Chris KendallWhen I moved here from Twitter in November last year, four things were key to keeping me here: (1) following decent accounts to keep my timeline worth checking, (2) finding the right client to keep the experience high quality (in my case @ivory), (3) building new muscle memory (ie getting used to and accepting the differences), and (4) flat refusing to give Musk my custom. (1/2)
The single biggest obstacle to keeping me here was the absence of certain people I followed on Twitter and who hadn’t crossed over, or who had but then didn’t stick around. Ultimately, my reasons for staying outweighed the reasons to go back, and the more of you who come, stay, and participate, the more that equation tilts in favour of staying as part of this (imo) fundamentally better platform. (2/2)
In case I’m not making myself clear here, please don’t come (back) here and complain about the content (or lack of it). WE ARE the content. YOU are the content. Be the Mastodon you want Mastodon to be.
As usual at this point in the cycle, 90% of Mastodon content is a navel-gazing circle jerk (this thread included) but that will settle.
One more… We really *need* this to work. It is worth investing time and effort and patience in this platform. Our experience over at Twitter showed us how important and useful a ‘global town hall’ 🤢 is but also how we can’t afford to leave it in the hands of individuals. The #Fediverse is a genuine global commons. If we believe in public ownership of essential utilities then we have to make this work. And it’s easy: all that’s required is for us to turn up and use it.
Usually we’re sat here on Mastodon saying these things to each other, preaching to the converted, while the people who need to hear it are back on Twitter. Which is why normally I don’t bother. But here’s a rare opportunity to get that message in front of the right people.
Raccoon🇺🇸🏳️🌈@ottocrat
I think there is a piece missing from your model here.
I've been on Mastodon for years, and there was plenty of content on here that had nothing to do with the migration before November 2022, just with less volume, obviously. Even after the migration, the people who are here to talk about things other than social media are still talking, it's just if you fill your feed with people you knew from Twitter, people who are part of that migration, that's what they're going to be talking about. This happens in waves as Elon keeps doing stupid things that make people come here from there, which is good, because people coming here and people discussing the billionaire problem is good, but there is more to see.
Whenever I see someone say that there isn't content here, I explain to them how their feed is populated, suggest they start searching for things they like, then follow the people/hashtags with that content. That populates the feed with something other than Twitter.