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Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

mastodon.social

101–110 of 257 posts

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an error to treat the Fediverse as you would treat Twitter, where there is a singular platform in some way external to its users. Fediverse is a mesh network with single-user instances being feasible. If a single node has problems scaling, split it up. If a whole network has problems scaling, add more nodes. Fediverse is not yet at levels where the whole network is congested, either.

And who is supposed to do all of that? Without a central organisation doing resource planning, scaling, and paying for all of that, this is never going to run smoothly. 99.99% of users have no interest in running their own instance. Even groups or organisation will eventually get to the point where running and scaling their instance becomes a full-time job. But without any way of monetising that work, or finding spon…

If we take the 99.99% as a hard fact that means 1 admin for 10,000 users. Sounds reasonable. Especially, if we consider that most of those will never even post anything according to Twitter behavior.

With respect to monetisation, I hope the fediverse will provide a live sandbox to try all kinds of experiments at eye level: Free, ad-supported, fees, one-time fees, pay-per-toot, pay-per-followed-instance, whatever. Multiply by private, non-profit, and for-profit approaches.

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#102
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That person then boosts a post from another server and they have effectively DDOSed that server. All the other nodes will start querying that server about that post or image. But that's fixable in several ways - local media cache for an instance, the boost including the preview rather than each client fetching it for themselves, etc. The problem* with ActivityPub is that it's been designed and developed in a bit of…

There is already a local media cache. My comment doesn't suggest that each follower requests stuff from the home server, but each instance. The instances cache pretty aggressively, but you still have a thundering herd when a popular person boosts a message.

> There is already a local media cache.

I suppose I should have been clearer - apologies. I was talking about a cache for previews (which would presumably be folded into the local media cache since it's already there.)

> you still have a thundering herd when a popular person boosts a message

Not if the boost includes the preview - that -should- cut it down significantly (and indeed it has been proposed but is still being bikeshedded by the Mastodon devs because "what if someone sends a fake preview?!?!?!?!")

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#103
post #5

It seems the Mastodon ecosystem has serious problems scaling. Most of the servers are closed to registrations, and we are just talking about a couple million new users over 2 months. What if 100 mil users want to move? Are we going to relive the Twitter history, which crashed every time Justin Bieber tweeted?

I've tried telling people before that the Fediverse doesn't scale, that decentralized solutions where nobody is paying for anything only work for flashcrowds (i.e. torrents), and ultimately this is going nowhere... but nobody wants to hear it. Everyone is sure that "torrents work, so this will work", neverminding the fact that the entire peer-to-peer ecosystem only works as long as there are people to seed, seeding c…

> that decentralized solutions where nobody is paying for anything only work for flashcrowds (i.e. torrents), and ultimately this is going nowhere... but nobody wants to hear it.

Fwiw, speak for.. yourself? /shrug

I pay for my instance. So do many. Because it's on Patreon and fully funded right now. Yea it's small, around 16k users, but we pay because we enjoy it. Also it's ridiculously cheap to contribute, which helps.

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#104
post #93

I don’t understand why someone hasn’t just launched a full blown clone of twitter yet. The decentralized stuff doesn’t matter to basically all of the population. Twitter is not an advanced product concept. A competent team can clone it quickly. Make it easy to migrate your past tweets over, maybe some way to migrate your connections, boom.

[deleted]

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#105
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it depends what you mean by 'replace'. Mastodon is already filling many of the functions that twitter filled for millions of people. Will it be a like-for-like replacement for Twitter? Of course not; I don't think anyone's saying that. But as Twitter crumbles, it's a place for many Twitter users to go which will work for many purposes. > the people who had bleu checks before the $7.99 fee are addicted to atte…

I don't use Twitter so maybe this is just wrong, but isn't part of the appeal of Twitter that regular users can interact with celebrities?

Sure. And that's why the highest follower count on Mastodon right now belongs to George Takei.

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#106
post #8

Mastodon is not and will not ever be a replacement for Twitter. Twitter's too large and the people who had bleu checks before the $7.99 fee are addicted to attention, validation, and/or lording their bleu check status over others. That's why Mastodon won't replace it. Sure, a few small (relative to Twitter) alternative Mastodon instances will pop up, but no real challenger or contender for the throne.

Not that I necessarily want this feature implemented or that this is a good idea, but I can foresee some large Mastodon instances asking for X dollars a month to put a blue check mark in front of your name.

Gosh damnit, that was my idea!

To put it another way, Twitter is/was a notary/PR firm as well as a "microblogging" service. Popular people and brands could verify their identity with Twitter, and users could trust it.

I think, though the idea is unoriginal, that there is money in hosting Mastodon servers as well as hosting a particular mastodon service that does brand/personal identification. Perhaps even semi-automatically, such as via DNS.

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#107
post #8

Mastodon is not and will not ever be a replacement for Twitter. Twitter's too large and the people who had bleu checks before the $7.99 fee are addicted to attention, validation, and/or lording their bleu check status over others. That's why Mastodon won't replace it. Sure, a few small (relative to Twitter) alternative Mastodon instances will pop up, but no real challenger or contender for the throne.

Holy. Shit. I need to make an exclusive invite-only Mastodon instance with verified accounts, so being @ that server will be a status symbol. Is Bluecheck.com taken? (except now someone else will do it. Also I'm too lazy to actually do this)

There are attempts like that for various communities. For example https://journa.host/about

I'm sure when bigger celebrities migrate, someone will start a service optimised for few huge (in follower count) accounts.

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#108
post #8

Mastodon is not and will not ever be a replacement for Twitter. Twitter's too large and the people who had bleu checks before the $7.99 fee are addicted to attention, validation, and/or lording their bleu check status over others. That's why Mastodon won't replace it. Sure, a few small (relative to Twitter) alternative Mastodon instances will pop up, but no real challenger or contender for the throne.

It replaced Twitter for me. Pretty much everyone I was following on Twitter is on Mastadon now, but also a whole bunch more because discoverability is easier for me on Mastadon.

Maybe it will never replace Twitter as the place to follow celebrities, politicians and corporations; so you can see what their social media teams have thought up in the last hour. But for keeping up with personal interests and chatting with other like-minded folks? Absolutely. And I'm not gonna miss the use-case that falls away. Also not going to miss the ads!

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an error to treat the Fediverse as you would treat Twitter, where there is a singular platform in some way external to its users. Fediverse is a mesh network with single-user instances being feasible. If a single node has problems scaling, split it up. If a whole network has problems scaling, add more nodes. Fediverse is not yet at levels where the whole network is congested, either.

And who is supposed to do all of that? Without a central organisation doing resource planning, scaling, and paying for all of that, this is never going to run smoothly. 99.99% of users have no interest in running their own instance. Even groups or organisation will eventually get to the point where running and scaling their instance becomes a full-time job. But without any way of monetising that work, or finding spon…

I think many people are too used to the centralised model and having one org responsible to blame for issues.

You know how we use websites right now? Who's responsible for planning, scaling, and paying for all of that? Users have no interest in running their own "website instance". Right?

And we're already at the point where for big groups running your own requires multiple full time jobs.

Even if things don't work smoothly, it's fine. Most breakage is instance local and temporary. I've been on Twitter with a weekly failwhale and it's been fine too.

Re: Server stats say movetodon.org reached a new record of 49k users yesterday

#110
post #93

I don’t understand why someone hasn’t just launched a full blown clone of twitter yet. The decentralized stuff doesn’t matter to basically all of the population. Twitter is not an advanced product concept. A competent team can clone it quickly. Make it easy to migrate your past tweets over, maybe some way to migrate your connections, boom.

The value is the network and it's hard to get a person's entire network to move over at once. You're right that most people don't care about "decentralization", but they really care about not losing access to their account, avoiding hate/bullying, and many other things. A Mastodon type decentralized platform where you join the server that best aligns best with your interests/needs is one way to solve this. More friction though, so not sure on what will win out.
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