Having spent a lot of time on Mastodon… There are tons of people there talking about federated and self-hosted services, software freedom, censorship, encryption, tech regulation… A very narrow range of topics directly surrounding the fediverse get a lot of attention.
But nobody talks about anything else. Nobody goes to Instagram to talk about Instagram, nobody goes to Tiktok to talk about Tiktok, nobody goes to Facebook (at all). People use social media to either talk to their friends or talk about their hobbies and interests.
And if your hobby is tech, that’s fine, enjoy. I like tech too. But please, if you have anything else to say, say it. The fediverse will never appeal to the masses if we don’t embrace a wide variety of hobbies and interests.
We need people here talking about cooking. We need people here talking about fashion. We need people here talking about immigration policy. We need people here talking about everything people enjoy!
Yes, if you go to /m/fashion right now, it’s… barely there. You’re not going to get a ton of conversation when you post there. But that’s not the point. The point is to build out the community, so that, a year from now, as more and more people attempt to post and engage, there is a conversation. There’s a reason to be on the fediverse besides the meta circlejerk over how great the fediverse could be in theory.
This is the “content” people are craving. Find or start a magazine for your city, or your town, or your country. Write a post. Share posts from your favorite blogs. Comment on something, if you have anything to say at all. Share a youtube video—yes, a youtube video, I know, youtube sucks, but at least it gives us a path to a community here.
I don’t think most people who are new to the fediverse really want to see three dozen threads about the fediverse as they scroll. I couldn’t possibly convince somebody to join the fediverse to talk about fashion, because there’s nobody here talking about fashion, it’s like going to a baseball stadium to talk about library science.
People are going to Threads instead. When I point out how shitty Threads is and how people should use Mastodon instead, they say, “you’re right! Threads is shitty! I’m gonna go use threads.” Because threads is a social network and mastodon is a theory.
Hi, I have been both people. When I was new, I actually really enjoyed learning about it. I sometimes learn a hell of a lot more from forums than I do from just searching it up. Now that I am more experienced, I enjoy sharing that information to help other new people understand. I was a beginner once too, you know?
If you want to go to another platform, I won’t judge you for it. This might not be the right fit at the moment, and that’s OK. I would follow that other person’s advice and check out other communities too, if you like it here otherwise. Maybe you’ll run into more people who share the same interests, and people who may also want to create and grow those communities.
Please remember that this is still a relatively new platform, and that it will take a lot of time to get it where you (and many of us) want it to be. It’s the kind of thing that you can not rush without destroying.
It’s also not fun seeing people complain about the lack of posts or effort to increase the community, only for those same people to flip and then essentially say that it’s pointless for them to even try. If everyone who loves a community thinks that way, that community will never grow. That’s what they meant by “be the change you want to see”.
The best, and most guaranteed way to fail is to give up before you start.