The (over)use of "mastodon" is understandable. Mastodon played a pioneering role in implementing microblogging use cases with the #ActivityPub protocol and is also the most mature product at this point in that 'business domain'. Establishing itself as a brand.

#Fediverse is not a very descriptive name to people unfamiliar with it and the idea that it provides access to many apps that integrate with on a single social network (ideally) interoperably is foreign. They are used to 'platform thinking'. Fediverse weaves a social fabric that allows you to be "social together with others" online.

The europa.eu website now has a #Mastodon icon in its social channel list, that hides all that.

Perhaps most communicative is the name #ActivityStreams (name of W3C standard vocabulary of social actions to support). Then a person would subscribe to EU's activity streams and receive Posts, Articles, Videos, Events, Policies, News. Every service the EU offers adds to the stream.

Registrations open, you are welcome to join, we are waiting for you.

social.netdynamics.eu

Ha ha, me too. Now I know your favorite color. Mine is likely orange, and its not because I'm Dutch. But purples comes a long way, perhaps second in line

But I am learning a lot of interesting things in this thread!

I assume you refer to how in communication references to "mastodon" are made?

There's indeed something problematic in that, about which I've been posting a lot and also blogged about: the app-centric nature of the current fediverse, and the re-centralization forces this sets in motion.

See e.g. https://coding.social/blog/grassroots-evolution/#challenges-of-standardization

Mastodon is a brand. A platform and product that targets the fediverse to offer Microblogging services. The way it is used puts it on a pedestal, makes it more prominent than other microblogging apps like #GoToSocial, #Pleroma, and many other alternatives. But it is the social network as a whole that counts, not individual service provider players.

The word #Mastodon is overused in too broad meaning, similar to how people say "I'll google it" when they want to do an internet search. It sells alternatives short, like DuckDuckGo or Kagi. Some people don't even know about fediverse and say "Join mastodon" when they mean "Join the decentralized web".

The final goal: turn the EU flag from blue to purple!

Please please please choose to implement services that promote social good, not fund billionaires and their fascist motives!

Surely we do NOT want clones of today's toxic, ad funded addictive platforms?

I suggest that means separating commercial concerns like 'reach' from the social space entirely. Focus on safety and interpersonal communications features.

Advertising / political PR should live in other mass media spaces. Not here!

I don't really see Europe trying to build its own copies of exploitative monopolies as a good thing.

We might want something that fulfills the same purpose for communities, but I'd prefer to skip the dark patterns inherent in those platforms.