Chris Trottier
I disagree with those who say “Let’s focus on spreading awareness for Mastodon—not the Fediverse” for three reasons:
1. Some people hate Mastodon. If they don’t like Mastodon, they should know about options to their liking.
2. Some people are looking for alternatives to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram—and Mastodon is not the answer for them.
3. What about developers looking to build novel and new social media? They should know what ActivityPub does.
Chris Trottier
A further problem with focusing on Mastodon is that it creates development myopia -- and sometimes hostility too.
For example, @ivory blocks other services from using the client -- even if those services are using Mastdon's API.
There's no reason for that other than @ivory simply having no regard for any part of the Fediverse that isn't Mastodon.
Is this the kind of future we want for the Fediverse?
Chris Trottier
Look, I’ve had very prominent people say to me, “I can’t use Mastodon.”
So I ask them, “What do you want to do?”
Sometimes they tell me things like, “I want to quote retweet.”
And my reply is, “You should try Akkoma or Calckey—it does those things.”
That’s how many people end up staying on the Fediverse.
Chris Trottier
I know a thing or two about marketing social media software. And the most important principle about marketing is finding “product market fit”.
Which means, don’t sell people on a product.
Find out what core problem people are experiencing, and help them find a solution.
What if someone requires groups? Are you going to recommend Mastodon to them?
No, not Mastodon because groups aren’t supported by it yet.
But you should recommend a Fediverse platform that supports groups.
Chris Trottier
The other problem with focusing too much on Mastodon is that certain Mastodon users make you feel bad for wanting features that Mastodon doesn’t have.
I’ve seen people get really angry at new arrivals who ask for full text search.
Instead of telling people that they’re horrible for wanting full text search, why not direct them to Akkoma, Friendica, Misskey—anything that has full text search?
Chris Trottier
There’s very, very good reasons to not push people to Mastodon. What’s more important is asking, “How do you intend on using social media?”
Are you an artist who wants to curate your work? I’m not convinced that Mastodon is right for you.
Same with with anyone requiring rich text formatting. Mastodon is probably not for you, and that’s okay.
You have other options on the Fediverse.
Chris Trottier
The further problem with focusing on Mastodon is that it’s not an accurate picture for what the Fediverse can do.
People think ActivityPub can only do microblogging because Mastodon concentrates on being a Twitter alternative.
Even now, people are shocked when I tell them it is capable of more.
I guarantee someone is shocked just reading this post—and they might ask me for more details.
To them, I urge you to Google “Fediverse software” and see what else is out there.
Toni :mastodon:
@atomicpoet Noo, no no, of course NO!
No lo queremos no.
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