Mastodawn

Hynek Schlawack Jul 6, 2023

Threads hot takes:

- given it’s jankiness & current size, absolutely nobody will care about Bsky in 6 months.
- if we get federation with Threads (big if), it’s the best thing we can hope for social network-wise. Being able to follow normies on our terms!? Yes, please!? It might actually bring users in that hate Threads’ interface.
- Threads has apparently ~5x users after being live for 1 day & Mastodon active users are languishing at best: https://mastodon-analytics.com/ This isn’t even a competition.

Mastodon Analytics

How many users, active users, servers are on Mastodon?

Mastodon Analytics

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zsol Jul 6, 2023

@hynek imo the big if is not if we will get federation for Threads. The question is if it will stay federated for the long run

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Hynek Schlawack Jul 6, 2023

@zsol my understanding is that federation takes some regulation heat off their backs, so I suspect they’ll keep federating but will be obnoxious about it. Like only offering certain features thru federation. Maybe media has to be clicked thru to see it etc

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Florimond Manca (en)Jul 7, 2023

@hynek @zsol I’m very concerned about an Embrace extend extinguish pathway.

Like, they federate first, then add some (perhaps very neat) functionality that normies will hop onto. Then boom, us techies can’t interact with normies anymore until Mastodon implements that functionality, until when we get told « but why aren’t you on Threads ».

The entity with the biggest network would have the power to shape the usage as they please. i don’t see how Meta can’t win that fight.

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zsol

@florimond @hynek few questions: how many normies are using mastodon now? Why does federation matter (if meta wants to add a killer feature, wouldn't people flock over anyway?)? Do you think the ~1 million active mastodon users matter this much to Meta?