I’m genuinely interested in people thoughts about the Fediverse because here in the UK it has massively stalled in 2025, like a lot of things. I am seeing way less posts from UK people and way less interaction and general use in fact. Most seem to have stopped social media use to be fair, and I know a lot of that is to do with my age (old fart here, 56 laps round sun and counting) but the numbers game look poor from my point of view. Do we think the Fediverse has a future now after useage appears to be going downwards? Is it a UK thing? (well I know the UK is weird but hey)

  • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    No idea.

    People went to Mastodon and faced a number of UX issues:

    • onboarding was difficult
    • “Selecting an instance” is a chore
    • How to find content
    • No algorithmic recommendations

    Because getting content was hard, they were basically thrown into a whole new ecossytem and were greeted by the OG Mastodon users, who were not at all welcoming: , complaining about “their space” being invaded, had many displays of “opression olympics”, made a point of being extra loud about their extremist views as an attempt to scare normies, demanded everyone to learn “proper manners” right away, put content warnings on anything, etc.

    In other words, people didn’t go to Mastodon in 2024 because those that tried in 2022 were shunned away and left with the impression that the Fediverse is not for them.

    I don’t know how you think the fediverse is somehow afraid of growth though.

    For the reasons above. It’s not that they are “afraid of growth”, but the general culture on the Fediverse is reactionary and averse to change. Making it more universally appealing would mean bringing different people, and this is what they are afraid of.

    • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      For the reasons above. It’s not that they are “afraid of growth”, but the general culture on the Fediverse is reactionary and averse to change. Making it more universally appealing would mean bringing different people, and this is what they are afraid of.

      What changes are people afraid of? What “different people” is the Fediverse afraid of?

      • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        What “different people” is the Fediverse afraid of?

        • Normies.
        • Small business who want to have a social media presence.
        • Influencers.
        • Reporters.
        • Anyone who is not 100% aligned with their political mindset
        • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          “Normies”? How?

          What’s stopping small businesses and influencers from setting up support communities to try and boost their profile?

          What reporters?

          Anyone who is not 100% aligned with their political mindset

          Does this, by the way, not depend on the instance?

          • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
            0·
            6 months ago

            What’s stopping small businesses and influencers

            There is nothing stopping them, but there is no one here that wants them to come:

            • Scroll around for a bit on the federated timeline of your preferred Mastodon instance, tell me how long it takes for someone to display an anti-business sentiment.
            • There is no one coordinated movement to get creators on YouTube and tell them “hey, if you start putting your videos on PeerTube we will contribute to your Patreon”.
            • Every and any effort to build a public searchable index of the Fediverse was attacked on the grounds of “I don’t want my data used by marketers”.
            • The majority view on “how to best fund the Fediverse” is “set up donations”. Whenever I bring up “I think it’s more fair if everyone paid just a little bit, this is why my instance is only for paying members”, I am immediately treated as an evil capitalist pig.

            What reporters?

            There were a number of reporters from the NYT/WSJ/CNN who set up Mastodon accounts in 2022 and were harassed on Mastodon.

            Does this, by the way, not depend on the instance?

            Do you think that Fediverse is a good representation of the overall political spectrum?

            • I_Snort_Butterflies@lemmy.wtfEnglish
              0·
              6 months ago

              All of your arguments in this discussion have been totally on-point. Great posts. I may have to rethink joining your instance! I’ll send DM since I’ll probably be banned from this comm for the exact reasons you have been stating.