I read something recently that gave me food for thought. An alternative has to be 10x better for people to switch; and the core experience is what convinces people, not cool extra features.

I don't know how universally applicable it is, but I wonder how Mastodon stacks up in that. Personally I think it's 10x better, but is it really? Or more importantly, are we communicating clearly that it is?

@Gargron "10x better" sounds like BS, to me, because you can't actually quantify relative quality like that in any sort of measurable way.

Taking the question as "enough of an improvement for people to switch", it depends a lot on two things. a) the use case of the person who might be switching, and b) how steep of a learning curve they're willing to go through to give another service a chance. (1/2)

@InspectorCaracal Yes, but it's like when the SV crowd talks about the 10x developer or whatever. It's unquantifiable, but at the same time you get an idea of what is meant. That being said you're right, this may not be applicable to Mastodon. For all we know, people would use literal garbage as long as enough famous people were also using it.

@Gargron @InspectorCaracal the immediate reason people don't try mastodon in my experience is entirely the UI is incredibly intimidating (its based on something intended for power users).
(the reason they don't stay when i do invite them is because 'their friends aren't here' which is pretty nebulous to me)

@oct2pus @InspectorCaracal 😔 jailed for power user crimes