for example #DogsOfMastodon. This will make the tag readable to blind people.
Blind people use the internet through screen reader apps, which read text out aloud. By putting a capital at the start of each word in a hashtag, you are telling the screen reader how to say the tag correctly.
In the non-techy world this is generally known as "CamelCase".
"I regret to inform you but Bluesky is fun..and Mastodon will remain as a niche product."
Well there it is folks, Wired has spoken. Let's go home. Nothing to see here. It's all over but the IPO. Nice try, though. A plethora of venture capitalists and a cabal of fascist plutocrats think you're a swell buncha peeps. Sincerely.
For clarification, folks, this means that Calckey is the first ActivityPub platform (AFAIK) that will let you migrate your entire social graph (followers AND followings) from one ActivityPub instance (whether Mastodon, Calckey, Misskey, et al.) to a Calckey account. You'll still have to export from one and import to the other, but that's a simple thing (and will probably be automated soon)..
I've often said that we need a Fediverse alternative to Reddit. I tried #lemmyBB but it doesn't seem to get much attention and is still very bare-bones.
Someone pointed me to #kbin (developed by @ernest). It looks great for early stages. I recommend everyone who wants to build a Reddit-type community join.
Calckey is a Fediverse server type which includes lots of features that Mastodon doesn't yet have, such as emoji reactions, markdown, customisable interfaces, widgets and lots more.
To see for yourself, have a look on the official website at:
⭐️ Reminder that if you see a hashtag for an event, or conference, on Mastodon, that hashtag can be followed like any other account and will be delivered to your home timeline until you unfollow it
The excellent @dansup (creator of @pixelfed) also maintains two very useful Fediverse tools:
➡️ https://fedidb.org - A dashboard for the Fediverse, with details of how server types and specific servers are growing.
➡️ https://fediverse.info/explore/people - An opt-in directory of people on the Fediverse sorted by keyword. You can add yourself to the directory by including special hashtags in your profile.
If you've used them before, take another look as they've both just been revamped.
