As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.
Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so0. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me1, your password manager is a graveyard of unloved services and your MFA app is filled with icons of websites you barely remember.
It could easily have been that way with Mastodon. I gradually drifted away from Slashdot. Despite a promising start, AppDotNet died an untimely death. Slack works as a meta-social-network - but there are half-a-dozen communities which I know I'll never check in on. Once in a blue moon I'll think about uploading a photo to Flickr. I tried quitting Twitter several times - only to walk away cold turkey to prevent my soul being polluted by its filth.
I lurk on LinkedIn mainly to gawp at the brainworms. Threads just pushed too much crap into my feed. I think I have a tumblr and a dozen other social media accounts which fell into disrepair.
So what made Mastodon so sticky for me?
Silence Brand
Brands on social networks is an anti-pattern. You cannot be friends with a company.
In the early days of Twitter, brands were desperate to join the global conversation. They saw people complaining about them and wanted to intercede. Sadly that just promoted maladaptive behaviour as people (especially those with large followings) found they could bully brands into submission.
So brands retreated into the only thing they know how to do; advertise.
Mastodon has been remarkably resistant to corporations coming along to plant their flags. The few that are on there are either genuinely interested in the technology or are broadcast only.
Algorithms and Filters
It's wrong to say that Mastodon doesn't have an algorithm. It displays posts in chronological order - that's an algorithm. It has decent enough spam filtering - again, an algorithm. But it never tries to promote far-right hate posts to me.
Even better, it has proper support for a user's personalised filters. I can easily block discussion of politics2 and sport. I can turn off reposts from individual accounts that I follow - you know the guy who reposts every puppy video he finds.
That makes for a relaxing and stress-free experience.
Fun Technology
I wasted years on the Twitter API. While I got some lovely swag from Twitter for faffing about with their tech, it was always clear that certain sections of Twitter's leadership hated that 3rd parties could use their APIs. Similarly, Facebook's API started as fun but quickly descended into a locked-down corporate hellscape.
Mastodon's API is mostly a delight to use. There aren't weird and arbitrary restrictions. Even better, because of the inherent open nature of the Fediverse, I can write my own ActivityPub software to interact with it.
I'm even getting paid to develop ActivityBot!
Nice People
Most of the people who join Mastodon3 feel rejected from more corporate social media. They've either made an active choice to try something different or they've been thrown off the mainstream apps. That's (mostly) good - and means that they're invested in making work something that's different.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss some of the people from Twitter. I think most of them are on BlueSky now - so I'm on there as well. Think of it like quitting smoking by taking up vaping. Sure, not ideal, but better than the alternative.
What it is missing
I can't pretend everything is brilliant. In no particular order, here are some of the papercuts which annoy me daily.
Reply Controls
BlueSky allows me to set a limit on who can reply to my posts. It is bliss. Sometimes I don't want the world chatting back to me. Yes, there's the ability to restrict who can see my posts in the first place, or who can quote my posts, but it isn't the same.
Super Block
Similarly, I want to be able to remove replies to me. If someone is being abusive or annoying, I don't want my friends to see that. If I block them, I want their replies to vanish from view in my threads.
I can moderate replies to my blog posts - why can't I moderate replies to my microblog posts?
Reply Guys
The two issues above are caused by the same strain of reply-guy. There's something about Mastodon which attracts a certain class of person. I get so many replies from people who either have never heard of this Earth concept called humour, or think that their inexpert Googling is helpful, or want to argue about something I haven't said.
It can be infuriating and I understand why it drives people away.
Geolocation
I just think social geolocation would be nifty!
More People
I'm in two minds about this. Services like Brid.gy allow me to follow my BSky friends on Masto, and vice-versa. Having more people on the Fediverse and away from corporate-owned social media would (hopefully) make it more viable in the long-term.
But more people means more spammers, grifters, and agents provocateur. There's a delicate balance to be found - not enough people and the network fails, too many people and it collapses.
I don't know what the right number is.
The nice thing about the Fediverse is that it literally cannot fail completely. Much like IRC survives despite "everyone" moving to Discord and WhatsApp, it chugs along in the background. ActivityPub servers will be around for the foreseeable future. So I'll be available on Mastodon (or its successor) until the bitter end.
Here's to the next ten years!
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Mastodon (and the Fediverse as a whole) by 2036. I am sure it'll have some wobbles, I hope it will see a renaissance, I look forward to shitposting far into the future.
You can follow me on Mastodon - @edent@mastodon.social.
