Colin Devroe with some thoughts on social platforms and VC funding:
People are still chasing follower counts. Mastodon (which may not be perfect but the model is far more attractive and sustainable than anything else out there right now) isn’t growing at the pace Bluesky is and so people aren’t even considering it. That is a shame.
If you’re chasing follower counts, you’ll never be truly happy. Chase good content and good conversations. Chase having your own space on the web.
@manton Strong agree. The Follower, Likes, boosts, etc. counts even if it is private to the author change how and what you post. It also encourages the insidious "follow back" behavior. Hiding those metrics is the best thing Micro.blog has done in this space. Fortunately, many Mastodon apps allow you to hide those counts on your timeline but you can still see them on the profiles.
@manton I agree. I also think so many people are severely addicted to the firehose of sensory input from things like Twitter and Bluesky. It's like that sore tooth you can't stop touching for them. People's brain are on overdrive and they can't shut it down, so they flock to the newest huge platform. It reminds me of people who watch cable news all day.
@pratik I never understood why Mastodon shows the like and boost counts on the profile pages. Seems like an odd decision after them having considered not showing it on the Timeline.
@moonmehta That's true. Maybe someone should point it out to them. If you know how to, file an issue report on their GitHub.
