To be brutally honest, mastodon isn’t appealing to average people. Picking a server and client is too complicated, it’s mostly full of FOSS and Linux nerds, and the lack of a good discovery algorithm prevents them from finding content they are interested in.
Unfortunately, average people don’t care about federation. They get confused when they click a link from a different mastodon instance and it’s not the same website. Why aren’t they logged in anymore? They don’t know. Website must be broken. They don’t know or care about the differences between instances and clients and protocols. It’s just an app that they download and don’t see any of their friends or content they care about, so they stop using it.
I’m a FOSS and Linux nerd, and even I think Mastodon has a problem. Something has to change if Mastodon wants to compete. It just feels so lifeless compared to Bluesky.
Not really though. I look for an email provider because I want to communicate via email. I’m not looking for a mastodon provider because I want mastodon. What people are looking for is social engagement online and there are many more options with more appealing content that don’t require a normal human to understand FOSS, the fediverse, etc etc.
To be brutally honest, mastodon isn’t appealing to average people. Picking a server and client is too complicated, it’s mostly full of FOSS and Linux nerds, and the lack of a good discovery algorithm prevents them from finding content they are interested in.
Unfortunately, average people don’t care about federation. They get confused when they click a link from a different mastodon instance and it’s not the same website. Why aren’t they logged in anymore? They don’t know. Website must be broken. They don’t know or care about the differences between instances and clients and protocols. It’s just an app that they download and don’t see any of their friends or content they care about, so they stop using it.
I’m a FOSS and Linux nerd, and even I think Mastodon has a problem. Something has to change if Mastodon wants to compete. It just feels so lifeless compared to Bluesky.
That’s how email works and we’ve all managed to figure that out.
Not really though. I look for an email provider because I want to communicate via email. I’m not looking for a mastodon provider because I want mastodon. What people are looking for is social engagement online and there are many more options with more appealing content that don’t require a normal human to understand FOSS, the fediverse, etc etc.