While I can see this take being more in line with a casual user who just wants things to work like they are used to on their old platform, I want to point out that the issues with Twitter and Reddit are because of centralization. Because eventually money becomes more important and one company controlling everything will do what brings them more money at the cost of user experience. Fediverse is an attempt at removing that control from a single entity and putting it on the users, giving them a choice.
It has its problems for sure, but I think over time it will get better. I'm keeping an eye on bluesky waiting to get access and see how they are handling decentralization while keeping things consistent.
The most interesting thing to me is the scaling issue it seems like we need something like a torrent distribution method as the transport layer rather than sending out 400 connections.
i've been thinking similar things or use some other P2P model like those used by crypto nodes/i2p/tor. and maybe blockchain can serve a different purpose in order to bring validity to instances so as to not have bad actors fuck with the data as well as giving us a way to collectively boot them from federating should their reputation tank... dunno, not an expert in this area at all.
This is third place I am posting this to, but whatever:
When the Twitter migration happened, a lot of folks got overenthusiastic about the idea of the fediverse and started setting up their own Mastodon instances, despite having little to no experience with selfhosting before.
A lot of such instances have since shut down as they realised the amount of efforts that actually needs into hosting such a platform, especially instances with open registrations. However, a large number of them did survive and are now thriving.
Has the growth rate slowed? Sure, just like it is expected happen after a sudden influx. But it is false to say that Mastodon growth has stalled. Instead, the phrase I would use is 'stabilized'. Mastodon growth has stabilized into a healthy level as user growth is now happening more organically. Some stats below:
Quick TLDR from ChatGPT for those who don’t want to go through it all:
The article discusses the decline in active user numbers on the Mastodon social media platform and explores potential reasons behind it. The author shares personal experiences and observations from using Mastodon and highlights several issues. Firstly, they argue that Mastodon does not offer a unique selling point compared to other platforms like Twitter, which are more feature-rich. The author also states that decentralization, a key aspect of Mastodon, is not a selling point for the majority of users who prioritize functionality and convenience over ideological considerations. They further criticize the user experience on Mastodon, particularly in terms of finding and following other users, and argue that decentralization hampers the platform's usability. Additionally, the article discusses the perspective of existing Mastodon users, who may be resistant to change and less attuned to the challenges faced by new users. Lastly, the author mentions the scalability issues of Mastodon and the lack of sustainable funding models due to the platform's aversion to advertising and corporate funding. Overall, the article suggests that Mastodon's shortcomings and its resistance to change may have contributed to its declining user numbers.
I’m not under the impression that the Fediverse is directly competing with mainstream social media. At least within the spaces that I belong to. I’m just tired of all the clickbait ragebait easy engagement posts online
If someone stays in Twitter and Reddit just because Mastodon and Lemmy are “difficult” I do not want those people here theycabn stay on their comfort zone.
Yeah, the "difficult" part, I don't understand. I'm 56 and figured out /kbin and Mastodon and how federation works within a few hours. So far, so good.
I was around for the early days of Fark, Digg, Twitter and Reddit. New sites are rough around the edges. That's just the way it is. Things will get sorted in due time.
I read the first half and skimmed the rest. The primary complaints seem to be that the fediverse isn’t centralized, monolithic, stupid easy to use, and just like every corporate controlled network.
Ok. Cool. Fine with me. I wouldn’t call it failure if it is what it set out to be.
it sent out about 700,000 kill messages to inform other instances that it had federated with that it was going offline for good, and to delete all record of it from their databases. Around 25% of these were returned undelivered because the instances had simply dropped offline.
It's amusing that the person complaining about these instances "failing" linked to a site that itself has "failed" and is now "for sale".
There are always "the sky is falling" posts by people that feel everything they are no longer in love or becomes slightly difficult with is "failing". I don't understand why these people always think others are going to care about their opinions on the subject at all. It makes me wonder if these people yell "I'M LEAVING" every time they exit a room.
Honestly I think the idea of hundreds of tiny instances of Mastodon or Lemmy is not the way the fediverse should work. It probably won’t work that way because it doesn’t scale well. However, having a half-dozen or so large instances would give you almost the entire benefit without as many of the issues. Would Reddit be having a meltdown right now if there was even just one other instance of Reddit everyone could move to?
I think federation and centralization is the key to success.
The people who accept these trade-offs are not normal, and they’re in charge
so this is just inflammatory?
Seriously, I have been trying and slowly learning as Linux too has been developed to be more user friendly, am I "failing"?
This is a really poor take by someone it feels like spent more time on this post and the complaints than trying at all to adapt to the new place.
Like this bit:
So what does Mastodon bring to the table in addition to Twitter, that might justify someone deciding to take the plunge and move to it? There are a few unique things about the platform, but they generally fall into the broad category of “things users don’t care about”. Chief among these is decentralisation.
You wat? I want a place to talk to people, REAL PEOPLE, about topics (and that can be searched using hashtags, which you can).
The point of Mastodon is it isn't Twitter but offers a lot of the socializing of twitter! What?!
It also isn't that Mastodon is necessarily a replacement for Twitter (or Lemmy for reddit). I use these communities vastly differently than I did those two places: I am much more involved and feel like an actual part of my curated communities. I'm not a lurker or a pair of potential eyes to be advertised at.
The ways that our Fediverse options are different are myriad and immensely important in a way that most outside observers don't get. These aren't "just replacements" at all; they're communities—and upgraded ones at that.
Well, he's got a point in the first part you quoted.
Most "regular" people, the not-techies, are simply not interested in the technology or ideology behind a product. And Mastodon is a product in that sense.
What counts for most people is convenience, price and utilitity. If Mastodon adds complexity to the usage or lacks the content momentum, it's simply not attractive to most regular people. And that's not a hurr-durrr normies stupid rant, that's how most people feel about most things. You probably don't really care, how the oats in your oatmeal were produced, or your shirt, etc. You may would choose the morally superior one of you'd have the choice, but would you go out of your way to find that product?
Whether that counts as "failing" is a completely different question. But if the mission of Mastodon is to take over the position Twitter and Facebook have today, well then there's definitely a good chance it's failing that mission.
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