ShanTanu ShaRmaNov 8, 2019
abben

I'm trying to keep track of the mass migrations to Mastodon that have happened.

I think it started with:
- early adopters, programmers, FOSS people
- tons of peeps in Japan
- furry community moving off Twitter
- LGBTQ+ folks leaving twitter
- people who saw that polygon article (me) or heard about it when it started getting mentioned on hackernews
- comics/artists leaving twitter
- NSFW blogs leaving Tumblr
- sex workers
- and now, Indian politics Twitter users

Am I missing any big moments?

Nov 8, 2019 at 12:02pmFedilab
Show threadValar Morghulis 🐧Nov 8, 2019
@abbenm
- Cute cat videos
Show threadSad uwuNov 8, 2019
@abbenm please point me to tumblr porn handles :3 if you'd be so kind 
Show threadabbenNov 8, 2019

@kuchhimau

Well I don't think I follow many or any of them here. I think trying the #nsfw #tumblr #bdsmblr tags are good places to start though.

I think once you find one or two people it'll be easy to find the rest of that community

Show threadSad uwuNov 8, 2019
@abbenm okay yes. Thank you! 
Show threadErik Kemp 🇪🇺Nov 8, 2019
@abbenm Academics, like from my own university, but also idf.social, scholar.social, and Qoto from @freemo? And of course the huge amount of obstacle runners on my hugely succesful instance over on ocr.social :')
Show threadMannyNov 8, 2019
@abbenm You got it right. The right wing politics (Indian Nazism) has affected twitter india. India is under a grip of majoritarian madness and it sure has affected twitter india moderators. The exact reason I have migrated to mastodon is because of twitter's arbitraty policy of blocking users who stand for 'reason' and allowing so many users who continuously spew hatred against the minorities in India. Sooner or later these right wing folks will move to mastodon and I dread that day.
Show threadabbenNov 8, 2019
@cprogrammer I just hope the tools are resilient enough that Masto is ready when that happens. It will be a question of having the tools/resources to filter out the massive flood of accounts and posts. There are already good tools in place, and many individual servers that are selective about who they allow on. Fingers crossed
Show thread🎓 Doc Freemo  🇳🇱Nov 8, 2019

@abbenm Interestingly even though QOTO is STEM specific it seems we are getting a pretty big surge from the indian community lately too. I suspect this is because india is such a big center for tech and naturally twitter users will be a good portion of tech users.

So yea #QOTO is definitely enjoying the recent surge.

Show threadArjun RamakrishnanNov 8, 2019
@abbenm Tons of Japanese? Do they have a manga community here? 😍
Show threadabbenNov 8, 2019
@aju000 I think something like that. I know they made up a huuuge segment of masto users for a while and still do
Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ❌​Nov 10, 2019

@aju000 There's some Manga, though Loli were a bit more of an issue -- that's problematic in many areas outside of Japan.

Might try Pawoo.net. I don't recall the other large instances, though mastodon.cloud is now run by a Japanese firm.

@abbenm

Show threadSatsuma [moved]Nov 10, 2019
@dredmorbius @aju000 @abbenm searching for .jp on instances.social is a decent way to find japanese instances if you’re looking for something specific? (obviously you’ll miss a few, like pawoo that don’t use japans country code, but it’s a decent place to start)
Show threadvivekNov 8, 2019
@abbenm also journalists, activists, lawyers and researchers in India are moving to @Mastodon from #twitter because the RW eco-system has taken over the platform using money power
Show threadالتنينوكسNov 8, 2019
@abbenm
In between FOSS and Japan, if I remember correctly, there is some people leaving Twitter for advertising, then change in chronological timeline.
Show threadالتنينوكسNov 8, 2019
@abbenm
Before Mastodon, there were mass migrations to #gnusocial for some singer, or something. I have seen maybe 3 mass migrations to GNU Social before Mastodon existed.
Show threadJulien Deswaef Nov 8, 2019
@abbenm The early French move from twitter at the beginning? At the time Twitter changed their commenting system if I remember correctly.
Show threadJulien Deswaef Nov 8, 2019
@abbenm You're also forgetting the Gab move. Although not a lot of instances federate with Gab, it's also a pretty large move to Mastodon.
Show threadabbenNov 8, 2019
@judeswae
I think I just wish the gab move never happened
Show threadJulien Deswaef Nov 8, 2019
@abbenm Well. It was just a matter of time, anyway for these kind of things to happen. And I'm glad the software and network was ready for it. So overall, I think it's proof that Mastodon is well engineered and gives me confidence on where it's heading. It's not perfect. But it can survive such a hostile take over attempt.
Show threadstutsNov 8, 2019

@abbenm I was watching a lecture called "There is No Algorithm for Truth" and the presenter mentioned the site off-hand and I immediately jumped into looking into it... Really loving this place so far!

Source - https://youtu.be/leX541Dr2rU

There is No Algorithm for Truth - with Tom Scott

YouTube
Show threadshirishNov 8, 2019
@abbenm what polygon article, link please ?
Show threadabbenNov 8, 2019
@shirishag75 my mistake, it was a The Verge article: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/4/15177856/mastodon-social-network-twitter-clone
Mastodon.social is an open-source Twitter competitor that’s growing like crazy

Attack of the clone

The Verge
Show threadshirishNov 9, 2019
@abbenm do you know why tumblr got down NSFW images, couldn't they have done something similar to what is done in mastodon or any of the .social networks ?
Show threadabbenNov 9, 2019

@shirishag75 Tumblr did it because the Apple app store was going to remove their app.

Tumblr decided to get rid of NSFW content in order to comply to Apple rules

Show threadabbenNov 9, 2019

@shirishag75 As far as whether they could do what is done on .social networks, do you mean tag things as NSFW and hide them from view?

Apparently that was not good enough for Apple.

Show threadshirishNov 9, 2019
@abbenm ah, ok now that makes sense.
Show threadParnikkaporeNov 9, 2019

@abbenm Ironically, I got on Masto first (probably a Verge article, can't remember the search term) *then* made a Birdsite account 

My birdsite account is "replies only" (for interaction with artists on there, and achieving the true purpose of social media as a self-curated newsletter) though.

Show threadabbenNov 9, 2019

@Parnikkapore yeah I mistakenly said Polygon when it was Verge.

I LIKE that order of operations though. Masto first, birdsite second. as it should be

Show threadParnikkaporeNov 9, 2019
@abbenm I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Polygon article on Mastodon though!
Show threadJohn ChidgeyNov 9, 2019
@abbenm @Erik It’s all steps helping momentum. Good list 👍🏻❤️
Show threadBen ZaninNov 9, 2019

@abbenm there was a bump when Twitter introduced their non-chronological timeline plans, before they admitted they would provide a toggle to turn it off¹. I created my account during that wave. Wish my reasons had been more interesting.

¹: kind of, not really, only temporarily

Show threadrosnovskyNov 10, 2019
@abbenm @extinct not sure if it was a big moment, but there were quite a few people leaving Facebook earlier this year... (I’m one of them)
Show threadAnkə 🌱Nov 10, 2019
@abbenm There was a big wave of people from Grazil who IIRC were angry about Twitter not allowing photos of celebrities as avatars, or something.
Show threadAnkə 🌱Nov 10, 2019
@abbenm BRAZIL, goshdarnit X(
Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ❌​Nov 10, 2019

@abbenm Some of that is covered here:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/10/mastodons-2-year-anniversary/

The Japanese influx was inspired by a major tech blogger in Japan who'd set up his own instance. I forget his name, may have been nullkal?

The G+ shutdown saw some folks move to Mastodon. #GooglePlus

There was the July-August 2018 migration from Twitter that brought, then hounded out, Wil Wheaton.

A few Generally Annoying Bunches who've tried to elbow in, largely rejected.

Mastodon's 2 Year Anniversary

Mastodon was first announced to the public through Hacker News, a link aggregator site for programmers, on October 6, 2016. Now we’re celebrating the 2 year anniversary! 🎉

Mastodon Blog
Show threadbhaugenNov 10, 2019
@abbenm
social.coop brought me and a few other people I know. Don't expect was as big an infusion as some of those other moments, and I also don't know where it fits chronologically, because I don't pay enuf attention. But would be interested to learn...
Show thread🪦Nov 10, 2019
@abbenm I also remember an influx of Spanish people.
Show threadclacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛Nov 17, 2019
@jeroenpraat @abbenm Before Mastodon days, maybe in 2015, there was a noticeable migration to quitter.es driven by some certain Spanish personality that had been suspended on Twitter, but it largely petered out as that person was reactivated on Twitter.
Show threadneville parkNov 10, 2019
@abbenm @vfrmedia I joined during a wave in November...2016? 2017? Just before Japan and China.
Show threadGadfly (-booq-)Nov 10, 2019

@abbenm A bit off on the beginning: I don't know if these three groups came in a specific order, but even before large communities-unto-themselves of programmers and FOSS people,
the initially community was early-adopters/people hacking on Mastodon itself, queer people, communists (okay other strains of leftism too), and furries.

For a bit there was a joke, "Welcome to Mastodon! Here is your fursuit and your copy of The Communist Manifesto".

There was also a wave of Spanish (and Portuguese?) from, various places in South America, I think?

Show threadabbenNov 10, 2019
@gaditb Thanks. I came a bit late, so I'm somewhat fuzzy on when FOSS arrived compared to LGBTQ+. I am gonna gather the feedback and do an updated post
Show threadlertsenemNov 10, 2019
@abbenm The japanese came after the LGBTQ+ communities iirc. There also was a French migration (for no real reason), with even a government-backed instance still living at https://mastodon.etalab.gouv.fr.
Mastodon - Etalab

Instance ouverte pour test et qui sera fermée le 1er septembre 2021 - lire les CGU Elle était ouverte à tout agent possédant un compte email en ".gouv.fr" et à ceux dont le nom de domaine figurait sur cette liste : https://forum.etalab.gouv.fr/t/mastodon-le-reseau-social-libre-et-decentralise-en-plein-decollage/3538

Show threadabbenNov 10, 2019

@lertsenem from the feedback I'm getting it's clear the french migration was a notable one that I've omitted.

Also I'm glad that now (finally), some people more informed than me are chiming in on this timeline. I was somewhat surprised that my top-of-the-head formulation was new/helpful info and that that history, such as I know of it, was *already* lost to such a wide swath of people here.

Show threadlertsenemNov 10, 2019

@abbenm From what I gathered, there is (was?) a tendency for each new Mastodon newcomers wave to erase the previous ones.

This seemed not to be the case for this last Indian wave, but the French one had a hard time noticing there were LGBTQ+ people here before them, that some more or less tacit rules existed, and that we needed to respect them (or get blocked).

This is kinda baked in Mastodon DNA since it's just part of a bigger whole : the Fediverse, with many other different softwares.

Show threadlertsenemNov 10, 2019
@abbenm (And we often speak of "Mastodon" while really meaning "the fediverse", which is more than just Mastodon users. Even just for microblogging, Pleroma or GNU Social are two projects that fill the same purpose but predate Mastodon. Mastodon is still the one that got the more exposure and made it something more than just a niche tool, though)
Show threadabbenNov 10, 2019
@lertsenem yeah. My intent was to kinda lump in GNU Social, Diaspora, etc as FOSS early adopters, although I'm fuzzy on exactly when they showed up and how large a population that was.
Show threadlertsenemNov 10, 2019
@abbenm I won't really be able to help you on that. I came here first in 2017, during the aforementioned Mastodon French wave, and don't know much about the fediverse state before that. :/
Show threadclacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛Nov 17, 2019
@abbenm @lertsenem If we are talking the whole Fediverse, the FOSS phase was 2008--2016, although the early part also had some refugees from places like Jaiku, who weren't necessarily interested in the license or decentralization, some just thought identi.ca offered a better UI than Twitter.
Show threadHolzfäller 🪓 TimmNov 10, 2019
@abbenm
I remember a move of German podcasting folks around August 2018. Could coincide with Twitter changes though.
Show threadNishanth MenonNov 10, 2019
@abbenm
G+ migration
Show threadHolly Hoppet Nov 10, 2019
@abbenm i mean, a lot of people who left tumblr during the nsfw policy change weren't necessarily nsfw blogs (including me). The filters were awful and blocking normal posts and the staff attitude about it was pretty bad.
Show threadabbenNov 10, 2019
@hoppet That's definitely true. I'm using a shorthand there. It was more accurately a tumblr mass migration at the time of the policy change. Point taken though. I want to do a revised version of this post where I rephrase things and re-organize the timeline a bit based on the info contributed by people more knowledgeable than myself.
Show threadHenry Edward HardyNov 10, 2019

@abbenm

There was a big Spanish (from Spain) influx at one point.

Show threadFiXato (fallback)Nov 10, 2019
@abbenm
I mostly came here due to #GooglePlus shutting down.
Show threadFrank AerrorNov 10, 2019
Google plus refugees maybe? (At least there was a big wave of them rolling in over diaspora.)
Show threadPootzNov 10, 2019
@abbenm
Is there a mastowiki yet?
Show threadabbenNov 10, 2019

@pootz I was linked to this very good wiki, which is a summary of significant servers and historical moments and other such explainers.

https://wiki.freedombone.net/view/welcome-visitors/view/a-peoples-history-of-the-fediverse

a peoples history of the fediverse

Show threadabbenNov 10, 2019
@pootz it's not like a wiki that explains how to use mastodon or the apis or anything like that though.