I encourage anyone to try LARPING as a potential mastodon user who has experience with other social media but not Mastodon. For example, let's say they're a new user that likes reading books and wants to find posts about books. Or sports. Or anything. Mastodon tells such a user at multiple checkpoints that it's closed to them or that it's a ghost town and no one here is discussing such things.

@taylorlorenz Perhaps nothing needs to be changed and Mastodon's strength lies precisely in its decentralised nature and the abundance of choice it offers. As the saying goes, good wine needs no bush.

@taylorlorenz I just joined and I have no idea what I’m doing. So, there’s that.

@taylorlorenz Very often, it's a matter of not knowing the platform and ignoring the benefits of a decentralized social network, without algorithms, advertising, or profiling, and above all, with a real chronological timeline. When people begin to understand this, they'll realize the benefits. It's just a matter of time.

@taylorlorenz

Use it & Spread the word ✅

@taylorlorenz
At this point? Fully automated migration. Let me explain:

- i want my aunt to join
- i send her an invite link over whatsapp (urgh)
- she gets the option to do full auto migration by providing her current profile link on facebook, twitter, instagram whatever

where applicable, also optional
- copies bio, nick, media
- crawls the profile, pulls contacts and suggests them on the fedi
- reposts x time of posts unlisted not to spam the local feed
- posts a link to new profile on fb

@taylorlorenz new user here. i like it already lol.

@taylorlorenz

Inertia and uncertainty?

They are used to what they're currently doing and there's not enough public knowledge about Fediverse and Mastodon so they don't have an informed opinion.

I often tell people what I found on Mastodon and share articles and suggest that they join. They never do. All it took to get me on Mastodon was musk buying Twitter.

I've got friends who are far more progressive and leftist than me who are still using Facebook and Instagram. I get it. I gave up access to multiple artists whose work I enjoyed because I left Instagram. I have no idea what's happening with much of my extended family because I left Facebook. Some people are not willing to give it up.

@taylorlorenz looks a bit uggo, needs more swag

@taylorlorenz People are too lazy and too comfortable, it's as simple as that.

@taylorlorenz time and user counts. If more content creators swap it'll change the landscape a bit but also give it the cred.

@taylorlorenz A lot of good points here, so won’t repeat them. But to put it simple, and citing The Matrix, it’s a red pill, blue pill situation: red pill, you jump on the Fediverse, and take part in a new concept of social media. No corporations, no algorithm, no tracking, no centralized servers. Blue pill, you stay in corporate controlled land, with the algorithm and ad tracking cookies. You’ll keep yelling at bots and bigots. So, their choice.

@taylorlorenz one of the big reasons people stay on corp(s) media is because they are running their businesses there. Small businesses, crafters etc make a ton of sales through tiktok/IG. Leaving their audience is akin to leaving their businesses. I love mastodon! But I can't sell anything without getting blocked or reported.

@taylorlorenz

Institutions, companies, groups and organizations need to recognize that they can host their own social media instances, and thereby own their data and control their presence.

This is difficult for them to grasp, because they are used to depending on a corporate intermediary, and entire industries are devoted to fostering this reliance.

It's like telling a house cat they can be free and opening the door.

@taylorlorenz I both appreciate a chronological, unfiltered feed *and* the trending/explore feed of posts that are being boosted a lot. It lets me feel in control without getting in a rut.

But that's probably not exactly what people expect. I could see value in a feed that mixes the two, especially if you aren't following a lot of people yet.

Optional, of course. It's tricky balancing being accessible with having full control.

@taylorlorenz A name change might help, and for people to be able to build their own little algorithms on top of the non-changed feed.

@taylorlorenz Do you find enough audience here to engage with?

@taylorlorenz Its own community. The purity tests they demand are impossible for the masses. Just look at what happened when Instagram federated.

@taylorlorenz

My own take is that the US fascists consolidate power to the point that every US-based social media platform turns to shit so people will flock here.

I've got half a dozen news articles of that happening right now, and it's going to get much worse before November.

@taylorlorenz The majority of people can not and will not accept anything that frees them from conformist slavery. They never have, and never will. We'll always be cursed by kings, churches, record labels, whatever force there is that allows people to be conformists. It's literally what most people want.

This sort won't try Mastodon any more than they would stop buying number one records or skip watching the Superbowl even if they don't care about football.

@taylorlorenz I love Mastodon and I completely agree with you about decentralization being the way to go. People are fiercely addicted to the big apps, and for good reason, so I can't push. I just float the idea and let them consider it.

It may be partly a matter of critical mass, partly because it's too different, but perhaps it's also because Twitter-like apps like Mastodon just aren't everyone's cup of tea. So I've started matching their style: Loops for TikTok fans, Pixelfed for Instagram fans, etc.

The fediverse is still pretty young so I'm excited to see it grow.

@taylorlorenz Users of social media have been *deskilled* to the point where they expect a platform to essentially do everything for them: grab an app, put in your name, maybe tap some circles or something, and bang zoom, you get a feed.

The barrier is that Mastodon--and to a lesser extent Bluesky--are slightly less easy. Now, I'd argue that if you take five minutes to choose an instance that matches your tastes, it provides a feed right away, and then you can build your follow list, but...

@taylorlorenz I feel like the only way left is to set up huge armadas of influencer bots from the established social networks to draw people in and then delete them all once we've reached a certain threshold of network effect.

There really is a HOA here even if it's not fashionable to mention it. And there is a harassment problem that is made worse by no reply controls and the terrible, terrible misfeature of followers-only replies.
@taylorlorenz

@taylorlorenz

I think the product is just fine. Wonderful, in fact. I'm glad that Taylor Lorenz and Corey Doctorow and George Takai and Lisa Melton etc, etc are the local celebrities on this site. I also think scarcity and "being cool" (in other words, not trying) are the ultimate signifier of where folks should want to be.

It ain't broken.

Let's not fix it.

#Mastodon

@taylorlorenz for people subject to abuse (I'm not), I've seen requests for reply controls and support for shared blocklists.

You may know this, but Loops at @loops is a fediverse alternative to tiktok. It's pretty new but is developing quickly, from what I gather (I haven't used it).

@taylorlorenz I moved to Mastodon because of the it’s decentralized model, but as a not overly technical person it’s not as easy to use. Some of the other platforms and a lot of friends are coasting on the other corporate platforms because they have their friend networks there.

@taylorlorenz why does Mastodon needs to be fixed and not people?

@taylorlorenz I love this app. When I tell other people about it they say the image it conjures up is massive, slow and extinct and that's not instantly appealing. You have to get to know this place. The exploration, the finding and discovering is what's so exciting. But it's not a shiny bauble.

@taylorlorenz Black users have consistently reported hostility

#fediTips
> What could be done to .. the increase the user base ..?

Our problem @taylorlorenz?

The fact that influencer like you refuse to setup their own instances.You can do that with a few clicks from where you are right now, for example with @mastohost and offer your followers a profile on your server. They become your community member, supporting your work with a modest yearly fee.

And don't go big is beautiful!
Exclusiveness is key and moderation the bottle neck of healthy social media.

@taylorlorenz a lot I think comes down to good old FOMO: fear of missing out. At some point there will be a tipping point where individuals feel they can get the same amount of social content they seek, local to international, just from the social web. I can see it happening.

@taylorlorenz

The lack of an algorithm is the biggest advantage and the biggest disadvantage - it makes it hard to discover new content and people to follow. I know people are working on "starter packs" for Mastodon like they have on BlueSky, which I think will help.

But I wonder if we could find other ways to make discovery easier - a "followed by people you follow" or "favorited by people you follow" feed, or something. Also, I wonder if the interface shouldn't suggest boosting a post when you favorite it... We need more people boosting more stuff, with no algorithm.

You have to follow 200+ people to get a decently full feed on Mastodon, and everyone has to boost a lot. Reducing the effort required to do those things would increase engagement on Mastodon, I'm pretty sure.

@taylorlorenz joining is genuinely as easy as joining Twitter so I also don’t get it. Also regarding users having different servers they all seem to understand that when it comes to email. No one worries about emailing from gmail to outlook or whatever.

So I’m right there with you. I truely don’t get it. It just needs more people. I also suspect people LIKE the algorithm and miss it. I always tell people this is just Twitter before the algorithm.

@taylorlorenz Have you heard/read about the Forkiverse? The Mastodon server started by three popular podcasters that has grown to almost 10k members in just about two weeks.

I actually put together https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/fediverse-an-overview-for-community-organizers/ using it as a case study, hoping to maybe start reaching out to people who already have a following and could be interested in replicating this experiment.

@taylorlorenz

Answering this in the off chance you read replies 🤪

Biggest barrier to courting new users: we are culturally hostile here to influence peddlers and people who are trying to broadcast and don't want to interact. (ie, we treat them like the person invited to the small cocktail party at the house, who jumps up on a table and starts yelling).

Technically, users are used to being force fed content (through viral algorithms and suggested content)... i.e. passive (like TV). Mastodon is not built like that, which means people don't know how to find things they like or people to follow.

Finally (deliberately so), Mastodon is not built to tickle the endorphins... i.e. "likes" "followers" "virality" and that often turns people off, who really would like to use social media like a gambling junkie uses a slot machine (pull the lever, hope for a big payoff!). Fundamentally, non-addictive to that kind of thing.

I don't know if we want to fix any of that, though 🤪