Mastodon is financed by crowdfunding instead of venture capital not because we don't know that venture capital exists, not because we don't have bills to pay, and not because venture capital isn't willing to give money to new social media platforms. VCs don't want a sustainable business, they want a big exit. Every VC-backed business is on a timer to deliver or die.
Mastodon will thrive when you make it interoperable with another social networks such as Bluesky.social or Diaspora.
@[email protected] I am writing this from mastodon, so I guess it interoperates. But minimally, it could be argued.
I have an account on floss.social so I'll test it when I get a chance, thanks for confirming this.

FLOSS.social
FLOSS.social

For people who care about, support, and build Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS).

Mastodon hosted on floss.social
@[email protected] You know, I tried bsky too. In the end, I find that good Mastodon apps are delivering content more focused in my interests with zero shade seeking, rage bait, etc. Now I contacted some people at bsky asking them to bridge. After all is just following a profile. Some scientists stayed there, but good discussions in my area disappeared both there and on X, unfortunately. Happy here.