@marymessall

People don't understand the basics of a federated system. To boost is to spread content across the network, not just to share it with your very own contacts.

It's crucial for the fedi!

@taylorlorenz

@taylorlorenz Also, one-button transfer of accounts from one instance to another. If it's not ultra-convenient then it's not really a feature.

That's assuming really do want Mastodon to get bigger. If what they actually want is for Mastodon to only be populated with people who "pass the test" of getting on Mastodon, then there's nothing to change. They don't want a gateway. They just want a gate.

IMO.

@jbd @hfinyow @taylorlorenz Counter to your counter: most people use one of, what, four different email services? Email hasn't been captured like social media was, but they're working on it.

I do agree, though. Mastodon is anti-commercial, and people are used to for-profit social media, which has its own structures. People are accustomed to that, and even if it's crap, it's what they know.

@taylorlorenz all of the above points, plus getting used to posting with ALT text or not being boosted as much.
I would not want the platform to grow in adoption to the detriment of accessibility.

@NickGates @taylorlorenz

I don't think this is the "biggest barrier" to reaching new users.

The biggest barriers are:

* Popular content creators who ought to care about building independent social media don't know it exists or why it's important. What if Emma from MR were here? For example.
* Sign up remains hard. I know why people don't want to integrate google auth... but if it were an option for some servers it'd make a big difference.
* UI needs more work.

@hfinyow @taylorlorenz I hear what you're saying. You're not wrong about the "there's no one app" thing. But at the same time:

It's not an app. It's a web site. It works great on a browser. My solution, then, would be to make an "app" that's really just a web app. It leads you to a browser instance of Mastodon. Your app will get "upgraded" when Mastodon is upgraded because it's just a website. That should be the default.

@NickGates @taylorlorenz

If the fedi were more popular it'd be more diverse and the lack of diversity bothers me more than any "hostility" ... which every online space has.

I worry that the focus on "hostility" points to a problem that's hard to solve.

There are some good idea for moderation that could help, such as better reporting and sharing tools between servers. But I think the login/sign-up issues are much bigger.

@osma @taylorlorenz That's a big part of it, yes. Not to get all corporate marketer on this, but if Mastodon actually made a space that was positively welcoming to Blacksky (formerly Black Twitter), that would pull huge amounts of people on, and not just Black users (although it would be fantastic to have more Black users!).

The "problem" is Black users talk to each other, and Mastodon fucked up hard when they first came here. It would take a LOT to get them back.

@hfinyow @taylorlorenz I think I'd suggest people to just start on mastodon.social. don't worry about instances to start with, as it's very easy to migrate later. And then once they got the basic hang of it, tell them like "oh, btw as you're really into literature/art/music/tech/... did you see this other instance? I think it'd match really well with your profile. And it'd help the network, too, if you'd chose a smaller, more individual instance!"
Keep it simple to start with, don't overwhelm.

@taylorlorenz

Maybe change the name Mastodon to something lighter.

Compare the mental image Mastodon produces to TikTok, Twitter, BlueSky.

@taylorlorenz i think at heart, most people don't want to out in that much effort to lurk. I wonder what proportion of social media use is passive consumption.

@brandonscript @taylorlorenz This is the one angle that I'll agree that it ain't broke so don't fix it. Mastodon is designed to resist viral posts. I have *conversations* on Mastodon. On Twitter, I ~performed~, and the same is true of Bluesky because it was deliberately a Twitter clone.

@stefan

Once influencer realize that an own instance as a paid subscription service for their fans means income, the fedi becomes a rocket that goes of like "a divers fart".

Imagine Taylor swift charging the price of a cheeseburger a month for having a profile on social.taylorswift.com being able to get exclusive content by following her #castoPod podcast server cast.taylorswift.com?

Years ago hosting an instances was complicated, today you get it with a few clicks.

@taylorlorenz

@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.

@skjeggtroll @taylorlorenz I do not disagree with you broadly speaking, but the one thing I will say is that we do have communities in the form of your instance's feed, which is why it would be great if there were a truly user-friendly way to match people to instances.

@usul @taylorlorenz

We have a winner

@Jude_theone479001 @taylorlorenz This is very well said. It does actually take work to *build* your place, here, and that's rewarding in a way that "user friendliness" often is not.

I will say this, though: Bluesky users created "starter packs" and block lists and stuff like that, partly because, like Twitter before it, at least at first, when users innovated (eg, hasghtags), the admins embraced it. I'm not seeing that on Mastodon. I do hope the new governance model makes that better.

@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.

@NickGates @bitpickup @futurebird @IveyJanette @taylorlorenz Yup. Generally speaking, if there are no Black people in your space, then you have not made a space in which they feel welcome. That's not on them.

@Paperposts

Well, lot's of positive things that make the fedi is that it isn't mainstream ..

Always remember, the biggest celebrity has it's own mastodon server spreading asocial truths. And guess what, he not only doesn't federate, if he would, he'd be as blocked as gab by the rest of the community.

@mzedp @taylorlorenz