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.
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
I find in these discussions mastodonians often focus on the wrong things - "onboarding" and "The Algorithm" being the two most glaring examples.
There is nothing wrong with having an algorithm. For example I hate seeing pictures of pets and I love music, if there was an algorithm that tweaked the feed automatically in that direction there'd be absolutely nothing wrong.
The problem on most socials is that you go in and get posts by Andrew Tate pushed in your face. The issue is not The Algorithm, the problem is why is Andrew Tate allowed on the platform in the first place and why when his posts are flagged by users they are not removed. It's the moderation (or lack thereof), not The Algorithm
I'd argue mastodon needs _more_ algorithms, not less
Disagree.
1. assumes everyone tags their pictures of cats (they don't). And that everyone uses the tags '#cats' (they don't, some use '#catsOfMastodon' etc). And that everyone uses the same spelling (#neighbor vs #neighbour) and that everyone tags in English (do I really have to create filter for #cats #cat #gatto #gatti #katze #chatte ...)
Who's got the time for that?
2. Becuse of the above, yes, it's really better to have a machine suggest what I want to see (as long as they don't _impose_ that as the only option). They have access to synonims, trends, alternative spelling, false friends, etc in a way I simply haven't got the time or the inclination for
Personally I prefer having too many posts related to something I liked once (which eventually will stop) than having too many posts related to something (fucking cats) which I disliked every. flipping. day. but cannot stop
Kevin Beaumont
Jerry 🦙💝🦙
gotofritz
Joy_intl
Strfnurfn