Now @gruber may say, "Mastodon is the 800 lb. gorilla in the Fediverse ecosystem."

Maybe, but it's nowhere near as dominant as many believe.

According to fediverse.oberserver, there are 21,723 Fediverse instances -- of which there are 11,944 instances.

That means there are 9,779 instances that are *not* Mastodon.

By ignoring all those non-Mastodon instances, 3rd party client devs are ignoring a huge amount of potential in the Fediverse.

Further, devs like @gruber over-estimate the dominance of Mastodon.

Certainly, in terms of the Fediverse, Mastodon is huge.

But PeerTube and Pixelfed are nothing to sneeze at either.

PeerTube has 306,337 users. That's not as many as Mastodon.

But PeerTube's userbase isn't anything to sneeze at either.

What's more, just like Mastodon, PeerTube could grow. Especially if a black swan event happens with YouTube -- which is feasible!

Another thing @gruber perhaps doesn't consider is that Mastodon isn't the only Fediverse platform that's growing.

Pixelfed more than doubled it's userbase during the past year.

* Feb 2022: 73,100 users
* Feb 2023: 153,486 users

This is despite the fact that there was no Instagram migration!

So why are so many mobile devs just ignoring Pixelfed?

Here's a chart that shows the growth of Pixelfed over the past year.

A further consideration for @gruber: Mastodon's dominance of the Fediverse is unlikely to last forever.

Tumblr is joining. So is Flickr. Post even said they will be integrating ActivityPub.

How well will these apps be playing with the rest of the Fediverse? I don't know.

But the argument that Mastodon should be the primary consideration because it is the largest won't even be true in 2023.

Here's a dose of sobriety for everyone who thinks "Fediverse = Mastodon".

Last I checked 44% of the web runs on WordPress.

What happens if even a fraction of these websites install the ActivityPub plug-in?

Suddenly, WordPress becomes the dominant Fediverse platform.

People aren't even considering future black swan events with Big Social.

What if TikTok gets banned? What if Google shuts down YouTube? What if Meta so royally screws up Instagram that users suddenly leave?

I hesitate to even call these "black swan" events because they're actually more likely than not.

Well, if these events happen, more people will migrate to the Fediverse.

But this time, they probably won't be using Mastodon.

Now again, let's consider why Fedilab is the best mobile app for Mastodon:

1. It is open
2. It does not suffer from myopia
3. It considers future possibilities
4. It integrates different Fediverse platforms in one way the celebrates federation itself
5. It does this all in an intuitive manner

A challenge for iOS-centric devs who follow @gruber: build an iOS app like Fedilab.

Again, for people who don't understand the problem: consider the purpose of the Fediverse.

It is based on open protocols -- much like the web.

It has server implementations -- much like the web.

It *should* have general clients -- and that's where the wheels kind of fall off.

@atomicpoet man I'm sorry to keep arguing with you but *why*? Why do I need one app that does a compromised job at everything instead of specialized apps that exactly fit the task at hand?

Consider IG. One of its STRENGTHS is that it's so awful as a discussion platform. It would be AWFUL if someone slapped a Twitter style front end on IG and now everyone is using it to fight about politics. Imagine if Spotify had Twitter style discussion bolted onto it?

App diversity *is decentralization.*

@kellumdander I disagree that Instagram is good. In fact, it's a dumpster fire.

Consider what you can't do on Instagram:

1. Send a hyperlink in your post
2. Upload a picture from a desktop computer
3. Opt out of ads

Instagram is the very worst of walled garden centralized social media. It is not worth emulating in any sense or form.

The Fediverse, by contrast, is the anti-Instagram. Mastodon talks to Pixelfed which talks to PeerTube which talks to Lemmy.

@atomicpoet @kellumdander

There's a primary distinction that's missing here: an "insta" isn't the same thing as a “personal photo” isn't the same as a "selfie" isn't the same as a "portrait", even when it might come from the same set of bytes.

It's up to client software to present to users the data in ways that are semantically appropriate and expected, and up to the back end to know when those things are the same.

@godofbiscuits @kellumdander Is it? That’s been a common complaint about old school Instagram users for awhile. Many of them left the platform because it went from being about the art of photography to being about expressing aspiration.

One reason I run my own Pixelfed instance is because it gives me freedom that Instagram lacks.