Mastodawn

Cam Nov 18, 2022

UPDATE: As of this morning there are now more than 7 million Mastodon users, most from the #TwitterMigration.

In fact, 100,000 new accounts have been created since last night.

Since last night's spike 8,000-12,000 new accounts are being created every hour.

Yesterday, I estimated that Mastodon would have 8 million users by the end of the week. That might happen a lot sooner if this trend continues.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

By the way, if you're wondering why I'm posting from this account rather than my usual mastodon.social account, it's because mastodon.social is about to give up the ghost -- and as I told all you, it's best to have a back-up account and self-host if you're able.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

If you want perspective on how bad Twitter's collapse is, the Guardian is urging users to back up and archive all their tweets. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/17/twitter-archive-tweets-company-shuts

Users urged to archive tweets amid rumors of Twitter implosion

People are wondering what parts of their online selves, loved ones and favorite celebrities to save in case the bird goes belly up

The Guardian

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

It's hilarious that the Atlantic are trying *really* hard to understand why Elon Musk is destroying Twitter, as though there's some grand logic that makes this all make sense. There's no Big Brain Master Plan happening here. It's just a guy making impulsive decisions. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/elon-musk-twitter-advertising/672156/

Why Elon Musk Is Blowing Up Twitter’s Business

The new owner says he hates advertising. That’s a problem because it provides 90 percent of his social-media platform’s revenue.

The Atlantic

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

Bloomberg are now reporting that Volkwagen has joined the #TwitterMigration. Can't read the entire article because it's pay-walled, but they're reporting it.

I don't know what instance they're running, but if it's one that run by a volunteer, they better be donating! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-18/volkswagen-joins-mastodon-as-concerns-over-twitter-mount

Volkswagen Joins Mastodon as Concerns Over Twitter Mount

Volkswagen AG has set up accounts on fast-growing Twitter Inc. alternative Mastodon amid questions over the future of the social network under Elon Musk.

Bloomberg

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

CNN is mourning Twitter's death as "the world's digital public square", and wonders what happens next.

I'll tell you.

We make another public square that's based on open protocols and *not* owned by a single corporation. That means that everyone familiarizes themselves with this big collective thing known as the Fediverse, and we start re-making the very *meaning* of a public square. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/tech/what-if-twitter-dies/index.html

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

The BBC is really asking, "Is this really the end of Twitter?"

Yes, it is: not as a going corporate concern, but as a cultural concern.

And once a social media culture dies, it's as good as dead -- it will never recover. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63675849

Is this really the end of Twitter?

The BBC's technology editor looks at claims that Twitter may be heading for calamity.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

Elon Musk is trying to do damage control on #RIPTwitter by claiming "We hit an all time high!!!"

Well, you know what else just hit an all-time-high? The Fediverse: 1 million new accounts on Mastodon alone! https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/18/elon-musk-twitter-all-time-high-shutdown-panic/

Elon Musk Says Twitter Hit All-Time High During Shutdown Panic

While millions online saw Twitter as a sinking ship amid reportedly hundreds of employees quitting, Elon Musk claimed the company saw an all-time high in usage.

TMZ

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

Let's say Elon Musk is right about Twitter usage being at an all time high.

How is it at an all-time-high?

If millions of people are rushing to download their Twitter archive because they believe the service will be gone soon, yeah, Twitter usage is at an all time high.

Adam Dalliance Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet If everyone tries to take their money out of the bank at once there is a run on the bank.

If everyone tries to take their data out of Twitter at once, you get a run on the data-banks and overwhelm the servers. Maybe.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@pre Lehman Bros. in 2008: "Bank usage is at an all time high!!!"

Liam ✄Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet it’s comedy… sad comedy, but comedy all the same…

Wendy MsGator 🐊Nov 19, 2022

It's at an all time high because nobody wants to have the ship go down in their absence.

ParadisFraise Nov 18, 2022

The majority of tweets are used to make fun of Elon Musk, to talk about Mastodon, to bet on the date of the next outage on Twitter.

Adam Ierymenko Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet I personally don't care about quantity, just quality. This place may never get as big as Twitter and that's okay.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@adamierymenko I mean, based on current trends, I have a feeling it's soon going to give Twitter a run for its money.

Adam Ierymenko Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet If Trump is unbanned prepare for a huge influx. Should maybe warn Hetzner, OVH, DataPacket, Vultr, and Digital Ocean since lots of these seem to live on those hosts.

LPS Nov 18, 2022

Jan-Theo Wassink Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet As for the "all time high" : might he be referring to the proverbial ice berg?

Atoz 🍁Nov 19, 2022

@atomicpoet How long do you think it took him to find a way to work in that "sink" pun?

Linnèa ✨ Library Monster Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet YAAAAASSSSSSSSSSẞSSSSSSS

gaycarboys Nov 19, 2022

@atomicpoet absolutely right

@atomicpoet They aren't running a server, they registered accounts on mastodon.social. Somehow (I thought it had closed registrations). Perhaps someone invited them.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@Rairii What's their handle?

@atomicpoet see https://infosec.exchange/@Rairii/109365908096480067

Adam Dalliance Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet @Rairii

0 Following - 0 Posts

https://mastodon.social/@VWGroup

Not sure I'd call that joined exactly. Or maybe they are on a different instance.

Talon Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet quick grab vw.social before they do

Wonky Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet @MM0INH How did you "unpaywall"?

wgoodf-Nov 18, 2022

@wonky @atomicpoet wayback machine.
Doesn't always work. But often enough to try.
Works best on things that have been up a day or so.

wgoodf-Nov 18, 2022

@wonky @atomicpoet also a different service called 12 foot ladder.
I don't get that to work as often, but also worth a go.

Rachel Maria Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Hell yes they should be donating.

藤井太洋, Taiyo Fujii Nov 18, 2022

You can read whole on there, and will find @VWGroup and @cariad_tech

https://www.larepublica.co/globoeconomia/volkswagen-se-une-a-mastodon-ante-la-preocupacion-por-el-aumento-de-twitter-3491450

Volkswagen se une a Mastodon ante la preocupación por el aumento de Twitter

La compañía se encuentra entre varias de las principales marcas de automóviles que han detenido la publicidad en Twitter luego de la compra de la plataform...

Diario La República

Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet it looks like they've tried creating accounts on mastodon.social before and then abandoned/forgot about them, or laid off the staff who were looking after them, which is about par for VW's social media marketing efforts (they keep emailing me to try and sell me cars that are unobtanium my country )

Maybe if Eugen suddenly starts driving around in an ID3 we will know its a legit sponsorship deal 😁

gdchill Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet I'm not sure, but it could be this account @VWGroup

They should better donate a lot!

Greg Ackerman 🎶✨Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Article didn't say where to find the new Mastodon VW accounts.

Thanks for sharing Chris 🙏

Compuguy, Friend of Kittehs Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet
Here's a link to the full article: https://archive.ph/Z7oqh

archive.ph

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@compuguy Looks like Bloomberg is so unfamiliar with Mastodon that they don't even know that handles also require domain names.

Compuguy, Friend of Kittehs Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet
True, though it looks like the account is on mastadon.social....

Kent Brewster Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet interested to see what will happen when somebody like Nike realizes that it can't file a single trademark infringement notice and get all the fake accounts taken down....

hojomo Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Perhaps you should get off your high horse & find out first?

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@hojomo Thanks, but I think I'll stay perched on this high horse. We know they're using mastodon.social.

hojomo Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet So now you're telling everyone to start paying! Sounds a bit #Elon to me.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@hojomo I'm telling people to donate if they have the means to do it. And if you don't want to do it but still have the means, self-host.

Kristoffer 🍄Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Personally, I will defederate any instance which allows megacorps to create marketing accounts.

Arden (she/her)Nov 19, 2022

@atomicpoet at this point I think it was inevitable. I don’t think mastodon.social is the place for it but more corporations will certainly move.

Michele Nov 19, 2022

@atomicpoet I signed up with an extra email address for "one free article". It doesn't actually say, but when I searched for the name, it's on mastodon.social

bravo0123 Nov 19, 2022

@atomicpoet @vwgroup

acm Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet can't get a backup anymore. maybe that involved staff?

Matthijs De Smedt Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet I believe these big servers really should be hard capping the number of users they support. There's thousands of servers on Fedi. Let's use them effectively instead of dogpiling on just a few because they are popular.

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@anji Exactly.

Richard Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Are you reporting news on something that has been announced abou mastodon.social, or just making a technical prediction based on heavy traffic?

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@richard_merren No announcement or prediction needed. There's really bad performance issues going on right now. It takes a *long* time to send out a post. Sometimes they don't post at all. Images and GIFs have a hard time attaching.

But you know what doesn't have these problems? My own self-hosted instance.

Richard Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Just making sure I didn't miss some kind of announcement. I'm getting a little slowdown, but not too bad.

Vincent Cloutier Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Can you migrate your followers to this account to shed some load from mastodon.social? We really need every fediverse user helping out right now

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@vincent I can't migrate followers. However, I'm posting from this account, and people now know it exists.

acm Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet is .social just overwhelmed with immigrants from birdsite, or was it on its way out already?

Harold Asmis Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet Great, I think roaming identities could solve the problem of instance isolation. They could fill the role of tinkers and traders with the old feudal towns.

BobG Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet it's great to hear that mastodon is expanding but is this going to lead to all the shortcomings of twitter arguments being imported ?

Chris Trottier Nov 18, 2022

@BobG I don't know -- but it's within your power to shape a Mastodon experience to your liking!

Cllr Math Campbell-Sturgess Nov 18, 2022

@atomicpoet wow. Have you got data stats showing this chart from, say beginning of the year? The rise is clear from that but would love to see it from start of 2022! Suspect it would look rather vertical in nature.

Ian Martin Nov 18, 2022

Congratulations to everyone involved in such a tremendous effort to assimilate so many new accounts in such a short time.

All with barely a visible ripple in the running of the platform

A extraordinary achievement - thank you 😍