Gregory's ServerA very tough, but excellent article "Why did the #TwitterMigration fail?" on the challenges of #mastodon and the broader #fediverse by https://finecity.social/@bloonface.
https://blog.bloonface.com/2023/06/12/why-did-the-twittermigration-fail/
 10 comments
@maegul i think we have several distinct user types in the fediverse today, and the big split is between those who fundamentally think it’s good as it is, and does not need to (or even must not) grow, and those who want it to reach as many users as proprietary networks do, or more. The second category then tends to realize quickly that this requires lots of expensive expertise we currently don’t have in the fediverse, and much more money that donations can provide.  Important statements there in the second paragraph, especially around financial capacity! Scaling up was always a question, and you seem to be suggesting that the financial model has a ceiling for the fediverse’s architecture, a ceiling that may have already been reached? It’s your take! I have no idea how true it is or isn’t, though intuitively, if you poke around here amongst the Fedi-folk, I think you naturally start to worry about both. I personally have been worried about how much software practices don’t seem optimised for collaboration and modularity and how sustainable much of the software work will be going forward. @maegul imho your take on what I said went substantially beyond what I had in mind when I said it :-) I don’t know whether it is true either, but a good question to ponder for sure.  The user interface is also to blame. * Bigger post sizes are a FLAW, not a feature. If posts can be 500 or 5000 chars long, they should have a 1- or 2-line subject field, as in email: the subject only is displayed at first, and the rest is shows only if the reader clicks on it. As it is, I miss most posts on my timeline because only a handful are visible at a time. 🧵>  @J12t It makes some good points but it doesn't even talk about the racial issues which were (IMHO) by far the biggest barrier to more widespread adoption Also I disagree with the overall framing of "failure." It was certainly a missed opportunity, but still something to build on. Of course the dynamics were extremely similar to the missed opportuinty in 2017, which is discouraging. Still, as we're seeing with reddit, it won't be the last opportunity. @jdp23 I haven’t seen any systematic analysis of what factor had which percentage contribution, so I have no opinion on the relative impact of which factor. But all that he lists are major ones, and many of those we aren’t actually making any progress on I’m afraid … @J12t Agreed that these are major problems that the fediverse isn't yet collectively making progress on. I also haven't seen a systemic analysis but think about it: Black Twitter has been the lifeblood of Twitter for years, and they're looking for options. But when key people from that community checked it out here, they got met with racism and disdain. So they mostly left, and told their friends. |
@J12t
Yea … bottom line summary for me is …
If you’re here, chances are you’re not a normal reasonable user and your standards/judgment doesn’t matter if you want any sort of uptake/growth.
Fediverse probably needs a good group of product managers willing to say “no, that’s shit”, if growth is desired.