With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!!
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@n @ai6yr resistance to influence peddlers may also be why newcomers are baffled (I was).
Other platforms have a lot of marketing before anyone actually signs up: a combination of hand-holding instructions and (yes) boosterism that promises all kinds of marvels.
Could individuals with accounts here in the Fediverse be *a bit* more willing to provide something *a bit* like marketing to friends and family outside - cheerful #fediverse #howto #guide for #newcomers?
@johnpaulflintoff I don't subscribe to the idea that Mastodon is hard and that is the reason why nobody uses it.
Take Tiktok: It's five different apps with the worst UI, hammered together by a troglodyte.
We need to be honest and communicate that you can follow great people on Mastodon (prominent people, friends/acquaintances, experts in your field/hobby), but it has to be clear that it will not shove the same content in everyone's face.
If you expect that you will bounce off and rightfully so. -
@taylorlorenz Another issue with marketing is the split nature of the product. It has different names and different options. It doesn't present itself as a coherent brand.
If someone asks their friend "are you on mastodon" or "are you on the fediverse" to most people these seem like two totally different networks. Even though people are *capable* of understanding how it works simplicity will always win out in terms of marketing. People generally don't think. Or don't want to think.
@taylorlorenz Also the comments make one thing clear, we are all still arguing about the fediverse and when we criticize existing users for not understanding it or using it "properly" it doesn't make it appealing to new users.
I'd say most of the people here are nerds, myself included. People also don't come here for the same reason you don't find mentally sane people on "truth social"
Even the language we use seems normal to us but for a lot of people it's unfamiliar and Intimidating -
With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz vorrei si potessero scrivere post anche più lunghi, senza che si mostrino per intero fin da subito in home. Rendere più comoda la pubblicazione di immagini, vedendole piccole in anteprima nei post in home e poi soffermandosi sul post per leggerli avere l'immagine a grandezza di pubblicazione. Trovare i post pubblicati con immagini raggruppati in una sezione apposita all'interno ogni profilo...Che l'apprezzamento ai post e il salvataggio con la stellina fossero due opzioni separate.
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@johnpaulflintoff I don't subscribe to the idea that Mastodon is hard and that is the reason why nobody uses it.
Take Tiktok: It's five different apps with the worst UI, hammered together by a troglodyte.
We need to be honest and communicate that you can follow great people on Mastodon (prominent people, friends/acquaintances, experts in your field/hobby), but it has to be clear that it will not shove the same content in everyone's face.
If you expect that you will bounce off and rightfully so.@n Yes, TikTok is ghastly!
And Mastodon isn’t hard to use (the terminology is a little bewildering initially, but so was eg “tweet”, once, and “subtweet” and more).
When I first looked into joining Mastodon I felt a little… unaccompanied? And I still wish I could see more of my friends and acquaintances.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz I think famous people need to get on here, most people I've spoken with regarding Mastodon or Fediverse is that they follow news and gossip mostly on the commercial platforms.
If the people come, the people will follow
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz A lot of people bounce pretty quickly when they encounter the racism and sexism here. That is often invisible to people who aren't experiencing it.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz The increasing enshittification and censorship of the centralized platforms is the best marketing the Fediverse could dream of
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz Mass produce the stuffed mastodons and get them in every Wal Mart, etc. in the world, with a QR link on the tag.
Bam.
Done. -
With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz just like substack
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I think the way we make DIY discovery eg build your own algorithm so mandatory makes it hard for the fedi to fulfill the role of social media in many people's lives: a way to relax ... social media functions a lot like how people have watched TV for decades. "just to see what's on"
I think there is nothing wrong with algorithms as long as they are transparent, and created by users.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz
“At this historical moment, I’d value the fact that Mastodon is made in the #europeanunion. I’m a new user myself who joined as part of a Trump-led US boycott campaign, so I was looking for a #EU-made alternative—Mastodon seemed like the most structured one anyway.
#EU #buyeuropean we should follow the Canadians’ example #buycanadian” -
I think the way we make DIY discovery eg build your own algorithm so mandatory makes it hard for the fedi to fulfill the role of social media in many people's lives: a way to relax ... social media functions a lot like how people have watched TV for decades. "just to see what's on"
I think there is nothing wrong with algorithms as long as they are transparent, and created by users.
What if we had a kind of mini-app where users could create their own algorithms and then share combine and trade them?
I might design a mix of hashtags, users, and hand picked posts and call it "Ant News" someone else might pick a group of users and hash tags and create "Italian Football Bloopers"
Then we could share and rate these feeds and new users could just click on the popular ones?
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What if we had a kind of mini-app where users could create their own algorithms and then share combine and trade them?
I might design a mix of hashtags, users, and hand picked posts and call it "Ant News" someone else might pick a group of users and hash tags and create "Italian Football Bloopers"
Then we could share and rate these feeds and new users could just click on the popular ones?
I think this could possibly be built into the mastodon lists feature
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What if we had a kind of mini-app where users could create their own algorithms and then share combine and trade them?
I might design a mix of hashtags, users, and hand picked posts and call it "Ant News" someone else might pick a group of users and hash tags and create "Italian Football Bloopers"
Then we could share and rate these feeds and new users could just click on the popular ones?
A feed creation tool could have options such as:
* Include/exclude these hash tags
* Include/exclude these users... but only if -- condition is met.
* Always pull a post with an image from, for example -- talented artist/photographer
* Never show two posts from the same user in a row.
* Include trending posts, but only if it's not/is "US pol" (for example)Make a tool to design an algo, let us give them cute names, let people vote and argue about which ones are the best.
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What if we had a kind of mini-app where users could create their own algorithms and then share combine and trade them?
I might design a mix of hashtags, users, and hand picked posts and call it "Ant News" someone else might pick a group of users and hash tags and create "Italian Football Bloopers"
Then we could share and rate these feeds and new users could just click on the popular ones?
@futurebird @aurochs Yahoo Pipes was awesome!
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@taylorlorenz I think famous people need to get on here, most people I've spoken with regarding Mastodon or Fediverse is that they follow news and gossip mostly on the commercial platforms.
If the people come, the people will follow
I think this is true. People often respond to those who point this out by saying "but that's the whole problem with modern culture, famous people aren't cool, etc etc." And I even agree.
But, I'd still like to know what my favorite SF authors, politicians, musicians, interesting journalist etc. have to say.
That was part of the fun of Twitter at its best.
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What if we had a kind of mini-app where users could create their own algorithms and then share combine and trade them?
I might design a mix of hashtags, users, and hand picked posts and call it "Ant News" someone else might pick a group of users and hash tags and create "Italian Football Bloopers"
Then we could share and rate these feeds and new users could just click on the popular ones?
@futurebird@sauropods.win @aurochs@todon.eu I like that. I think people should then also be able to opt-in to a "thing" where they also sporadically get posts that aren't in any of their chosen feeds, but are "related", for example by virtue of being in the feeds of the some of the people they follow, to give the sense of serendipitous discovery of new stuff. Maybe, a somehow tunable "serendipity factor" that widens the concept "related".
I think a tab like tab would usually be more useful/interesting than the local/global timelines. -
@NicksWorld @anja @taylorlorenz reading through this thread and I think we need more things to make it seem cool. Marketing is a good idea. Also, I don’t know how easy it is to build on top of mastodon’s API, my understanding of twitter’s initial rise was openness of the api and the developer ecosystem that created was a big part of adding cool new features.
@ryebreadnyc @anja @taylorlorenz I am not a programmer so my knowledge is limited. If its easy to do, that'll most definitely help.
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With all the tiktok drama I have been telling people Mastodon is still here and kicking!! I love this app and I really think the decentralized model is the best for social media.
Still, people don’t want to join! What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users? What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?
@taylorlorenz Mastodon's biggest barrier is network effect, a budget to attract users, and it not being, or wanting to be, the new Twitter. Bluesky has the last two, which has given it the advantage on the first, but not yet enough to overtake old Twitter.
The future for Mastodon is to continue not being the next Twitter, but pull in users that should naturally prefer decentralized and non-profit, like government organizations and sane people. That and journalists adding it to their byline. -
@futurebird@sauropods.win @aurochs@todon.eu I like that. I think people should then also be able to opt-in to a "thing" where they also sporadically get posts that aren't in any of their chosen feeds, but are "related", for example by virtue of being in the feeds of the some of the people they follow, to give the sense of serendipitous discovery of new stuff. Maybe, a somehow tunable "serendipity factor" that widens the concept "related".
I think a tab like tab would usually be more useful/interesting than the local/global timelines.@futurebird@sauropods.win @aurochs@todon.eu this latter thing could possibly be a client thing? I don't know enough about the tech behind mastodon and activitypub to say.
