Please remember that Mastodon doesn't have a marketing team or budget. Whatever media coverage Mastodon gets is from inbound interest from journalists. The growth of the platform has been predominantly through word of mouth. If you want the fediverse to grow, tell your friends.
@Gargron I'm more a "quality over quantity" guy, but if you want more people to come over here, you need to provide the tools that folks have been asking for for years. Like quote posts, and banning racist accounts. So many people come here and give up because of the toxicity, and they are the ones who you would have wanted, because they post interesting, fun content.
@Gargron I still worry that Mastodon is effectively invisible to website owners because of `noreferrer` on outbound links. I know the community has spoken, but I'm not sure about the trade-off.
@Gargron In lieu of financial support, which I'm not prepared to offer right now, I'm happy to consult a few hours on strategic communications, media training, etc.
@Gargron I don’t really mind if fed remains the size it is. Looking towards perpetual growth is part of the reason why many central platforms have become shit.
Chiming in here just to say Mastodon is great and thank you.
It must feel oppressive. Everytime you post something, people take the opportunity to catalog their issues and complaints. In large measure it's because people love Mastodon and just want it to get even better, but it must be hard.
Folks, here's a person who's devoted his young life to creating something very special, not to get rich, but to make the world better. So, thank you Eugen, and yes we'll keep spreading the word.
@Gargron I would love it to grow, and I think the Fediverse is a very important ecosystem.
But to achieve that, Mastodon also needs to grow up with much better user safety tools.
Especially things that some other platforms have, such as controlling who can reply or answer.
I realise that's not necessarily that easy to implement, but I think that without it, a lot of people will no longer find this a safe (and fun) enough place.
@Gargron I've been trying to invite both my IRL friends and online friends, but I seem to be the only one interested in federated/FOSS alternatives to... well, anything.