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@dangillmor it should be obvious that Mastodon is NOT a "direct replacement" for Twitter. It does not claim to be, because it is founded on an entirely different model of communication.

@dangillmor I don't think it matters much in the long run - far more people now have accounts, and people will find them, and the next time Musk scares them again the threshold for spending more time on Mastodon will be much lower.

Each wave brings the tipping point where network effects makes it more attractive to remain here closer.

@dangillmor Yes, three steps forward and two back is still progress. Mastodon and the Fediverse will continue to improve. As for the journos who have gone back to the bird site, as well as others who haven't left or made the switch, some of that may be about reach (scaling is different here) as well as user-friendliness. Need more "how to's" / FAQs geared specifically to journalists—a start-up guide that also explains what Mastodon is (and is not).

@dangillmor I, too, am really disappointed in the number of journos still using Twitter as if nothing has changed. It's fair to point out that lots of researchers in both security and privacy continue to do the same. ​

@dangillmor @jeff At least the “Hi, I’m new here. Why can’t I have everything that made the last place a toxic dumpster fire?” posts have declined. Yes, mastodon needs easier tools for some (very large) segments of the user base, but that should take a bit of time, don’t you think? This place doesn’t have to use growth modelling from the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893.

@dangillmor
It’s really hard for journalists and their followers to not have the Quote Tweet feature. It is essential and not having it kills the experience.

@dangillmor I could write volumes on the decline of journalism starting with the 24hr news cycle and ending with the current news as a press release era. regarding Mastodon though, a lot of journalists are walking away from an engagement gold mine here.

@dangillmor They'll go back to Twitter until the site falls over (again). Yes, disappointing usage numbers have slumped, but we're all still here, and the S/N ratio is still infinitely higher on #mastodon .

We're playing the long game here. Mastodon isn't going to fail because some corporation sells out the platform and runs out of money.

@dangillmor

Hmm... If I had to choose between donating to support better usability features and migration tools, then which way would I go? But no #CSB so no such choice... No such freedom?

But I also think the CSB could be used in a different way to support better journalism focused on solving the problems the journalists are telling us about. Not all journalism is about problems, but most of the stuff that interests me is describing some sort of problem.

@dangillmor i don’t get the fan rage. It is as if you are defending your favorite soccer team, and being outraged that the rest of the world doesn’t follow your passion. Mastodon isn’t twitter, doesn’t look or smell like twitter, and it isn’t for twitter fans. All of those who joined because they wanted a second twitter went back to their first love. And it is perfectly ok. Quit the judging. The wave of users were a great test to mastodon. And it passed brilliantly. Cheers.

@dangillmor One thing that works in Mastodon's favour is that setting up the account is the hard part with a lot of steps and friction. Blazing the trail is hard, so the barrier for entry for all those people is now much, much lower. Combined with the fact that more people are on, there's simply less stick and more carrot for a large number of people.

Having that presence will allow people to follow them, even if they don't post: they are passively building their audience, still.

@dangillmor Why go back to be whipped as "fake news" on Musk's *masodon*, when you can be free & treated fairly on Mastodon?

@dangillmor gamers are used to this kind of things. Latest patch made some changes to the game that kill the spirit of it. Some users will rage quit, get into forums and post looong rants about the changes. Some users will flock to another game. And many of the ones that rage quitted and ranted will go back. Because they liked that game, many friends still play it, and they chew on their words. In the end, nobody cares.

@dangillmor I feel like we’re currently seeing the slow fall of Twitter. Or at least, a lot of users will be leaving the platform.

@dangillmor
Personally, it's not important to me whether Mastodon continues to grow or not.
I've given up on crazy Musk and hateful Twitter, and found a much better alternative around here as it is...

@dangillmor The “journalist” are NOT on our team. They play for team fascist.

@dangillmor They don’t want to do journalism, they want to be social media influencers and/or book writers. Also, Twitter is a very safe place because it allows journos to lock elbows and defend each other in unison from any criticism by their followers, subscribers, viewers, and target book audience.

@dangillmor I’ve dramatically decreased my usage but haven’t quit the bird site completely, even though I hate that my content can help propel ad revenue for that sochiopath. I think for me, the biggest issue is that I spent years building my twitter community and I just haven’t had much time and energy to really cultivate my feed here and find all of the people I want to connect with.

@dangillmor I am fairly critical of platforms and I have found the quality to slowly improve on here. I am less inclined to touch Twitter which is a testament to the progress the community is building.

Patience, Rome wasn’t built in a day

@dangillmor Frankly, Mastodon is not ready to be a Twitter replacement. This latest wave has been a good stress test. It has probably brought the most eyes to the platform, governance and moderation, and highlighted lacunae in all. This is a good time for the fediverse to take stock and make adjustments for the future.

@dangillmor To look at it a different way, Mastodon remains the only alternative with crucial mass to a site that is very obviously not going to last much longer, given the debt payments it needs to meet plus lack of ad income

@dangillmor

As the useful bots get priced off The Bad Place, I'm moving here. But it's also not addictive like the other place!

@dangillmor I'm waiting until I get booted off. I'm still there like you but mostly to gather Mastodon account names so I can follow them here.

@dangillmor Their loss. I'm staying.

@dangillmor I hope they enjoy being a cog in the fascist propaganda machine.

@dangillmor the article reads like this is a terrible thing, but as Eugen pointed out in an interview recently, the same slump happened to twitter multiple times in the early years - people join, and only some of them stay.

The active user count is now 3 times higher than what it 6 months ago... Why would you measure from the peak and not before the peak?

@dangillmor I found the article was more sympathetic than the headline.

@dangillmor journalists are making a mistake. The twitter exodus started gradual but is only going to speed up with time. A lot of people are going from reduced usage to full deletion. It will continue as people break their addictive cycles.

@dangillmor ‘calling it ‘journalism’ is doing some heavy lifting. Too much of today’s news media is opinion passed off as fact. There appears to be more thinking by people on Mastodon and users would call them out.

@dangillmor To me this reveals more about inertia than anything else. People do what they are used to doing. It's hard to get them to change, even if there are aspects of what they are doing that are less-than-ideal. And for many, they won't change unless enough of a critical mass of others change, because it won't be worthwhile. The fact is that there is information and conversation that I am not getting anymore because I am not on Twitter. I'm OK with that, but others are not.

@dangillmor Money is their true master. At the end of the day, they don't want to have to invest in moving and would rather just give Elon what he wants because money matters more to them than integrity, morality, ethics, dignity, truth, or ... anything.
The country can will fall into fascism but hey! At least they didnt have to work long nights to change the way they do business.

@dangillmor Big journalism is a failure. I'm not sure it can be reformed.

I didn't used to think that. But there are so many things broken there, from ownership to the currently accepted norms of story forming. Just a wreck.

@dangillmor Journalists go where the audience is. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that they are not on Mastodon, lest they turn it into something just like Twitter.

@dangillmor It's sad because they think their posts aren't being seen here. I don't necessarily see all journalist posts or retweet or like them. But I do see them quite often. They have to work harder here. There's no blue check that distinguishes them. I mean, I would like better access to say local content or a repository of journalism news items. But I think that stuff doesn't really fit well in social networking anyway. Twitter is full of fascist accounts now. Musk isn't even trying.

@dangillmor Turns out over a million people are OK with hanging around a place where Nazis regularly operate.

That says more about them than us who are on Fediverse.

@dangillmor I understand that journalists, especially independent ones (hi @robpegoraro , @timlee ) need to reach people where they are now, and there are still more people at Muskville. But I wish they’d at least mirror their posts here. The Fediverse can’t reach scale otherwise.

@dangillmor it all depends on what you are looking for. A large audience?

Or maybe the right one.

@dangillmor @JeanJaures I’ll take a slump (Mastadon) over a dump (Bird).

@dangillmor My piece on the value proposition for Journalists to stay on Mastodon:
https://thecanadian.online/?p=167

@dangillmor

> It is not good news that Mastodon usage has dropped after the initial surge.

1. It has dropped, but it's still an order of magnitude higher than before Nov. Went from ~500k to 2.5m and holding at that level or higher for almost 3mo.
https://the-federation.info/
("Active last month")

2. it's not a bad thing that it has dropped. Gives us time to deal with cultural changes that are happening, implement software changes that are asked for (QTs for example), and build out infrastructure.