Facebook has tried to compete with Twitter in numerous ways over the years, including copying signature Twitter features such as hashtags and trending topics. But now Facebook’s parent company is taking perhaps its biggest swipe at Twitter yet.
Facebook has tried to compete with Twitter in numerous ways over the years, including copying signature Twitter features such as hashtags and trending topics. But now Facebook’s parent company is taking perhaps its biggest swipe at Twitter yet.
Because to an average person mastadon is confusing and niche, nobody they want to talk to is on there and they don't care about the ethics or privacy implications.
Maybe, but I think it has more to do with the wall-to-wall mainstream news coverage of the launch of Threads in recent days, compared to the relative handful of isolated mentions Mastodon has had in the last 12 months.
If people didn't care about ethics or privacy, that doesn't mean they won't switch to Mastodon, it merely doesn't mean they will go. Those people will just go where the crowds go.
Just because of the sheer power of marketing, really. I dabbled with Mastodon, but it wasn't any harder to use than Twitter. Maybe some people just disengage entirely when they hear about instances when in practice for a casual user it makes very little difference.
Exactly, having explained mastadon to people they often don't really understand or care about the actual concept, they just want to be where the content is.
Because Mastodon is the Linux of social media...and we all know how popular that OS is on the desktop. Techie people have a habit of putting themselves in a bubble and think everything is as easy to use for a normal person as it is for them.
I've stopped explaining it to my friends and family because they literally just give me blank stares when I even say the word "federated". If they want to come over, they can figure it out on their own just like I did. You can't beat it into them.
It's the advantage of advertising money and monopoly abuse. Nobody advertises linux, when's the last time you saw a linux commercial? You don't. You'll never be inundated with linux or fediverse advertisements, so nobody gets to find out you exist. You'll notice how in the media free software is never mentioned, ever, unless it's something scary with the tired old picture of a dude in masked street garb looking to steal your families identity and make them destitute.
Linux low market-share (in the desktop space) has less to do with marketing and more with the fact, that Microsoft has made many contracts with PC vendors and professional PC users everywhere.
Normies don't install any OS. Businesses don't want to waste time and money switching over to Linux.
Marketing in the OS space is practically irrelevant.
At some point, honestly, it's just inertia. My sister is smart enough to figure out Mastodon, she calls instances confusing because she just doesn't WANT to move. She's still on Facebook, saying she's just not into Twitter or Reddit like stuff, but she'll be on Threads I bet.
I don't think we need to be the biggest thing in the world, though, as long as we have ENOUGH people in the Fediverse to be active.
People want to be "where it's happening" and mastodon isn't that. Which might be fine for the people that do use it, but mastodon isn't going to be a platform where you can potentially interact with celebrities, politicians and journalists the way that twitter was for example any time soon.