What could convince you to join mastodon or another fediverse social media platform?

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

I don't think I have to say how much of a hellscape corporate owned social media are.
They biggest ones are all nazi bars.

Nazi bar - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

(The og author of the tweet has left twitter since btw. )

There are several alternatives.
Forums are one of them of course.

There is also the fediverse, a federated social network of various platforms with different purposes.
Some examples:
peertube for video hosting
What is PeerTube? | JoinPeerTube
pixelfed for "instagram-like" photo posting

pixelfed

The original Pixelfed instance, operated by the main developer @dansup

pixelfed.social

mastodon- microblogging platform, most commonly likened to twitter

Mastodon - Decentralized social media

Learn more about Mastodon, the radically different, free and open-source decentralized social media platform.

joinmastodon.org

lemmy- it has a more forum like/reddit like formula.

Lemmy - A decentralised discussion platform for communities

join-lemmy.org

wafrn, which has a tumblr-like feel, it also offers easy federation with bluesky

Wafrn, the social media that respects you

Wafrn is a federated social media inspired by tumblr that connects with the fediverse and bluesky

app.wafrn.net

And many other platforms to fit various needs.

A big upside is, if you have an account on one of those, you can talk to others in most of those platforms.
I can comment on peertube videos using my mastodon account, or follow lemmy threads, comment under pixelfed photos, chat with wafrn users...etc. With some of those platforms you don't even notice that you are talking to someone on different software.

Here is a nice curated list of nice instances to join:

Fedi.Garden – An easy way to join Mastodon and the Fediverse

Highlighting nice servers on Mastodon and the Fediverse

fedi.garden

So, title question. What could convince you to ditch corpo socials and join mastodon or another fediverse social media platform?
If you already have an account but don't use it, what could convince you to go back?

 

[kiadony]

Well, if my tiny social circle joined, I would too. I mentioned before that I would love to ditch Discord altogether but that remains my only way to talk to some people I've known for a long time now. Other than that, I'm on bsky and tumblr and that's all. I could rather easily move my stuff elsewhere I suppose since it's mainly all of the same art I'm showing everywhere (I don't blog and such).

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

Yeah, ditching discord....i don;t like discord lol. There is a couple of alternatives like matrix, and a bunch of new others popped up.
There is also the oldschool IRC and XMPP.
And Signal. I use only Signal to communicate with close friends and family, managed to convince them to do that. But acquaintances that are not that close? it is difficult to convince them. People can be very set in their ways.

That one good thing about bluesky is that even if you decide to stay only on it, you can enable a bridge to let fediverse people see what you post. In order to interact fully, both people need to use the bridge though. Bridgy Fed

 

[kiadony]

Yeah I know about the Discord equivalents and so does my friend group but I think most of them use way more servers than I do (I more or less only use it for said groups, I left all of the big servers ages ago) so they aren't too keen on moving. With my family and coworkers and such I just use a local messenger app.

 

[Princess Viola]

Nothing will ever convince me to use Mastodon more than I already do use it because it sucks complete ass.

I've been using my current instance for nearly 3 years now and I have 6.8K posts, so you can't come in here and tell me 'Well how much do you use it?'

For starters: no one is there. I think out of all of my friends on other social platforms I use (like Bluesky and Tumblr), I think I have like 3-4 who are on Mastodon or at least bridged to it via their Bluesky accounts.

Why would I use the platform more when almost none of my friends are there?

Second of all, while the instance I'm in is cool: I think the userbase of Mastodon overall is probably the most insufferable userbase out of any social media platform. Mastodon is just full of annoying white males who think they know everything and are always correct.

Y'know the stereotype of the annoying Linux user or FOSS advocate who thinks Linux and/or FOSS is always perfect and has no flaws whatsoever and if you dare criticize it then you should just go back to Windows or 'Well it works fine for me so there's no problem'? That's so many people over on Mastodon. It's basically mansplainer central and, speaking as someone who is very much not white, it is also probably the most obviously mostly white male social media platform there is.

Seriously, I'm not kidding, the number of times I'd seen threads over on Mastodon of a black user talking about the casual racism they'd experienced on the platform and then you go and check the replies and there was some dipshit arguing that they were wrong there is no casual racism on Mastodon maybe it was just their behavior or something? was fucking too many times (and quite frankly, seeing that once is too many times. I think I've seen it 3-4 times. Sure that might not seem like a lot but I'm obviously not regularly checking for that stuff))

Like it is genuinely fucking awful, I'm sorry but that's the truth. And it's not the software's fault, it's the userbase but seeing as, y'know the userbase is who you interact with on the platform, I think it's more than fair to say it is also a Mastodon (as a platform) problem.

Mastodon is awful and I hate it and truth be told the only reason I even keep my account open is because of a small number of aquaintainces I have on there but it's literally like 10 people at most. I just log in, check my own feed, check the feed for my instance ONLY, and that's it really.

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

Like it is genuinely fucking awful,

That has not been my experience.
My feed is full of queer artists from various places, grassroots music collectives and disability rights activists. I made really close friends there. I don't need 1000s followers, so I don't have a problem with it having less people. 10 people that are actually cool and care>>>>hundreds of superficial acquaintances
Mansplainers are there, sure. They are everywhere. There has not been a social media platform where I have not encountered them.
The ratio of times i got Linux help on masto rather than mansplainers was very favorable.
Racism is of course bad and it is a problem, and absolutely something people should work on eradicating there, and it is not something to be dismissed.
But I don't believe mastodon is that special in this regard, are you going to tell me there is no racism on idk twitter or Facebook or whatever? That are owned by racists?
Shitheads are everywhere. Nothing is an exception.
It is not perfect, nothing ever is. Imperfect alternatives to Nazi bars are still better than Nazi bars
That's fair if you don't like it, don't use it if you don't want to, but it being "awful" is not a "truth" for everyone.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

Eh I dont know. Like for instance Bluesky I have kind of had a bad experience on. I really tried hard to get into it,but the thing is I dont know if others experienced this,I get completely ignored there. I make posts and no one ever responds. The ONLY thing people ever do is follow my account. No likes,no replies,no conversation at all,just "So and so followed you" Its just weirded me out so much and it doesnt really feel social. It also doesnt really feel normal based on what Ive experienced on social media sites for as long as Ive been on them.

That experience is kind of putting me off even trying to join alternative social media sites because I just really dont like it and feel like there may not really be a point.

 

[pilosophos]

I've been on Mastodon for a couple years and it's alright. It's the only platform that people typically think of as "social media" that I actually kinda use to be social and not just post my art to. I'd be glad to get more people onto Masto, since people's biggest hurdle with social media is lack of other people on the platform, and out of principle I want it to thrive more than Bluesky.

One thing I've noticed is that people actually talk to me on Masto. In part it's because I know my audience and what they're into. I know if I post about the indieweb or retro tech that I can get someone interested. On the other hand, I don't have a good grasp of what people are into on Tumblr and Bluesky, and I'm pretty sure I've had more people email me about posts on my website than I've had conversations on both of those combined.

Then again, I'm not an avid user of social media anyway; if I want to be social, I have IRC, forums, and (shudder) Discord.

 

[Princess Viola]

That has not been my experience.
My feed is full of queer artists from various places, grassroots music collectives and disability rights activists. I made really close friends there. I don't need 1000s followers, so I don't have a problem with it having less people. 10 people that are actually cool and care>>>>hundreds of superficial acquaintances
Mansplainers are there, sure. They are everywhere. There has not been a social media platform where I have not encountered them.
The ratio of times i got Linux help on masto rather than mansplainers was very favorable.
Racism is of course bad and it is a problem, and absolutely something people should work on eradicating there, and it is not something to be dismissed.
But I don't believe mastodon is that special in this regard, are you going to tell me there is no racism on idk twitter or Facebook or whatever? That are owned by racists?
Shitheads are everywhere. Nothing is an exception.
It is not perfect, nothing ever is. Imperfect alternatives to Nazi bars are still better than Nazi bars
That's fair if you don't like it, don't use it if you don't want to, but it being "awful" is not a "truth" for everyone.

so did you ignore the part where i said that mastodon is pretty overwhelmingly white on accident or?

i don't use FB or twitter but both of those platforms at least have large non-white userbases instead of being upper-class white american male central like mastodon is

 

[Princess Viola]

btw sorry if that reply was rude but you were (hopefully unintentionally) doing the exact thing that tons of people on mastodon do whenever they encounter criticisms of the platform.

 

[silvally]

i love mastodon and other fediverse sites conceptually but when i actually tried to use them i found i didnt enjoy myself very much?

i probably just havent found a corner of the fediverse which has the right vibe for me. im sure it exists somewhere. but i generally found that the most visible communities were pretty unpleasant to be around.

im just not a fan of social media in general. i left twitter years before it was sold to its current owner. fediverse sites solve some of the problems i have with social media but not all of them...

i might give it another shot though and check out wafrn sometime?

 

[Mialentia]

I just don't think it'd be worth my while. Stuff like my Bluesky and Tumblr already feels pretty dead, so why would I go somewhere with even less people?

In general, I just don't think people have much interest in what I have to say, or in the things I like. I've kind of resigned myself to being nearly alone (I love the friends I have who do listen, just still feels lonely sometimes). I realize it's a vicious cycle (people don't talk to me -> I talk less -> they have less incentive to talk to me), but I don't know how socializing works lmao

I guess it's like... if I don't know how to be social, maybe social media isn't for me? So I just stick with what I have even if it annoys me sometimes and just hope for the best.

 

[kiadony]

I just don't think it'd be worth my while. Stuff like my Bluesky and Tumblr already feels pretty dead, so why would I go somewhere with even less people?

In general, I just don't think people have much interest in what I have to say, or in the things I like. I've kind of resigned myself to being nearly alone (I love the friends I have who do listen, just still feels lonely sometimes). I realize it's a vicious cycle (people don't talk to me -> I talk less -> they have less incentive to talk to me), but I don't know how socializing works lmao

I guess it's like... if I don't know how to be social, maybe social media isn't for me? So I just stick with what I have even if it annoys me sometimes and just hope for the best.

I feel that. I often find myself talking a lot about stuff I'm into only to be met with silence - and I get that they don't have to respond, I just work with people irl and I'm used to dialogues being, well, two-sided. In fact I often struggle online because I can't see the others' reactions so it's awkward sometimes as I can't tell if people like what I say or if I'm being annoying.

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

doing the exact thing that tons of people on mastodon do whenever they encounter criticisms of the platform.

Sorry. The only thing I can do here is apologize,
I believe you that you had bad experiences and I do understand there is a problem.

maybe social media isn't for me?

In fact I often struggle online

My situation is different, as it's the only way I can get ANY social interaction with people outside my household, I don't have other choices since there is exactly zero accessible spaces for me to exist in public. Zero. Null. Nada.
All of my friendships are long distance through either socmed or signal.
On mastodon I found many people who are fighting for things to be different, elsewhere- a minuscule amount.
But yeah, socmed is a very specific way of social interaction that has a lot of both upsides and downsides

Bluesky and Tumblr already feels pretty dead,

Bluesky I have kind of had a bad experience on

The people I talked to who have both masto and bluesky told me they have much more interactions from mastodon then bluesky. I cannot confirm nor deny since I don't have a bluesky.
Either way if you bridge your account you can talk to a subset of people from both places.

havent found a corner of the fediverse which has the right vibe

Yeah it can take some time to find the right place, I keep a couple accounts for different purposes and managed to find the niches I need. I have different accounts for Polish speaking fedi and art stuff.
I heard wafrn is good for fandom folks, especially since you can talk relatively easily to bluesky people too

 

[kiadony]

I should also note that I don't care much for having reach and such: I don't tag much, don't promote my stuff, etc. I don't mind my tumblr being dead as I pretty much use it as a personal worldbuilding dump for my ultra niche AU (surprisingly one person still somehow found it and became a fan though). On bsky it's mostly Pokemon fans and drawing Pokemon is always comfy for me so when it resonates with someone else it's nice. And that's more or less it. Sometimes I want to yap about smth more specific though and it can be hard to find a place to direct that yap at. For example discussing games on Steam forums can be annoying because there are many toxic people there. Or sometimes in a friend group everyone talks about life problems and I don't want to interject with my less serious stuff.

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

There is a pokemon focused instance here BTW

donphan.social

This generalist Mastodon server welcomes enthusiasts of the Pokémon franchise, to talk about it or anything else. Join the federation!

donphan.social

 

[kiadony]

I did the bridge thing with my bsky but idk what it's supposed to achieve

Also I don't want to sound like an attention seeker but one thing that frustrates me is when a person online reaches out to me first, says they want to talk etc., only to go quiet the moment I respond, and then they never respond back again. Like I said, I get they don't owe me anything, that everyone has lives and all, but then why get my hopes up like that to begin with

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

bridge thing with my bsky

People on mastodon will be able to see your posts, andthose that also have the bridge enabled will be able to talk to you. It just gives more options.

but one thing that frustrates me is when a person online reaches out to me first, says they want to talk etc., only to go quiet the moment I respond, and then they never respond back again. Like I said, I get they don't owe me anything, that everyone has lives and all, but then why get my hopes up like that to begin with

Yeah that is quite sad and discouraging. I would feel bad in this situation too. People do this for various reasons, life happens, insecurities, their own socializing/communication issues...talking to people and finding connection can be hard sometimes.

And everyone needs some kind of human attention to live, I don't think it is bad to ask for it or want it (as long as it does not break the other persons boundaries) We are ultimately social creatures.

 

[kiadony]

People on mastodon will be able to see your posts, andthose that also have the bridge enabled will be able to talk to you. It just gives more options.

I'm pretty sure my bsky is already visible to everyone so I guess the only real change is if someone wants to interact? Cause I would image bsky stuff wouldn't show up in mastodon search/tags/whatever it has.

Yeah that is quite sad and discouraging. I would feel bad in this situation too. People do this for various reasons, life happens, insecurities, their own socializing/communication issues...talking to people and finding connection can be hard sometimes.

And everyone needs some kind of human attention to live, I don't think it is bad to ask for it or want it (as long as it does not break the other persons boundaries) We are ultimately social creatures.

See I often see it as a "me problem" because I am maybe too easygoing and extroverted irl, so I have a hard time relating to introverts and people with anxieties and such. So I often feel like I am too pushy towards them unintentionally.

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

I often feel like I am too pushy towards them unintentionally.

As the introvert represent, I can advise only to check in and ask about the level/frequency of interaction they are ok with, and just confirm if thatnis what they think or not. It is also their responsibility then to respond honestly and disclose their needs, if they want to be friends. Both sides can adapt.
Usually they probably don't think you're pushy, they might just don't know what say or have the energy to respond

mastodon search/tags

Bluesky stuff shows up in hashtags I follow for me. and yeah it gives options for interaction