Mastodawn

Randahl Fink Aug 3, 2024

On all the Mastodon statistics sites, Mastodon is bleeding active users.

Examples:

Picture 1: https://mastodon.fediverse.observer/stats

Picture 2: https://fedidb.org/software/mastodon

I suspect this is due to Mark Zuckerberg embracing the ideas of the Fediverse and giving every Instagram user a Threads account that he controls.

Mastodon performs better, is more open, has better app choice, and will never have ads. Threads has critical mass.

The world will be far better if Mastodon wins, but right now Mastodon is losing.

Fediverse Observer checks all sites in the fediverse and gives you an easy way to find a home from a map or list or automatically.

Mastodon Sites Status. Find a Mastodon server to sign up for, find one close to you!

Show thread

Johan Paul Aug 3, 2024

@randahl Mastodon has also some serious issues. Like depending on the instance, you may or may not see all the replies to a thread.

That's a massive oversight.

Show thread

Randahl Fink Aug 3, 2024

@kypeli if you are on a malfunctioning instance, why do you not switch?

I am on the main instance and it has become rock solid.

Show thread

Johan Paul Aug 3, 2024

@randahl Is my own instance malfunctioning you think?

It's just how the ActivityPub protocol works as it cannot know all the other instances in the fediverse.

Show thread

Johan Paul Aug 3, 2024

@randahl And what you are saying about being on the main instance is basically that the federated nature of the Fediverse does not work and we have to move to main instances.

So we are back to Twitter and Threads.

Show thread

naught101 Aug 3, 2024

@kypeli @randahl

I think it's a bit more nuanced than that. It's that federation doesn't work well below some critical inter-server interaction threshold. So single-user instances are probably always going to struggle, but small-medium instances from 30 to a few hundred active users should work reasonably well.

Show thread

Johan Paul

@naught101 @randahl Yep, you are probably right. That's the nature of disturbed systems. The whole "run your own instance" doesn't work in practice though.

Larger or the main instances are a better option for the users.

But I'd still argue that this is a critical flaw in how the Fediverse works. As your experience depends on where you are. This is not an issue on single instance services (well they have multiple servers in the backend) like Threads.