How to get people to use Mastodon?
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It’s not about it being for adults or for children. Mastodon is indeed a weird name, and people who have never heard of this platform with lots of things on their mind are more likely to dismiss it if it doesn’t immediately capture their attention / they don’t immediately know what it means.
While this naming “issue” is definitely on the bottom of priorities, I do find it worth mentioning, if only just for the sake of conversation. Plus, it’s kind of interesting to think about how something that, at first, doesn’t seem that important might influence the success of a product.
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Mastodon servers are separate entities, too. The fact that they communicate with each other doesn't change that, and the persistent desire that folks here have to imagine otherwise is a hurdle to adoption.
The mental model is of a central space that instances grant or bar access to, but that's simply not how the technology actually works. Too much effort has gone into trying to make ActivityPub-enabled websites look like something they're not (centralized social media), while totally ignoring what they are: small forums and microblogs that have optional access to other forums and microblogs.
Mastodon is web server software. "Mastodon" doesn't exist. It's an illusion. And the fact that everyone keeps trying to sell this illusion is exactly why there are all of these broken expectations and hurdles.
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When I told my best friend about mastodon, it misimprinted on her brain in a flash as "walrus chat" and now she can't for the life of her remember its actual name.
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Oh man. I had forgotten Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I think I last played that in high school.
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My gut reaction was to reject what you said, but the more I think about it... You might have a point.
I don't know. I don't want to say too much and regret it, but you did give me plenty to think about. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion.
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Ah ha, a fellow crawler! The game's still going and getting updated!
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It's the tusks, clearly.
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I love Tusky, it is my app of choice for Mastodon
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There's a new server planned relatively locally to me and it's capitalising on the terrifying plunge into fascism that all the Big Socials now have as their badge of dishonour. People have never been "happy"
to be on Facebook but the local focus in a pretty leftie iinet city area is a good idea. If people know people irl on Fedi they will maybe have an easier time. -
Maybe email is a better comparison for federated stuff than phpbb? You wouldn't tell someone to 'just get an email adress'. You'd recommend a specific email provider.
