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Chris Trottier

For those quoting joinmastodon.org stats regarding MAUs:

It only counts 10,000 servers.

Yet according to the-federation.info, there are 24,000 active Fediverse instances.

If we assume 70% of the Fediverse is Mastodon, there should be 16,800 Mastodon servers.

That means joinmastodon.org might not be counting 6.8K servers.

How many people do you think use those 6.8K servers?

21 Mar 2023 at 5:43 | Open on mastodon.social
11 comments
LAUREN
baki
Unatributed

@atomicpoet@mastodon.social Try Fediverse observer instead: https://mastodon.fediverse.observer/stats

They are showing only 12.4K Mastodon instances, and 6.8M active users.

That means there are about 2.4K instances that aren't being counted - but those are likely very small instances that are less significant statistically speaking.

The get their active users through using the API's -- but I also have seen errors in their stats...for example at one point I saw several Pixelfed instances that were being listed as Mastodon instances...

Point is - the Mastocount numbers are overly optimistic. The Joinmastodon numbers are probably conservative, but more accurate given the sample size. The Fediverse Observer numbers are in the middle, which but have a degree of inaccuracy that is difficult to measure.

@atomicpoet@mastodon.social Try Fediverse observer instead: https://mastodon.fediverse.observer/stats

They are showing only 12.4K Mastodon instances, and 6.8M active users.

That means there are about 2.4K instances that aren't being counted - but those are likely very small instances that are less significant statistically speaking.

The get their active users through using the API's -- but I also have seen errors in their stats...for example at one point I saw several Pixelfed instances that were...

21 Mar 2023 at 5:51 | Open on calckey.social
Jiří Fiala Total Landscaping

@atomicpoet On the other hand, even we as fediverse enthusiasts have only a vague idea how many people are here, let alone MAUs. Kinda hard for general journalists to cover this.

21 Mar 2023 at 7:03 | Open on mas.to
⁰FisherTX14

@stooovie @atomicpoet
That is a key component of their inability to monitor the level of awareness and discourse internationally. On the other site, some "journalists" would steal hot, under the radar news. I offered most research for free to certain media members. The really funny journalist / entertainers would never follow me on #Twitter #politics. But two of them had wives not in the media following me. Then I knew how they got it. Now the #msm is completely disconnected from the left.

21 Mar 2023 at 7:43 | Open on newsie.social
Oblomov

@atomicpoet dwindling MAUs are reported in all stats (including the-federation and Fediverse observer). The actual numbers may be debatable, but I doubt you could make the argument against the qualitative assessment. Even if the stats are missing 10K instances with an avg of 100 users each, 100% active, it just means that instead of 2.5M active accounts out 10M you have 3.5M active accounts out of 11M —not that much of a difference, and with a generous overestimate.

21 Mar 2023 at 7:08 | Open on sociale.network
Oblomov

@atomicpoet much of the recent growth has been reported by mastodon.social (see @tchambers per-instance decomposition). If people just registering count as active, and the MAUs reported by these instances is going down, it means more accounts are going inactive than new ones are being created. This is compounded by an increase in spam accounts, that get blocked more or less quickly, abd probably instance migration (does the old account still count as existing?)

21 Mar 2023 at 7:14 | Open on sociale.network
Oblomov

@atomicpoet @tchambers finally, by just anecdotally, traffic in my timeline has not been changing significantly in the last month or so, and downwards if at all. This is course means nothing, as it might just be that traffic is increasing in corners of the Fediverse I'm not even remotely indirectly connected to, but it's in sharp contrast with previous waves.

21 Mar 2023 at 7:16 | Open on sociale.network
maegul

@oblomov @atomicpoet @tchambers yea, impressionistically I’ve noticed a drop in the volume of my timeline, without any reduction or change in the people I follow.

21 Mar 2023 at 7:33 | Open on hachyderm.io
noodlejetski :verified_gay:

@atomicpoet
> How many people do you think use those 6.8K servers?

by my estimation, AT LEAST four.

21 Mar 2023 at 7:15 | Open on masto.ai
thepoliticalcat

@atomicpoet Approximately 2/3 as many as currently use the Mastodon servers?

21 Mar 2023 at 21:11 | Open on mastodon.social
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