Gregory's ServerBuffer adding Mastodon is just another example of the momentum that the Fediverse now has amongst developers -- and how this is going to push adoption forward.
This is the *real* story about Mastodon's growth during the past three months.
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37 comments
 Why are developers supporting the Fediverse even though the Fediverse "only" has 10 million accounts? Because the Fediverse offers something developers crave: stability. As Twitter already demonstrated, they can remove API access from developers for many bullshit reasons -- with no explanation. No company should ever depend on Twitter's API -- or any Big Social API for that matter. But ActivityPub is a W3C-backed web standard. It is an open protocol. Unlike Twitter, it is more trustworthy. No, the story about the Fediverse's growth isn't about MAUs -- not that MAUs can be calculated precisely anyway. The *real* story -- the one that the tech press should be writing about -- is the growth in: 1. Posts This is the beginning of a paradigm shift in social media and how it works. Look, if I'm a social media app developer, I'm going to look for something that offers me two things: 1. Network effect - something people actively use This means the Fediverse. Once developers en masse start developing for a platform, that's when the fun starts. The iPhone didn't get interesting until developers made apps for it. Ditto with the web. We haven't even scratched the full potential for ActivityPub. Last week, I said that Twitter would regret screwing over developers. In fact, this is a colossal screw-up by inestimable orders of magnitude. This will be apparent when all those former Twitter developers start releasing Fediverse apps. It's not just going to happen -- it's happening! @atomicpoet Humans quickly forget and accept the easy way. Aren't the journalists starting to go back? @DarkWraithLord The only journalists who adopted the Fediverse en masse were adjacent to tech culture. And most of them just lurked a day then returned to Twitter. These folks are followers, not early adopters.  @ianbetteridge @DarkWraithLord Well, don't get me wrong. A minority of journalists aren't so willing to suck on Twitter's teat. @atomicpoet @ianbetteridge @DarkWraithLord I do not understand the Twitter Journalist. If the object is to get your work read, you establish yourself on all the platforms. You expand your reach. I don't understand 1/20th of whys of the fediverse, but I did this: it will get your work to a larger audience than if you post exclusively on Twitter. @Hey_Beth @atomicpoet @ianbetteridge @DarkWraithLord At least some journalists were sent back to Twitter by those in the community with a narrow vision of what Mastodon can and should be. Mastodon has not been entirely welcoming to Journalists. @stpaultim @Hey_Beth @atomicpoet @DarkWraithLord I'm not entirely sure that's true. I've found Mastodon very welcoming, generally (I've blocked a few asshats). But you have to engage with people, and not just switch into broadcast mode all the time. @ianbetteridge @stpaultim @Hey_Beth @DarkWraithLord There's lots of journalists on the Fediverse, but not all of them are cut out for it. In fact, there are dedicated journalist instances (ex: journa.host). However, some journalists don't exactly engage with the community in good faith -- and people know. @atomicpoet @stpaultim @Hey_Beth @DarkWraithLord I think a lot of it comes down to whether you are prepared to listen or not. If you listen – even if you end up disagreeing – I think it works. Mind you, that's true of life in general too :) @Hey_Beth @atomicpoet @DarkWraithLord Yes - Twitter provides a vanishingly small fraction of traffic and reach compared to Facebook. But journalists are often highly social and they flock to platforms where other journalists are. Twitter is that platform. It's not about the audience, it's about where your mates and sources are.  @Hey_Beth @atomicpoet @ianbetteridge @DarkWraithLord The real value of Twitter to journalists was realtime sources, not exposure. But the ones who got Twitter-famous from their interactions there but who aren't moving here are riding reputations while the sources dry up...  @atomicpoet "Twitter no longer supports extenal applications, including this one. Would you like our help to migrate to Mastodon?"  @atomicpoet It's like building your castle on quicksand. BTW that does not apply only to Web API. Think how many times Android or ios changed what is allowed. And if your use case does not fit the new rules your feudal overlord decreed, though luck.  @atomicpoet Companies like Buffer using the Mastodon API. ActivityPub is used by Mastodon for network federation. The majority of devs using the Mastodon API not the ActivityPub protocol. @jan You can't exactly de-couple the Mastodon API from ActivityPub protocol. No matter, the Mastodon API is also open source. Other apps, like Pixelfed, use the Mastodon API. @atomicpoet You can use the Mastodon API without knowing anything about the ActivityPub protocol. That makes life easy for all developers. No, Pixelfed uses the ActivityPub protocol, not the Mastodon API :) @jan Pixelfed uses both ActivityPub protocol and Mastodon's API -- although it has recently diverged. See attached screenshot. @atomicpoet Where can I find the source code of the Pixelfed app? The Pixelfed repo on Github uses the AP protocol. @atomicpoet @jan there are plenty of platforms that use ActivityPub but not the Mastodon API. AcrivityPub is how all the servers talk to each other. The Mastodon API is one of many ways they can talk to client-side apps. @atomicpoet @KelsonV The purpose of an API is to abstract complexity like ActivityPub. You can use the Mastodon API without knowing anything about ActivityPub: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/client/intro/ For what reason? Simple to publish posts, to read your timeline, etc.  @atomicpoet What would be really interesting to see is if other social media platforms build their own ActivityPub handlers. It would be pretty wild to be able to follow a subreddits or Tumblr groups from a Mastodon app. @atomicpoet indeed, it is about developer mind share and where people who collaborate want to be.  @atomicpoet I've been testing the Buffer integration as well. Pretty smooth like other networks. And yes, I agree. This opens the door - good or bad - to the bigger players as part of an overall messaging mix. The next step after that would probably be analytics/metrics, I'd guess. @atomicpoet been a longtime buffer user. Was considering dropping since I don’t do much outside the fediverse. Now will give it a try when I comes out of beta.
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Yes, the first wave of Fediverse adoption came from people looking for a Twitter replacement.
But the next wave of adoption is going to come from an ecosystem of apps.
Why?
Because some of those Twitter migrants were developers.
And once they played around with the code, they all remembered how nice it is to build something on an open protocol.