Maria BustillosAug 31, 2023

If you're wondering why there are so few news stories about the rise of #Mastodon, it's because nobody is getting paid to game the media about it.

There's no publicists, no cozy ad deals, no suits, no coercion: Nobody is getting rich off of Mastodon

... that's also why it's so enlightening and fun to participate here

Show threadBenjamin Leis ✅Aug 31, 2023
@maria I think the other issue is mastodon usership isn't growing and so it's a niche news item.
Show threadMaria BustillosAug 31, 2023

@benleis

Not growing?!

(also: Twitter itself had a very chaotic rise fall crash rise etc. to its eventual prominence)

https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/24/as-twitter-destroys-its-brand-by-renaming-itself-x-mastodon-usage-numbers-are-again-soaring/

TechCrunch is part of the Yahoo family of brands

Show threadBenjamin Leis ✅Aug 31, 2023
@maria yeah the MAU has been declining from 2.1m down to just under 1.8m since midsummer
Show threadBenjamin Leis ✅
@maria IMO there needs to be growth past the prev high of 2.6m or at least a consistent pattern of organic growth not just driven by Twitter that then fades away before things become really "newsworthy"
Aug 31, 2023 at 7:26pmWeb
Show threadMaria BustillosAug 31, 2023

@benleis

Maybe, but the numbers don't matter to me .00001% as much as the quality and depth of engagement

Just like Twitter was only ever a fraction of the size of Facebook, yet its influence on global public opinion was far greater

Show threadBenjamin Leis ✅Aug 31, 2023
@maria I don't disagree on that score. I'm happy here but the health of the network does drive news. And long term I want more people here. The network is good but could be much richer if say we reached 10m.
Show threadMaria BustillosAug 31, 2023

@benleis

I think it's gonna happen, just not all at once