With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!!

[pineconez@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz I think it's because the fediverse, for me at least, works more as a social network than social media. And because of that it needs a network effect...but if you're joining without knowing anybody it's hard to get into a circle like that. It's a catch 22.

I was lucky on my main account to find a server for a common interest and everyone in that cluster of servers knows and interacts with each other. In a way it's ended up feeling more like old school facebook than twitter?

[rabiesgirl@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz capitalist realism. People (even leftists) refuse to understand that these apps don‘t exist to "compete" with the big monetized platforms. This place has been so good for my mental health because it‘s designed with freedom in mind!

[nw@ioc.exchange]

@douglasthiel @taylorlorenz Yeah, after many years here I still think it's a bad name from a branding perspective. Bluesky sounds inspiring. Mastodon sounds complicated and stagnant.

[aaron@cutie.city]

@taylorlorenz
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, people wanting to join need to drop the followers mentality and embrace the concept of an interactive audience.

[viss@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz the big two seen to be the decision paralysis surrounding choosing a server, and the mastodon hoa shaming new users for stuff

[z3ror0ne@mas.to]

@taylorlorenz The Fediverse is impossible to censor, no one can buy it, no one can completely dismantle it. Imho, it's the future. The ability for anyone to spin up a server and there being no suggestion algorithm are features that ensure it will eventually dominate the web.

Bluesky and Upscrolled still have much of the same problems of the major SMPs. Centralization always ensures eventual enshitefication. RSS, Wikis, Federated Platforms, these are the true tech marvels of the internet.

[z3ror0ne@mas.to]

@taylorlorenz Much like abusive past relationships though, we'll have to go through this a few times before we find the platform that only wants us to be freely ourselves.

[ryanc@infosec.exchange]

@Viss @taylorlorenz I can't recall ever getting hoa shamed on mastodon, tbh.

But the decision paralysis is real.

[thethoughtcatcher@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz I think joining Mastodon is really easy, especially with all the amazing join(this, that) .org
What could be improved is making self hosting easier and more accessible. I think that will make this beautiful project more attractive to communities (local or digital). Small self-hosted instances of people who know each other will probably be more active and engaging and thanks to the fediverse they'll connect with inspiring skeletons and the rest

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@taylorlorenz @stefan

I've been waiting for the apps to become available in the default app stores before recommending that to anyone. Testflight and an APK download are a high barrier to entry for a lot of people and first impressions are important

Edit: it's available on the app store for iOS now

[tip@mastodon.online]

@taylorlorenz
An advertising budget

[barosky@mastodon.uno]

@taylorlorenz In my opinion the major "problem" with Mastodon is the lack of many sources that are present on Twitter. I'm Italian and on Twitter I was following many journalists, newspapers and politics, while here on Mastodon there are really few of them. The same applies for other kind of accounts

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@taylorlorenz @amazing_joeyy

You should check out http://fedi.tips

The most important thing you need to do is follow people and hashtags to make sure your home feed is full.

If you make a post with the introduction hashtag and say something about yourself there then you can get a lot of recommendations that way

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@taylorlorenz @stefan

I think that the http://dropout.tv fandom would be a great one to try what the forkiverse did but don't know who to suggest it to.

[eregloch@mastodon.coffee]

The reason people flock to a few email services is largely because they are bundled in packages or office suites, and used in businesses and therefore easily used at home. There are still many providers and even more clients, plus the option to self host.
I do not foresee businesses using Mastodon for internal or client communication.

[phl@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz People just dismiss it right away, and I never understood it why. Worst case they come up with excuses that they maybe heard from a person who heard it from another person's cat that it was cumbersome.

"It doesn't work, I hate it" has been a response from people with exactly 0 experience too many times and I cannot fathom why. They haven't even given themselves a chance to get angry at clumsy federation and they're already dismissive

[denzilferreira@techhub.social]

@mzedp @taylorlorenz and that's great

[ulriknyman@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz The selection of server still seems to be a big deal.

[rob@toot.si]

@taylorlorenz recommending a server is always a barrier but https://fedi.garden/fediverse-servers-sorted-by-topic/ helped in my recent fedi-evangelist efforts

[j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz]

@taylorlorenz There are a million little friction points for non-technical people. Example: somebody links somebody else's post, I click on it and I am brought to their server. Which means I am no longer recognized as logged in and can't follow/comment/like etc.
To me this is a minor bump on the road, and in two clicks I can sort it out. For my mother it is an impossible wall of confusion (my father gave up on understanding any technology that appeared after the '80s).