I've seen a lot of voices saying that " #Mastodon does not need to grow to be successful", and "we don't need to put in more effort to welcome new users", and frankly this attitude is pissing me off.
"The reason that social media did not work as promised is not because we misunderstood the nature of the internet and the possibilities of digital connectivity, but because oligarchs took over the digital space."
If there is any chance of using social media as a force for democracy, we desperately need a system that _cannot_ be taken over by the oligarchs. And, right now, the #Fediverse is the best candidate for this.
Thus, there is homework that needs to be done. We cannot just rest on our laurels and proclaim that the tech is already good enough, and that the #Fediverse tech approach somehow magically solves all the problems of other social media platforms. We need to get away from the overwhelmingly white male European/North American user base and look for ways on how to increase #BIPOC user participation - not to mention participation of users from Asia, Africa, and South America.
If we try to maintain the Fediverse as the home of a small, incestuous group of people with a particular tech slant, the oligarchs will win.
@juergen_hubert
I haven't seen much of this. None here
#Mastodon will keep growing with Elon spurts here and there. The best thing is that it's exactly what you make it.
@jimlil That's just it - we don't really see much ethnic diversity here.
Twitter, for all of its many, many faults, made it easy to connect with people from all sorts of different backgrounds. I followed lots of people from #BlackTwitter . I made contact with folklore enthusiasts from Africa and Asia.
But #Mastodon and the #Fediverse seems to be overwhelmingly white and European/North American.
@juergen_hubert
Isn't that how all these things started?
@jimlil a problem (in my view at least) is that even if all these things tended to start that way, the attitudes I see on this platform tend to not only accept but embrace the homogeneity in ways I'm not sure were common in other examples.
There's a real lack of diversity here, and there are a LOT of people cheering it, resisting growth and handwringing over the possibility that things might change and diverse perspectives might show up in feeds.
From what I've seen that often feeds into the "we don't need growth" stance.
I don't think it's healthy.
@jimlil well, FWIW, I do see a lot of that even though you don't.
Different feeds and subscriptions, I suppose.
But if it matters, then FYI, there is a lot of that on this platform at least in some webs.
One problem is that people who take that position seem vocal about actively excluding new people, pushing for instance bans and such.
@volkris
Perhaps you're looking for complaints? I'm not.
Growth is coming, like it or not.
@jimlil I'm sure it depends on what instance you're on and what hashtags you're following.
I think the complaints pop up under hashtags like mastodon, fediverse, and twitter for me. That's probably especially true as so many now believe remaining twitter users are awful and don't want to see those supposedly awful people coming over here.
There's a lot of tribalism out there when it comes to fediverse, and a lot of people wanting to exclude people from what they see as their tribe here.
@volkris
They are all more than welcome to complain as much as they like & you're welcome to follow.
I like the instance I'm on and I much prefer to follow solutions rather than complaints & things that irritate for no reason.
@jimlil I mean, I'm (probably) on your side in saying the more the merrier.
I WANT to see diversity of opinion that new people bring to the table.
But... there are so many who push for instances to not only block such new people, but also to block other instances that allow such new people.
I figure we might as well realize such folks are out there intentionally looking to cut instances off from each other, in part so we can push back against them.
@volkris
As I said before, I don't see much *we don't need growth* here, but it seems to me it doesn't matter much what *they* say