@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.

@brian @zleap @thor

I like that ideal, but the downside is that we are forever wandering, or find a small clique and get trapped there.

Culture matters.

Facebook just takes it to a bad place, like McDonald's and Coca-Cola does, by choosing what a plurality will not criticize.

@amerika @brian @zleap @thor When I came here, the fediverse already had a culture. With more people and mastodon, it has changed over time. But it was mostly a small culture where people supported free software and talked about technology/programming. A few other things were created too. Then the wave came that had me in it, looking for something exactly like that. We were leaving the centralised social medias behind, didn't want to worry about being banned, rules galore and other scummy practices twitter.

The fediverse when it was smaller appealed to people like me that saw what was wrong with places like twitter... then mastodon came and brought that twitter culture with them. Except they wanted a place without nazis, something they had more control over. Hence you see things like block lists and people being more block happy. Perhaps the problem is that social media doesn't scale well. You don't want huge popularity, but rather smaller communities with culture in them. When I first came here, I thought that bringing more people here would solve everything. Other people agreed back then, wanting to spread free software to everyone. It has only made the problems worse on here. I have felt less happy/healthy for it. I don't think I am alone in this. I don't know if it can be solved. It may just be a people problem.

@sim @brian @thor @zleap

In my view, people want two things from social media:

1. A constant feed of news and entertainment
2. A place to meet or socialize with people like them

@amerika @brian @thor @zleap Could be.

But I'd also add that some people want more control and others want more freedom in those interactions. When I first came here, I needed the extra freedom after being on twitter which was restrictive and controlling, filled with algorithms. Now I'm not so sure what the answer is after seeing what has become of the fediverse.

@sim @brian @thor @zleap

In my view, culture is the answer.

We don't need rules-by-software.

We need people who are more active in pushing the place toward some commonality and some interest in promoting its own.

@amerika @brian @thor @zleap It makes me wonder... what can I do in this direction?

@sim @brian @thor @zleap

Hellthreads produce culture. So does posting quality content, which you already do.

I think it helps to also engage people across a wide spectrum. Most of the Fedi is totally atomized, and while we need decentralization, we also need "meeting" somewhere in the center in socializing and what we discuss.