Thoughts on the ‘Don

Promote and post, it’s the future

I’m not even going to do a preamble here. Here are some thoughts I’ve been having about Mastodon, in no particular order or rhyme:

I. Mastodon is here to stay, and will never go away. Mastodon isn’t a new invention — it has thrived for years, and the exodus will only make it stronger. People will not move back to the place they posted before, to garner attention, views, clicks, or anything else. I’m really disturbed by those that say “you couldn’t get enough views on Mastodon so you came back running to Twitter, you pathetic pissbaby.” It couldn’t be farther from the truth. Rather, most people who supposedly “came running back to Twitter” are considerate enough to crosspost or provide important updates to those who have decided firmly not to migrate. One of those people also happens to be one of the best YouTubers in the entire world, Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs, who migrated to Mastodon in December. He posted a tweet announcing the following: that the name of his Twitter account, previously “Quinn Nelson,” would now be “Snazzy Labs,” that the branding of the account would reflect the changes, and that he would be posting “information/updates/videos” from his YouTube channel(s). He then changed the name of his previous brand account to “Quinn Nelson,” and told people to follow him on Mastodon in that account’s bio. Why am I describing this in such detail? It’s because some idiots have misinterpreted this, probably because they aren’t very intelligent or capable human beings who focus their entire online persona on sheepishly worshiping Elon Musk, stating things like the above “you couldn’t get enough views so you came running back, pissbaby.” They’re all wrong and narrow-minded.

II. Nobody other than, in the words of Jon Prosser, lefty-bo-befties, has left Twitter because of the people on it. We’re tired of what Elon Musk and his cronies have done to the platform, and we either think it’s unsustainable or don’t enjoy the experience. I fall into the latter camp. Since his acquisition of the platform, Elon Musk has banned third-party Twitter apps completely, threatened to kill off the free Twitter API, forced everyone into using an algorithmic timeline, doubled the amount of ads on the service, forced himself into everyone’s feeds, posted an explicit image on his profile admitting to the issue of forcing himself into everyone’s feeds, threatened to un-verify “legacy verified” users, verified fake accounts, placed 4 different checkmarks on one Twitter profile, charged $1000 a month for businesses to get verified, enabled 4,000 character “tweets” raised the Twitter Blue subscription price to $8 a month, made all new features Blue exclusive, removed ad-free articles, made the platform extremely unstable to the point where it will randomly crash for no reason, fired essentially every last Twitter employee who worked to keep the service stable, and forced advertisers off the platform — all while posting the most absurd stuff on his personal Twitter account. This is the reason why we want to leave Twitter. It’s not petty — it’s because of what this idiot has done to the platform I used right before I went to bed and the first thing I used when I woke up. Elon Musk has made Twitter the most hostile social media network to use — and that says a lot. This is not about content, it’s about the service that hosts the content.

III. Anyone in the tech space who tweets right now, at least without crossposting to Mastodon, is a certified idiot. The people who were most active on Twitter and cared about Twitter the most have all moved to Mastodon — it’s just the truth. Anyone who denies this fact is a complete moron. Any tech YouTuber (which is most of them), tech blogger, tech-pundit, reporter, or anyone else who is not using Mastodon is doing their audience a complete disservice — because right now, what you’re doing is exclusively advertising to Muskrats who don’t give a damn about your star journalism. Crosspost your content to Mastodon — it might not look like it, but it’ll make your content extremely popular and make more people interested in what you do. Another thing; engage with the platform. Don’t just tweet new videos and call it a day. Follow other people, talk to them, boost content you enjoy. You’re an influencer; don’t remain complicit, don’t keep playing in Elon Musk’s cesspool. You have the power to change the media landscape, so do it.

IV. My biggest problem with Mastodon is the lack of people. That’s everyone’s biggest problem with Mastodon. Quit blaming it on the service. A social media service is only as good as the people on it. Like I said earlier, crosspost your goddamn content, at the minimum. Engage with people. Move away from relying on Twitter as your only source of information. This goes for everyone. The only way we’re going to grow a platform and/or make it feel like more than alt-Twitter is by posting original, good content there frequently, engaging with people who care about our content, and engaging with people we admire. Boost, favorite, talk about things. It’s the tech town square, let’s make it feel like that. Instead of complaining and making excuses about the service, try to make it superior to anything else. This is our opportunity to start fresh. People on Mastodon want more people on Mastodon. Blogger, enthusiast, journalist, reporter, fan — everyone should be on Mastodon to grow it.

V. My experience with Mastodon is infinitely superior to Twitter, and for that reason alone, it should become the de facto social media service for tech people. We’re getting there. Mastodon is open-source. It’s privacy-preserving. It has amazing apps to interact with it, like Ivory. It’s everything Elon Musk has taken away from Twitter. It is more than just alt-Twitter. It’s Twitter turned up to 11. It’s a fast, fluid, smooth experience for everyone to enjoy, and that alone is what has made it so popular. “Tech bros spend way too much talking about it,” and that’s for a reason. This is what we’ve wanted Twitter to be for so long. We’ve got it, we’re getting there.

VI. Twitter is here to stay. It will never go bankrupt and will continue to be a mainstream source of news. Even as a huge believer in Mastodon, I know there will forever be holdouts. Mastodon will never go mainstream. It will never become the next Twitter — nothing will. We will forever have both Twitter and Mastodon on our devices as tech nerds. Twitter for mainstream news, Mastodon for our little tiny corner of the internet. The #1 mistake people make is thinking of Mastodon as a Twitter replacement. Twitter should become a supplement to Mastodon. Those who think Twitter will go bankrupt are short-sighted. Elon Musk will continue to hold on to the reigns forever, and he has an infinite pile of cash.

VII. We need to make Mastodon the most popular place to go for tech news. We will get there, but we all need to do our part in promoting it. Crosspost your content there. Don’t treat it as a supplement to Twitter. Think of it as your main platform. Post there, and do it frequently. Promote Mastodon hard — all day, every day on Twitter (if you still use it). Get more people to sign up. Ask your favorite YouTubers and bloggers and journalists to make accounts. Don’t let Mastodon flatline, don’t think of it as a flatlining service, and don’t discount it. The only way to make a platform grow is by promoting it and promoting it hard. Promote Mastodon everywhere you can, applaud people for making Mastodon accounts, and write more exclusive content on Mastodon to incentivize new people to be active there. Don’t treat Mastodon as a second platform, and don’t wait for anyone to do something stupid on Twitter. That’s stupid. Here are my three guidelines: promote Mastodon frequently, put Mastodon in your Twitter bio, and post hard and fast on Mastodon.

VIII. Mastodon, as a service, needs work to continue growing. We can’t continue to rely on Elon Musk’s stupid decisions to keep Mastodon growing. Mastodon needs 21st-century niceties like a much faster backend, quote tweets, a much-improved web app, a superior onboarding experience, and world-class cross-instance search. All of these features hold Mastodon back. We can’t let Mastodon be DDoS’d, have no way to refer to other posts, or create confusion. Search is necessary for referencing back to past tweets. No real search makes the platform feel broken. Many newcomers get confused by the server nonsense — a superior onboarding is needed STAT. People on a social network are important, but Mastodon needs to appeal to wider audiences and less tech-savvy individuals if it wants to maintain relevance.

IX. Elon Musk needs to, and will do something stupid to accelerate Mastodon adoption within the next couple months. I recently unfollowed a bunch of practically dead Mastodon accounts from people who created it as a backup in case Twitter really did die. The truth is, Elon Musk will kill Twitter’s good parts in just a matter of months. He’s going to kill legacy verified, remove all content moderation policies, enforce tweet limits on free users, bottleneck free accounts, ramp up the number of ads on the service, and make it hell for free users to make as much money as possible. Elon Musk is not a nice fellow, he doesn’t know how to run a social network, and he doesn’t know how to manage people. He’s an egotistical narcissistic jackass who expects everyone to behave the way he wants. He will do stupid shit. He will accelerate Mastodon adoption himself. This is a good thing for us Mastodon users, and I’m here for it. Let that man’s site rest in hell.

X. Mastodon is ready. It’s time to ditch Twitter, the one-man Birdsite. Post frequently, promote frequently, and tell everyone to ditch the stupid bird app. It’s not productive, it’s not fun, and it’s not a good experience. Welcome to Mastodon, people.