Over the past 24 hrs while Mastodon was discoursing about whether or not starter packs are OK, and if slow progress is more due to lack of funding or different priorities, and if people that choose other social networks are just evil, lazy, shiftless people who love to lick VCs boots or are people that just want a better UX...
BlueSky added another 1 million users.
is bigger better?
Speaking as one of the largest human beings to ever have existed in the history of human kind... Yes! Bigger is better! 🤣
But all jokes aside, yes, if that bigger is because they were able to attract diversity and Mastodon was not. Eg, there are no Black people here. There are Black people there.
@Cyclist Diversity would be a boon to the richness of the conversation here (not to mention the moral obligation we owe our fellow human beings), but even aside from that, yes, bigger is better.
We use social media to connect with people. Sometimes those are new people we find via a social network, but often it's people or communities we're already connected to (friends, organizations, professional community, etc.).
This is unlike a text editor or something, where you can find a small niche tool and if it works the way you like and keeps being developed, then it doesn't matter if others like it. Network effects are very strong for a social network. That means that, all other things being equal, bigger is inherently better. So if the Fediverse ever hopes to offer a compelling alternative to commercial social media, it has to make growth a serious priority and get over the attitude you sometimes see among the user base that growth is not important.
