I don’t see Mastodon as a whole going mainstream. I could see a scenario where a specific instance does, but even that seems far fetched (cost, moderation, etc). It’s just too spread out and complicated for the average user.
@canion No doubt. I'm just looking at it from the perspective of all of the "Leave Twitter and go to Mastodon" posts/tweets/articles that are everywhere right now.
@Mtt the name is an issue as well. My Dad was trying to tell me about it the other day and he couldn’t remember what it’s called. Kept saying Monzo instead, simple names play a big role in the mainstream.
@philbowell Valid point. There's also no one place to go to login. Usernames are long, links to profiles are inconsistent, server performance is unpredictable. And an average person will never understand "instances."
@philbowell I sympathize with your dad. I can't tell you how many times I've incorrectly typed "mastadon" or "mastidon."
@Mtt Your list is exactly what I've struggled with. I didn't really understand "instances" (what a terrible programmer name) until someone explained it to me this year. Not to mention the surprisingly complex culture of hiding content behind trigger warnings I've never heard of.
@gregmoore I was confused at first, even went as far as creating my own instance to learn ins and outs. I quickly realized I have no need for that, but it was a good learning experience. But I don’t think I have a single real life friend who would think of doing the same.
@Mtt Yeah, that’s like starting your own web hosting service just to make a webpage. There’s a hope behind my complaints that Mastodon succeeds because the web needs a lot less centralization and more interoperability. If the internet truly wants to meet the needs of humans, it would do better to allow for more diversity in the ways we can exist there.