Implications of platform size: manton.org

@manton thanks for these insights. I would love also to hear your expanded thoughts on becoming delusioned with Mastodon

@voumig Thanks for reading. I almost didn’t include that part because I don’t want it to distract too much from the larger point, but here’s another recent post that hints at some of what I’m thinking.

@manton sorry, I proved your concern lol thanks, will read it as well

@manton I know people who to this day use Facebook for posting long, really well-written articles that are essentially blog posts. Some of them even started as bloggers.

When I ask them why they post on social media, they usually mention the social aspect. Which is what I think people love most about platforms like Substack, Threads, etc. Starting, posting, and interacting with others feels frictionless.

I have a question: How do they even calculate the number of blogs?

@vladcampos I think the number comes from web crawling and noting specific popular platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, etc. Not super accurate, I’m sure, but it’s a number I’ve seen in multiple places.

@manton Interesting piece, thanks. Tim Bray makes some compelling arguments for Mastodon in Mastodon, The Only Good Choice.

@jkratz this reminds me of the situation that happened with our Facebook skateboarding group when we moved it away from Facebook a couple of years ago. Several hundred people who were members of that group, about 15 or 20 followed us to non-big silo services. Honestly we don’t really care. But it was fascinating to see how few people would lift a finger to learn even the slightest new thing. At first I thought it was sheer laziness, but the truth is most people just don’t give a shit. All these things that people like me agonize over don’t make any difference to most people.

https://theczarbar.com/2025/01/11/refusing-a-lifevest.html

@mmetcalfe Thanks. For Tim’s post, the way I think about it is that he outlines all the arguments for Mastodon circa 2018. What about today? That’s why I think looking at platform size and potential growth is interesting.

@manton I agree with your thoughts on Mastodon. Increasingly, Bluesky feels socially dysfunctional in a way that’s related to X, different flavor. I think I would be less perturbed with platforms if we had more control over the algorithmic experience.

@flotisserie Yeah, I’m hoping that Bluesky custom feeds are a good first step toward more algorithmic control. Feels like more can be done there.

@manton I hear what you’re saying. I think TIm is making points about resilience, centralisation and scale. It is the scale of these “utility” platforms that create the business model problems. That the tech industry has made no progress solving it since 2018 doesn’t make me hopeful!