@amerika @zleap i think it’s unfair to blame these sites for this uneven distribution of success, because most such distributions look exponential, and it’s not hard to understand why. time and attention is limited. people try to maximise the quality of what they pay attention to.

@thor @zleap

I agree, but I think it's cultural also.

There's no overall culture, so people just focus on their own projects, and no one really connects on anything.

It's like the San Francisco airport or something.

@amerika @thor

Yeah, there are things we could connect on such as sport, music, we just need the content on here to follow then spark interaction.

@zleap @thor

I don't even think it's that.

The place needs a culture other than "we are fleeing from other places."

It's like early Reddit, lotta nerds and dropouts, dissidents and hermits, but there is no clear idea of how people should interact so it becomes scrolling through lots of tangentially-related activity.

@amerika @thor

I am not sure when Donald Trumps network is launched but what effect do you think all the publicity will have here?

@zleap @thor

Dunno. I imagine his network will be a lot like Gettr: friendly to civilized discourse, and therefore, very much "normie" in terms of discussion.

Fedi is where the wild growing edge of the internet will go.

@amerika @thor

Yeah, what concerns me is the media will pick up on say racism (even 1 or 2 comments) and then some how twist that to imply all of mastodon is like that

@zleap @thor

They're one-issue voters. Either you're with their plan -- worldwide market socialism, civil rights, diversity, and bureaucracy -- or you're the enemy.

@amerika @thor

We need a plan for some sort of damage limitation to shut the critics who can't be bothered to sign up and stay long enough to learn what goes on here.

@zleap @thor

I don't think this is possible. They're going to say whatever they want.

I'd stick to core message: we're the anarchistic free zone where people can express themselves without limitation, so you WILL be offended and you WILL get over it shortly ;)

@amerika @zleap @thor The beauty here is that it's like a real life social gathering, say a party or a pub. You wander around, until you find people you think are interesting. They might like you, they might not. The conversation might turn to something you dislike, but you can just wander off and talk to other people. No feed algorithm will keep on shoving more people who sound like the ones you briefly met, into your face.

It can be hard to find friends, but it's easy to avoid the worst.