Technology

I use both. I've been on Mastodon for the better part of a year and only actively tried Bluesky the last couple weeks. My Bluesky feed is thriving, whereas Mastodon not so much. IMO this is due to Mastodon is missing the major quality of life features of Bluesky.

• Add lists
• Subscribable block lists
• Custom subscribable topic feeds
• Optional recommendation engine

These things make Bluesky very easy to get started with and more powerful even than Xitter was. It's simply a better product if you have any requirements other than federation. Getting a good feed up and running doesn't take more than an hour or two. Mastodon is a lot more work.

Yes, its federation is more or less bullshit, but for most users, that feature is a distant priority when compared to the rest.

Here are some:

• The average person is tech illiterate, so having them understand what a "federated platform" is, is too much to ask. It may be easy for you or me, but we're here on Lemmy, so that immediately makes us not the average.

• The average person also doesn't care what a federated platform is. They just want something that is convenient and works. Same as the above point; maybe we would be willing to sit down and figure things out, but others will consider that a waste of time and makes something bad.

• In that sense, federated platforms are a major failure, as picking instances and creating accounts is a hassle rather than a convenience.

• From personal experience, trying to find a Mastodon instance to make an account on was irritating. Some rules were too restrictive, some rules were too vague, other rules looked like they were created for sensitive little snowflakes. It was like reading through the rules of Discord servers. Not a good look for a social media platform.

• Something like Bluesky tries to be both; a platform without algorithms (or only user-created algorithms that you can choose to subscribe to), where you can make your own instance or just be part of its centralised instance. The fact that the overwhelming number of people choose the latter should tell you enough about what people want.

In almost every thread where this has come up, people have gone into extensive detail about why.

There are a number of you either missing or ignoring it. Which I guess is why the comment sections for these articles are always almost exactly the same.

and don't say algorithms. the general public constantly laments about how algorithms have ruined everything.

Right, right. Much the same way the American public complains that fast food has ruined their health and yet 2/3 of the nation is overweight. Or how chain smokers know full well their lungs are fucked six ways to Sunday but they keep reaching for those nicotine hits. It's almost like people say they hate the things they continue to reach for all the time. Funny, that.

Do I think the Fedi is reasonably within the grasp of understanding for most of the general public? Sure. But do I think anything on the Fedi stands a ghost of a chance in competition against centralized services that cater to the dopamine rush people are already conditioned to expect and continue to reach for even when several of them claim to hate it? Oh fuck no, absolutely not.

There are a lot of reasons why. Mastodon apps are not pretty. The logo is not attractive. The signup where you need to pick the server for some reason is confusing. The reputation Mastodon already has among the general public, that it's the place for Linux enthusiasts, is not doing it any more favors.

You say that the algorithms have ruined everything but it's just not true. Discoverability is dead on Mastodon. The platform doesn't suggest me any new people to follow. The vocal minority against the recommendation algorithms is just that, a vocal minority. Recommendations are useful if they are not obtrusive.

I've been trying to keep my Mastodon account active for two years and I've been posting some random shit the same way I did on Twitter. I've been looking for some fun idiots but there are none, it's all uptight serious people who are honestly pretty insufferable to read. I deleted my Mastodon account half a year ago and the one thing I appreciate is how easy it was — just a couple of clicks and you're done.