I've had 20 sign ups to my Mastodon server in the past 48 hours, and 100% of them have been scammers, phishers and SEO spammers.
I make an effort to go in and suspend the accounts, nobody ever protests the suspension.
The fediverse is at a crossroads, the user base is dwindling and the new users are mostly just SEO spam accounts.
It's working, Jerry. My experience here has been really good (caveat: I mostly lurk)
As someone who's had accounts on and off for about 7 years, I think that may be confirmation bias
What I noticed instead is that in the early days when you followed someone they mostly followed you back. You posted a funny comment people followed. In no time you were part of a little online community and It was pretty easy to have a decent social experience (if you liked linux and pictures of cats, at any rate)
Now everyone seems to have settled down. Nobody follows you back if you follow them. Nobody chats to strangers. My last couple of accounts I came, posted some links, nothing happened, I got bored, I deleted the account. I am not sure what accounts you saw, but they might have been legit accounts who went through the same experience
@gotofritz @GossiTheDog @jerry "if you liked linux and pictures of cats, at any rate" - that made me laugh ☺️
I think it's a lack of marketing. People don't understand and are stuck in inertia.
- algorithm = the general public do not understand what that means or why it's bad.
- bluesky owners - same, they don't see it materially affect their experience, the people who don't move, so inertia means they stay.
Interaction - lots of people are lurkers, and here, if you don't interact, it's boring
Kevin Beaumont
Jerry 🦙💝🦙
James Tinmouth
WinterKnight 
Brian Bender
Claus Cramon Houmann
gotofritz
Joy_intl
maswan
Lorien Brownie