In response to the Reddit post asking “Why is Mastodon struggling to survive?”

You can see the post here: Why is Mastodon struggling to survive?

Interesting how different people can have a very different view of a chart.

You see a “platform” struggling to survive. I see a totally new approach that has doubled in size in 18ish months. Sure, it would be better to see growth in the last months, but as others have pointed out folks are still settling in. Those folks will be the foundation for future growth.

I’m not sure what is threatening Mastodon’s “survival” since only a few independent servers need to be operating for it to survive. That was the point – no “John Mastodon” who’s going to have some kind of hissy fit and shut things down or lock people out or whatever. Sure, server owners can feud and so on, but the ability to make walled gardens is also the point.

You may be concerned that it’s not attracting enough X users, but I look at X users the way I look at smokers, which is to say I don’t need them. The folks who need the way X works will always choose X over Mastodon, no matter how easy they find Mastodon to use.

Growth will come from the folks who aren’t on anything, or who aren’t engaged elsewhere, or are refugees from elsewhere. BTW, that’s why user count alone isn’t very useful. And since you’re comparing to X, where is X’s growth chart at the same point in its life? Wait, there’d be little point because there’s no pile of capital to invest in driving people to Mastodon, because there’s no ad-driven payday on the back end. Mastodon will have pure organic growth, which will be slow. With big boosts coming from the occasional CEO screwup elsewhere.

All that said, you’re asking for improvements, so here are a few:

1. Get rid of the “which server” decision. Put people on a randomly-selected server. Or, make everyone start on a single “starter” server, and then encourage them to move on later. Or just move them on later. Most people don’t get or care about the advantages of independent servers, and asking them to choose one is making them face a seemingly very important choice very early with no education on how to make it – not good.
2. Get people to use hashtags. Hashtags are the key to finding people and content, but folks don’t use them. Sure, comments meant only for followers are one thing, but anything on a subject needs to have them to have any reach. That reach is what yields followers. Maybe a tool that suggests them when writing?
3. Help people find people to follow immediately, by having them pick hashtags they are interested in, and showing them folks posting with and following those hashtags. This would help with the initial loneliness/shouting the void feeling. With no algorithm and no ads and no one gaming the algorithm Mastodon feels empty and lonely without some people to follow. The challenge here is that it always will compared to X/Threads because there’s no force-feeding of content.
4. Set expectations. There is no force-feeding of content. That’s actually a good thing. This isn’t X or Threads and it never will be simply by how it is funded and operates. People should expect less stuff, but also less manipulation and less time suck. Accept that the people who want that aren’t going to stay long on Mastodon. It’s more people than you think.
5. Polish the app and site. Both are a bit rough compared to “mainstream” apps.

In the end, though, Mastodon isn’t X or Threads. It never will be because it exists for a different reason, operates in a different way and attracts a different audience. Mastodon is for people who read. X is for people who react.