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The thing I love about this post and all its replies, is the stark difference in replies in answer to Brent's very reasonable question.
Some folks:
* It's the starter packs / easier onboarding!
Other folks:
[I'll let you read those replies]
https://mastodon.online/@BrentToderian/113478939656417633
If you think it's the starter packs / easier onboarding, then that leads you to want easier onboarding for Mastodon
If you think it's a character flaw or moral failing in people that choose BlueSky, that leads to doing nothing
I love BlueSky, mainly because it's now our best bet at Twitter not being as influential in the US midterm elections (that are coming up sooner than we think).
I like to brag and boast when I am right about a call, so it's only fair to admit when I'm wrong: I really thought Mastodon would get it together on the onboarding and trust and safety front.
In fairness, Mastodon is getting it together... but just far too slowly to matter. A slow "yes" is often the same outcome as a "no."
@mekkaokereke Sadly, I get the impression that the window of opportunity for Mastodon to be the great Twitter replacement might have closed.
It's just so quiet in here right now, especially compared with BlueSky.
That might change over time?
I think what a lot of people wanted was just a better moderated Twitter. And that's something Mastodon ultimately failed to deliver, particularly with the default apps.
I think perhaps it's time to focus on Mastodon better at being its own thing. A place for slower, more thoughtful, longer form conversations.
And to keep chipping away at the moderation and other issues that have held it back.
I certainly think there's merit in better federation between the Fedi and BlueSky.
But these are just a few disjointed thoughts...
@ajsadauskas @mekkaokereke I have tried to get lefty media guys and political parties interested in Mastodon -- and they seem to not get it. Wondering what else to do.
@mistergibson @mekkaokereke There was a whole wave of Australian journalists and prominent #auspol Twitter users who moved to Mastodon when Elon first bought the bird app.
Some moved back to X, others moved on to Threads and BlueSky.
Many who tried Masto for a time ended up on BlueSky.
I think there's a few reasons why that happened.
The onboarding journey and the default app, especially two years ago but still today, just weren't great.
There have also been issues with moderation and harassment.
There's issues, like quotes, that were supported by other Fedi apps but not Mastodon.
With credit to the Mastodon developers, some of those issues have been fixed, just nig nearly fast enough.
I definitely think there's value in Mastodon and the Fediverse more broadly.
But I'm now a lot less sure that role will be "the new Twitter".
@ajsadauskas @mekkaokereke @mistergibson It's blasphemy here to want to track how much traffic gets driven back to your website from social media posts. You're also not supposed to care about likes and boosts. But most people who write for a living or represent the public want some idea whether what they're posting is resonating.
I came here because the R community did, and I like it! But I still need other platforms for other topics & likely always will
@smach @ajsadauskas @mekkaokereke I fully support experimentation regarding the Fedi. Time to bust out the code editor?
@mistergibson @ajsadauskas @mekkaokereke I created my own searchable, sortable table of work-topic-related posts, including likes and boosts, back when I was still working to easily see which of mine were most popular. It's still running 
https://www.machlis.com/mastodon.php
Didn't bother trying to track traffic to my articles here, I knew adding tracking code or using short links would bug people.
@ajsadauskas @mistergibson Sadly, unless we figure out how to make the fediverse appealing to normies that maybe aren't very political, Twitter-level traction ain't happening. Like, ever. The ideologues who seem to wish nobody ever migrated here from Twitter don't help matters any. I don't know how to solve any of that.