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Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

theguardian.com

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Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#51

Post by VectorLock »

stewbrew wrote: post #46
VectorLock wrote: post #26

People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable. I played around with Mastodon last night and I think it has some bad but not insurmountable ergonomic wrinkles, but I worry its decentralization will prevent it from ever becoming mainstream. Centralization makes it easier to deal with "bad" actors. Also Discovery is a huge problem: how do I discover people I know? How do content…

I don't think these are just ergonomic wrinkles. I was surprised to learn that it seems to matter which instance you join. I assumed "decentralized" means "it doesn't matter where you're located". To me this is rather a basic, philosophical flaw. I would also expect a decentralized network to easily support multiple identities. At least the default client seemingly does not. Twitter on the other hand allows switching…

>It seems to me the mastodon community (or parts of it) leans towards a rather weird understanding of identity and community.

I get that sense too. It feels mostly like vBulletin with Birdsite skin with some cross-forum RSS built in.

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#52

Post by ilyt »

VectorLock wrote: post #26

People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable. I played around with Mastodon last night and I think it has some bad but not insurmountable ergonomic wrinkles, but I worry its decentralization will prevent it from ever becoming mainstream. Centralization makes it easier to deal with "bad" actors. Also Discovery is a huge problem: how do I discover people I know? How do content…

> People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable.

That was also long time ago and it was much easier to compete back then. I think now only way for that to happen is if big network fucks up, not if the better competition comes up

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#53

Post by philipov »

kibwen wrote: post #50
philipov wrote: post #15

The most important quality I hear people are looking for in a replacement for Twitter is "Everyone else is on it" so they're all stuck in a catch 22. I don't think this energy to get off Twitter is going to go anywhere.

I think it's a mistake to think that Mastodon would necessarily be the beneficiary of any Twitter exodus. I think it's more likely that the beneficiaries would be established, centralized services like Discord or Reddit. The underlying media models may be different, but I suspect people care less about the model than about seeing things they're interested in, and plenty of these people will already have accounts on t…

People aren't looking for Reddit or Discord. They already have these. The people using Twitter to promote their business-of-choice are already on Reddit and Discord if they want to be. They don't want Twitter because it's a good way to host their communities, they want Twitter for cross-promoting their community to other communities.

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#54

Post by Finnucane »

philipov wrote: post #15

The most important quality I hear people are looking for in a replacement for Twitter is "Everyone else is on it" so they're all stuck in a catch 22. I don't think this energy to get off Twitter is going to go anywhere.

I've decided to not care about that (I've never had a Twitter account anyway). The idea that "everyone else is on it" is the problem, not the solution. The only real question is, is there a community you want to be part of? The rest of it is for their benefit, not yours.

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#55

Post by mempko »

ilyt wrote: post #52
VectorLock wrote: post #26

People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable. I played around with Mastodon last night and I think it has some bad but not insurmountable ergonomic wrinkles, but I worry its decentralization will prevent it from ever becoming mainstream. Centralization makes it easier to deal with "bad" actors. Also Discovery is a huge problem: how do I discover people I know? How do content…

> People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable. That was also long time ago and it was much easier to compete back then. I think now only way for that to happen is if big network fucks up, not if the better competition comes up

Ok, what about Google+?

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#56

Post by defulmere »

VectorLock wrote: post #26

People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable. I played around with Mastodon last night and I think it has some bad but not insurmountable ergonomic wrinkles, but I worry its decentralization will prevent it from ever becoming mainstream. Centralization makes it easier to deal with "bad" actors. Also Discovery is a huge problem: how do I discover people I know? How do content…

> Also Discovery is a huge problem: how do I discover people I know? How do content creators who want to build an audience (and so create content that would attract users to the platform) get discovered?

Hashtags play a huge role on Mastodon - discover people by following hashtags and include hashtags in your posts so that people can discover you.

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#57

Post by ilyt »

stewbrew wrote: post #46
VectorLock wrote: post #26

People used to think the network effect for MySpace and Friendster were insurmountable. I played around with Mastodon last night and I think it has some bad but not insurmountable ergonomic wrinkles, but I worry its decentralization will prevent it from ever becoming mainstream. Centralization makes it easier to deal with "bad" actors. Also Discovery is a huge problem: how do I discover people I know? How do content…

I don't think these are just ergonomic wrinkles. I was surprised to learn that it seems to matter which instance you join. I assumed "decentralized" means "it doesn't matter where you're located". To me this is rather a basic, philosophical flaw. I would also expect a decentralized network to easily support multiple identities. At least the default client seemingly does not. Twitter on the other hand allows switching…

I expected XMPP-like federation where it really does not matter from where you are but it's kinda disappointing.

Software ecosystem is also less "decentralized" and more "schizophrenic"

Re: Mastodon gained 70k users after Musk’s Twitter takeover

#58

Post by vanderZwan »

kibwen wrote: post #50
philipov wrote: post #15

The most important quality I hear people are looking for in a replacement for Twitter is "Everyone else is on it" so they're all stuck in a catch 22. I don't think this energy to get off Twitter is going to go anywhere.

I think it's a mistake to think that Mastodon would necessarily be the beneficiary of any Twitter exodus. I think it's more likely that the beneficiaries would be established, centralized services like Discord or Reddit. The underlying media models may be different, but I suspect people care less about the model than about seeing things they're interested in, and plenty of these people will already have accounts on t…

On a similar note: I think it's also a mistake that a mass Twitter exodus to Mastodon would actually benefit that platform. Smallish waves, sure. An overwhelming influx of users? Please no.

Anyone who has experienced a tiny forum (or subreddit, or whatever) going viral knows what I'm talking about. Most of the time that experience at the very least transforms the existing local subculture for the worse, and sometimes outright destroys it.

If everyone on current-day Twitter would move to Mastodon at once it would turn into current-day Twitter. Which is not why I'm on Mastodon.

EDIT: can whomever downvoted this tell me what exactly they disagree with here?

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