 Looks like the #Fediverse is finally seeing the migration wave subsiding a bit. At peak on Nov 24th fedi was almost 3.8m monthly active users (MAU), today it's 3.5m: This is a good thing! :blobuwu: A month ago the whole of fedi was ~0.6m MAU. The number of new accounts is insane. Obviously MAU is an imperfect measure, as people often set up multiple new accounts, migrated, etc., but still the influx of new people on fedi is enormous. 1/🧵 4 comments
This kind of sudden boost of popularity strains the infrastructure a lot, too. Most of instances are volunteer-run. The good news is: the number of instances went *up* by over a *half*. That's fantastic. This is a way more reliable number than MAU simply because for an instance to show in these stats requires work: getting a domain, setting up the software, etc. So we know with more certainty that fedi expanded its infrastructure quite a bit! Which means more readines for future waves. 🎉 3/🧵 Any Silicon Valley startup would now be worried about the "sudden drop" in the MAU measure. But fedi is not a Sillicon Valley startup. Growth is not the only measure of success — arguably, it is not even all that important at all. Resilience — both in the sense of community/culture, and in the sense of infrastructure — is much more important here. The fact that over 5000 new instances (and thus: communities!) got started is therefore a wonderfully positive sign. :blobaww: 4/🧵 5k new instances means *thousands* of people who invested their time, effort, and love into creating new communities. Thousands of people taking upon themselves to moderate these communities. These are all long-term commitments, and many if not most of those people know that. The MAU value will drop by a *lot* probably. That's expected. However, I will be closely watching the instances chart. And rooting for all the new admins, mods, and communities here on fedi. :blobcatheart: 5/🧵 end. |
Gregory's Server
As wonderful as such a sudden boost of interest is, it also means fedi will… change.
It used to be a rather small network with strong culture around certain things. The number of new people is almost certainly *larger* than the number of people who had been active here until now. This strains the cultural norms quite a bit:
https://www.hughrundle.net/home-invasion/
It's time for fedi to get a bit of a respite, a breather, a moment to collectively take stock of the situation and changes it brings.
2/🧵
As wonderful as such a sudden boost of interest is, it also means fedi will… change.
It used to be a rather small network with strong culture around certain things. The number of new people is almost certainly *larger* than the number of people who had been active here until now. This strains the cultural norms quite a bit:
https://www.hughrundle.net/home-invasion/