Dan GillmorNov 20, 2023

The self-verification system built into Mastodon should be one of its greatest selling points. This is especially true for journalists and everyone else for whom evidence of identity has huge value in the social media realm.

But anecdotally -- and I would wager for real -- most people in the craft, even a lot of technically adept folks, don't seem to know how easy self-verification can be here.

If you are trying to persuade a journalist you know to join up, please highlight this feature.

Show threadShoq 🌿
@dangillmor I stand by my still untested theory that if we can just identify or create an activity, mission or tool here that they are compelled to participate in or with, and which they cannot get over there, a migration might be much more organic and less contentious than it is now. I have one such an activity in mind, but I think there must be many more to be thought of out there.
Nov 20, 2023 at 11:47pmSidetoolz
Show threadJim VernonNov 21, 2023
@shoq @dangillmor I think it's mostly a matter of numbers. If there were 140 million Mastodon users instead of 14 million, more folk would make the switch. People generally want to be wherever other people are.
Show threadDan GillmorNov 22, 2023
@jimvernon I have slightly more than half of the followers I had at Twitter, and (conservatively) 10x the genuine engagement here. @shoq
Show threadShoq 🌿Nov 22, 2023
@dangillmor @jimvernon I have the same experience. And even if the numbers weren’t there, the quality is far better. But I really don’t think quality of engagement matters to brands trying to keep their audience. I doubt we’ll ever compete on numbers, but we can on activities. Open APIs could/should give rise to indigenous products, services and collaborative repos that many journalists would then depend on, and which would only be found and accessed here.