David GravanitaApr 7, 2017

Also: am I the only one who interpreted the closing down of the flagship mastodon.social instance from sign ups as near treasonous to the platform's future? It creates confusion, makes the process of acquiring users more difficult, and makes the core product worse because of the issues that stem from federating between instances.

Yes, maybe it'll be good for the federated network, you never want a single instance to dominate, but the federation's interests are not the same as the networks'

Show threadMastodon's residential Drunk ✅
@dgdas9 we just have to accept some people aren't bright and won't figure it out by looking at it. And that's okay
Apr 7, 2017 at 5:02pmWeb
Show threadDavid GravanitaApr 7, 2017
@JThorne Why do you think every social network makes painfully easy to sign up? It's more difficult than you think to gain an audience, and a social network is only successful it can create a big and/or dedicated audience (preferably and, not or). Any step that makes sign ups more difficult or confusing will necessarily result in less users, which because of network effects means a worse platform for all of us.
Show threadDavid GravanitaApr 7, 2017
@JThorne It's also not that people 'aren't bright' and 'won't figure it out'. People just aren't as obsessed about the same things, and won't put effort into things they're not interested in.
Show threadMastodon's residential Drunk ✅Apr 7, 2017
@dgdas9 exactly. This platform currently isn't for everyone. And that's okay. Eventually it'll grow in terms of usability but it's only been popular for like 4 days now
Show threadDavid GravanitaApr 7, 2017
@JThorne Very few communities survive with few users. A social network's primary function is to help you connect with others, something you can only do if there are others to connect with. And it just so happens that our relationship graph is not a circle, people have different friends with different interests. Network effects: a network survives and thrives if there are lots of users, as many as possible. That's why you try to appeal to as many users as possible, to everyone.
Show threadDavid GravanitaApr 7, 2017

Other social platforms may survive with smaller audiences for another reason though: because they are dedicated to a small and limited issue that draws people in.

That is not the case with mastodon. This is a general purpose networking site. Unless there's a shift towards a specific issue in the near future, which I doubt, the network will either gain enough users to be successful, or die off as almost every other social network before it, @JThorne

Show threadMastodon's residential Drunk ✅Apr 7, 2017

@dgdas9 on the instance im on, there's over 2000 people. across mastodon its probably getting close to 100k. You are using Mastodon wrong if you can't find people to talk to about your interests. for example, we are having a conversation right now about our interest(being mastodon).

Mastodon is not your run of the mill social network. and that's okay. and once again, it's literally been popular for 4 days and its open source. give it time. features will come

Show threadMastodon's residential Drunk ✅Apr 7, 2017

@dgdas9 to add to my example: last night i had conversations with people about rap music, classical music, and being drunk. they were across instances, adn most of them were people i had not interacted with since joining a few days back.

it's not a big social network. but it isn't small either. and you can literally talk about any topic. or if you want, create an instance for a topic. or use hashtags.

Show threadMastodon's residential Drunk ✅Apr 7, 2017
@dgdas9 the problem is it is a fairly complex system for the general user to grasp at first. And that's okay. It's not entirely meant for them. Yes devs could make it less complex but then it doesn't necessarily stand out as much to the people who actually care.