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

[taylorlorenz@mastodon.social]

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?

[hfinyow@mstdn.ca]

@taylorlorenz one thing, the decentralized nature means there is perhaps too much choice. Do you get an account on mastodon.social, mstdn.ca, mastodon.com, tusky.whatever.... And also what app do you use to access it? When there was Twitter, there was one official app. With Mastodon, there are a multitude. Sometimes too much choice is counterproductive.

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@taylorlorenz

Answering this in the off chance you read replies 🤪

Biggest barrier to courting new users: we are culturally hostile here to influence peddlers and people who are trying to broadcast and don't want to interact. (ie, we treat them like the person invited to the small cocktail party at the house, who jumps up on a table and starts yelling).

Technically, users are used to being force fed content (through viral algorithms and suggested content)... i.e. passive (like TV). Mastodon is not built like that, which means people don't know how to find things they like or people to follow.

Finally (deliberately so), Mastodon is not built to tickle the endorphins... i.e. "likes" "followers" "virality" and that often turns people off, who really would like to use social media like a gambling junkie uses a slot machine (pull the lever, hope for a big payoff!). Fundamentally, non-addictive to that kind of thing.

I don't know if we want to fix any of that, though 🤪

[mzedp@plasmatrap.com]

@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social Lack of celebrities, in my experience.

[paperposts@zirk.us]

@mzedp @taylorlorenz which is also my favorite thing about it

[stefan@stefanbohacek.online]

@taylorlorenz Have you heard/read about the Forkiverse? The Mastodon server started by three popular podcasters that has grown to almost 10k members in just about two weeks.

I actually put together https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/fediverse-an-overview-for-community-organizers/ using it as a case study, hoping to maybe start reaching out to people who already have a following and could be interested in replicating this experiment.

[jsatk@sfba.social]

@taylorlorenz joining is genuinely as easy as joining Twitter so I also don’t get it. Also regarding users having different servers they all seem to understand that when it comes to email. No one worries about emailing from gmail to outlook or whatever.

So I’m right there with you. I truely don’t get it. It just needs more people. I also suspect people LIKE the algorithm and miss it. I always tell people this is just Twitter before the algorithm.

[marymessall@mendeddrum.org]

@taylorlorenz

The lack of an algorithm is the biggest advantage and the biggest disadvantage - it makes it hard to discover new content and people to follow. I know people are working on "starter packs" for Mastodon like they have on BlueSky, which I think will help.

But I wonder if we could find other ways to make discovery easier - a "followed by people you follow" or "favorited by people you follow" feed, or something. Also, I wonder if the interface shouldn't suggest boosting a post when you favorite it... We need more people boosting more stuff, with no algorithm.

You have to follow 200+ people to get a decently full feed on Mastodon, and everyone has to boost a lot. Reducing the effort required to do those things would increase engagement on Mastodon, I'm pretty sure.

[bitpickup@troet.cafe]

#fediTips
> What could be done to .. increase the user base ..?

Our problem @taylorlorenz?

The fact that influencer like you refuse to setup their own instances.You can do that with a few clicks from where you are right now, for example with @mastohost and offer your followers a profile on your server. They become your community member, supporting your work with a modest yearly fee.

And don't go big is beautiful!
Exclusiveness is key and moderation the bottle neck of healthy social media.

[nickgates@friendsofdesoto.social]

@taylorlorenz Black users have consistently reported hostility

[jude_theone479001@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz I love this app. When I tell other people about it they say the image it conjures up is massive, slow and extinct and that's not instantly appealing. You have to get to know this place. The exploration, the finding and discovering is what's so exciting. But it's not a shiny bauble.

[jbd@twit.social]

@hfinyow @taylorlorenz at the same time, this isn't a problem with email. Everyone uses email and they're not tripped up by there being dozens of email service providers. The big problem is Mastodon resists commercialization by its nature so there's no giant corpo spending big bucks pushing the "one" canonical version that everyone flocks to

[oldforest@libretooth.gr]

@taylorlorenz why does Mastodon needs to be fixed and not people?

[eggsandtoast@mastodon.social]

@taylorlorenz I moved to Mastodon because of the it’s decentralized model, but as a not overly technical person it’s not as easy to use. Some of the other platforms and a lot of friends are coasting on the other corporate platforms because they have their friend networks there.

[skjeggtroll@mastodon.online]

@taylorlorenz

The first hurdle for a new user is deciding on what server to join, without knowing what that means or how to decide between them.

Second, they have to figure out who to follow and how to curate their feed to the point where it's rewarding, before losing interest.

Third, Mastodon doesn't have communities / groups, which is what a lot of users use especially Facebook for.

Fourth, the tools for discoverability are weak. Sure, there's /explore and hashtags, but not much else.

[stefan@stefanbohacek.online]

@taylorlorenz Also, specifically for TikTok users, we actually do have a federated alternative, not sure if you heard of it, https://joinloops.org?

I wonder if Mastodon's reputation has been too tarnished by all the gatekeeping and scolding. Maybe we could get more people into the fediverse sneakily through another platform?

[jamesmarshall@sfba.social]

@taylorlorenz for people subject to abuse (I'm not), I've seen requests for reply controls and support for shared blocklists.

You may know this, but Loops at @loops is a fediverse alternative to tiktok. It's pretty new but is developing quickly, from what I gather (I haven't used it).

[brandonscript@appdot.net]

@taylorlorenz honestly? The chance of becoming a famous and/or wealthy internet influencer is much lower here. I think that is a big deterrent for people, whether they're willing to admit it or not.

As for what can be done about that? Nothing, really, because I think that's what makes it so appealing to the rest of us.

[elaterite@mastoart.social]

@taylorlorenz
"What do you think Mastodon’s biggest barriers are to courting new users?"

Their family & friends aren't here. Laziness to try something new. They don't know that the fedi exists.

"What could be done to improve the product and grow the user base in a positive way?"

The product ain't broke so don't brake it. I don't know if it's a positive pitch, but if big tech social media users loath billionaires, then they need to stop empowering them with their presence on their platforms.

[andres4ny@social.ridetrans.it]

@stefan @taylorlorenz Yeah, I think that's it. People want (among other things) community, and having an entire community move here at once makes a lot more sense than having individuals try to build up a community. That's why, when I tried mastodon in 2019/2020, it never took off for me; but during the twitter implosion of 2022, when a bunch of my twitter-using friends moved here as well, I stuck around. The forkiverse is just the latest example of that.