There is a lot of disdain here on #Mastodon and the #Fediverse for those who have chosen to stay on #X / #Twitter and other social media platforms. And I think that this is not helpful.
There is a lot of disdain here on #Mastodon and the #Fediverse for those who have chosen to stay on #X / #Twitter and other social media platforms. And I think that this is not helpful.
There is a lot of disdain here on #Mastodon and the #Fediverse for those who have chosen to stay on #X / #Twitter and other social media platforms. And I think that this is not helpful.
I mean, sure, in the case of governments, political leaders, and major news organizations, disdain away. But many activists and small-time business owners depend on having a large reach and good networking for their activities, and this reach might simply not be feasible on the Fediverse - especially if their primary focus is on a demographic underrepresented around here (as the Fediverse skews heavily towards white Europeans and North Americans).
Hating on these people accomplishes nothing useful - and worse, it contributes to the Fediverse's well-deserved reputation for snobbery, which has driven a lot of people away.
So instead try empathy. Understand why such people make the choice to stay on other social media platforms, despite their problems. And instead of berating them for it, emphasize that these platforms will almost certainly get worse over time, due to the Enshittification cycle that all tech businesses touched by Silicon Valley venture capitalists must inevitably go through.
Suggest that developing a Fediverse presence is a useful "Plan B" for their social media efforts - and that among social media platforms, the Fediverse alone has the potential to develop into something better over time.
The fear of moving away from a platform or program because it has a large user base stagnates us and leaves us at the mercy of them. This leads us to a reliance on a single focal point for any given use case, and when that fails or does something terrible we will have nowhere else to turn. It is imperative that we have a distribution of programs and platforms for technologies that our society relies upon. The only way this happens is if we use less popular ones and move away from those who try to exploit us. It may have difficulties and growing pains in doing so, but the long term benefits far outweigh the short term needs that so many are prioritizing.
2/ As an addendum, I want to make clear that I have absolutely zero sympathies for the social media platforms and their owners themselves. In fact, I consider them to be a dire threat to civilization, as their algorithms and owners promote hatred and bigotry of all kinds.
What I want to stress is empathy for many of the users on these platforms. Most of them stay there for reasons that make sense to them, after all.
And "empathy" does not mean "agreement". But if you don't take the time to understand their points of view, you are unlikely to convince them to give the #Fediverse a try.
I closed my X account a long time ago solely because of Musk.
However, I agree completely with you. Many people have an intolerance for anyone who makes different choices than they do. Look at the brouhaha over federating with Threads. Some admins block other instances solely because they don't block Threads and then follow up with hateful messages. They sound so much like that one person they hate so much.
Showing people that it can be just as toxic in the Fediverse doesn't help.
I think people should stop hassling others who think differently and stop the whining. I'm with you on this.
So instead try empathy.
Empathy is a resource like any other, and when it comes to enshittification mine is spent and not to be wasted on those whose drive is not empathy, but "number go up".
There's no reason why those people who "oh so much" depend on having audience (meaning: "big number go up") can't be on both the Fediverse and a proprietary platform. But if they can't even put that modicum of effort, they're part of the problem. Intention doesn't matter, only the result of the actions.