Evan Prodromou
So, I logged into Twitter yesterday for the first time in a few weeks to add my ActivityPub address to my profile.
I saw three trends in my timeline:
"Follow my Substack" (mostly journalists)
"I'm on Mastodon now" (tech, science, politics, some social media personalities)
"I'm staying till the bitter end" (comedy, celebrities, show business)
I don't follow brands or bots, so all humans.
I think there's a real opportunity for Substack to implement AP and join up the networks.
Evan Prodromou
@strangefreeworld pay-to-follow seems pretty reasonable to implement in the ActivityPub universe.
And a lot of Substack content is free of charge.
strangefreeworld
@evan I agree but they probably won’t if they can’t make money off it.
Evan Prodromou
@simonc yes, but people say "I'm moving to Mastodon"
Simon Coles
@evan I've been thinking that the #TwitterMigration is less about
"Moving from Twitter to Mastodon"
and more
"Moving from the walled garden of Twitter to the Fediverse, of which Mastodon is currently the most approachable implementation".
Joining Mastodon gets people comfortable with joining a server that's federated to others. It's a small leap to then pick different software implementations.
Evan Prodromou
@hemonc organizations that optimize for active users put in the extra effort to make onboarding easier and to get first-time users active. The fact that platforms like Mastodon are "hard" for onboarding is actually a sign that those optimizations haven't happened.
Peter Yang, MD - Yaz
@simonc @WayneLiangMD @evan Honestly, I think it probably is not an anomaly. In order to appeal to a broad enough audience, it seems that large central entities are what people want and gravitate toward. Many people prioritize convenience above all else. Nevertheless, hopefully periodic episodes like this remind people about the importance of diversity and not being overcommitted to one entity.
Simon Coles
@hemonc @WayneLiangMD @evan And also how there weren't big vendors behind things.
I remember protocols being the thing, really. Usenet, Gopher, the web, even anonymous FTP. Sure you'd get excited about a particular site but it was in a wider context.
I wonder if the dominance of large companies and their walled gardens is an anomaly?
Peter Yang, MD - Yaz
@simonc @WayneLiangMD @evan seriously, am I the only one who remembers how much work it was in the 1990s and early 2000s to do certain things online?
Peter Yang, MD - Yaz
@simonc @WayneLiangMD @evan I've been modestly surprised by how much difficulty people say they have had trying this out. I mean, I understand some of the confusion about servers and finding people, but once you do it a few times, it's pretty straightforward. There are far more difficult things in life than this.
Simon Coles
@WayneLiangMD @evan I think people start out wanting an alternative to the birdie site.
And they expect it to be the same "just sign up here" experience.
And then they find they have to pick an instance. Most will give up at that point but those who persevere have to have some awareness of federation.
Maybe only 10% of people currently engaged with Twitter will make the transition, but I suspect it's the 10% that matters for a vibrant community?
Wayne Liang, MD MS FAMIA
@simonc @evan for most people, I don’t think they care about the Fediverse per se. they just want an alternative to the birdie site that just works.
Just joining Mastodon is already a huge leap for most, given usability issues compared with the birdie site. So I don’t think it’s a small leap at all to other software implementations. There is a limit to what folks will tolerate to engage in social media.
Evan Prodromou
@mart0 Right, but it's not Substack. I'm not talking about functionality, I'm talking about userbase.
mart0
Write Freely is very close to substack with AP.
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