Kate PicklerMay 6, 2023
Mike McCue

The only feature that matters for any social media experience is the people who are on it. I'm amazed at how many technology leaders forget this and get distracted by the underlying tech, protocols, features, etc.

Elon is a great example. He thinks he bought a platform. But what he really bought was a community. And of the two, the community has degraded far more than the platform.

May 6, 2023 at 4:26amWeb
Show threadch0ccyra1n is leaving fedi soonMay 6, 2023
@mike
Speaking from personal experience, it's much harder to build a community, especially from scratch
Show threadmaegulMay 6, 2023
@ch0ccyra1n @mike For sure. Community building is the hardest, and sometimes, there isn’t anything you can do, sometimes your best attempts won’t change that the essential ingredients of a community are simply missing.
Show threadMarie 🇸🇪May 6, 2023
@ch0ccyra1n @mike it certainly is, although in Musk’s case he bought a community & instead of building it further he’s managed to dismantle it unfortunately.
Show threadSasha FoxMay 6, 2023
@mike Yeah, definitely. And as soon as Bluesky opens up to everyone I feel like Twitter is really going to empty out. The people who want another Twitter will go to Bluesky, and the people who don't but didn't want to leave Twitter while people were still there will head over here.
Show threadMike McCueMay 6, 2023

@sashafox I agree with you.

The cool thing is that whether they flee to Bluesky or Mastodon, all these people are about to join a federated social media platform which, once there's a bridge between AT and #ActivityPub, will make it possible to follow folks on Bluesky just like we can follow others on PixelFed or Friendica.

Show threadSasha FoxMay 6, 2023
@mike Yeah, I'm excited for it.
Show threadChris GlassMay 6, 2023
@sashafox @mike The difference is this time around, I have a hunch, the tech will bridge the gap between the two.
It's going to end up like eDonkey and eMule if you remember that network split.
Show threadMike FraserMay 6, 2023
@sashafox @mike My prediction is BlueSky will open too soon and it will break under the weight of moderation issues. You could see backflow to both Twitter and the fediverse.
Show threadShawn in MontrealMay 6, 2023
@mike Surely Jack realizes they'll need a block button before they open it up?
Show threadMike FraserMay 6, 2023
@shawngoldwater Yes they surely will but a block button isn't moderation. They think they can moderate with algorithms when every other monolithic social media, platform sags and sometimes breaks under moderation issues. The fediverse with distributed moderation, although not perfect is best equipped for this.
Show threadBarneyRCN🇨🇦⚓️🎓May 6, 2023
@mike Interesting take!
Show threadGabriele PollaraMay 6, 2023
@mike Agree totally, in fact I said a v similar thing to someone yesterday 👇. It's the people and content that really matter far more than the tech, features etc... as long as they have basic functionality
https://med-mastodon.com/@gpollara/110315342947064534
Gabriele Pollara (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] Elk is great. Quite how fun a platform is surely is far more dependent on the people or content. As long as you can more or less follow people, read their messages and post / reply, then the rest is down to what's on the platform, personally. Personally, serious / interesting discussions > frivolous fun stuff, but maybe i'm boring!

Med-Mastodon
Show threadRufus J. CooterMay 6, 2023
@mike I think this ~85% true! Further, the remaining ~15% is something of a chicken/egg problem, where there are large swathes of people who won't get on a social network that lacks certain features. (For example, I'd say that having a "Block" button is a necessary, but insufficient, feature of any social network...)
Show threadMike McCueMay 6, 2023
@RufusJCooter Well said. The features and tech are in service to enabling the community.
Show threadHaily MerryMay 6, 2023
@mike Agreed, although the tech has degraded a fair bit as well. Just look at what he did to the API, not to mention laying off the accessibility team.
Show threadMike McCueMay 6, 2023
@haily very true. It's a huge self reinforcing downward spiral.
Show threadＬＡＵＲＥＮ May 6, 2023
@mike
He had a solid hand in the degradation of that community.
Show threadMike FraserMay 6, 2023
@mike That's why I've thrown most of my effort into community building as opposed to pouring over performance metrics, etc. We suffer from being a regional instance so we don't get huge user inflows but our interactions are steadily and consistently rising which is my key metric.
Show threadAndii אַנדִֽיMay 6, 2023
@mike This is an insightful thing to notice. Thank you for sharing it. I'm really intrigued to think through the implications further.
Show threadnewsorpigalMay 6, 2023

@mike

It does not matter if people keep using Twitter. And it looks like people are still using Twitter and there isn't a major drop in active users. This is sad.

Show threadMarcio LM May 6, 2023

@mike Every time the "community" is not a community at all, cause of every person in there is a kind of a means to an end for microssegmentation campaigns, and not an end in itself.

Maybe in Mastodon it will be possible to return to this principle of the people as an end in itself.

Show threadAlexander RutholMay 6, 2023

@mike
It almost seems as if he's intentionally driving people off.

My inner conspiracy theorist wonders if he's intentionally driving them to his buddy Jack's everything-app Bluesky.

Show threadmicroveldtMay 6, 2023
@mike Boom!
Show threadLisa HamiltonMay 6, 2023
@mike The cruelty is the point
Show threadJon MichaelsMay 6, 2023

@mike @chockenberry Now let’s be fair…

He’s managed to make sure the platform has degraded QUITE a bit.

Show threadSFborn1940May 6, 2023
@mike Amen! Excellent perspective.
Show threadVint ProxMay 6, 2023

@mike

It is funny, because if you get to the nitty-gritty, the degradation may be split evenly between the community and platform.

Show threadmsgbiMay 6, 2023
@mike @charles_ex
Show threadJessamynMay 6, 2023
@mike And most of the platform degradation was just bad choices that he personally made,
Show threadArindam BasuMay 6, 2023
@mike
💯 with you!

This is the isue with #Mastodon driven instances. The software is robust, but many sys admins are illiterate about the "social" constructs of what makes a networking stick, being geeks. Second, a lot of people who started with Mastodon in the first place claim they came here because they were 'mistreated' by others in twitter and Facebook for various reasons, they came up with peculiar provisions of no quote tweet, blocking people at the drop of a hat, rude words (like 'content warnings', why warning?). Besides, I avoid using Mastodon instances if I can because of most posters are very rude and hostile. On the other hand, most non-Mastodon instances have a relatively relaxed environment, and instances driven by #Misskey for example, are designed to be fun to hang out with. No wonder #Calckey ended up being a nice, friendly place to post ideas.

Then #twitter under Musk is another level of purgatory!
Show threadCurmudgeonMay 6, 2023
@mike still upset about active acquiring and destroying coolrunning. It was only 16 years ago.
Show threadJCMcHammyMay 7, 2023
@mike Close call, though... the platform seems to be right royally screwed, too...
Show threadCoach Pāṇini ®May 8, 2023
@mike A community whose mouth waters at the opportunity to own the site’s Main Character™ of the day
Show threadmtchllMay 9, 2023
@mike I was saying this the others day too. IF/when Elon arrives at his X destination, it will not mark his genius or success. To get there, he will have destroyed a socially important platform that could/should have been significant for decades to come. Destroyed it with ignorance, not intelligence.
Show threadJanetteSpeyerMay 12, 2023
@mike yes and thanks for noticing!!!