[EricHolden12]

mastodon could’ve been the one if there was an avenue for someone with a strong product sense to lead it paired with better marketing. Instead we got a bunch of nerds using words like federated, self-hosted, open to talk about it and ensure it’s place in history next to the facebook killer “diaspora”

[jqpabc123]

Users just want to reach out to and converse with a potentially large audience in a simple, easy, consistent manner.

Mastodon misses the mark by ignoring this in favor of ideology and implementation details. Like a lot of open source, it doesn't try to avoid technical details, it wants to wallow in them.

It is like the social media equivalent of Linux on the desktop. If noone really cares about attracting a wide user base and doesn't actively work toward that goal, then it probably won't ever have one.

Example: Twitter users never had care about finding a "server". Right out of the chute, Mastodon throws up a technical road block.

[BulgarianIdiot]

And yet email users have to care for a server and email is thriving.

[jqpabc123]

In most cases, an email server is provided by the ISP or by Google. And once provided, the service is pretty standardized.

Not so with Mastodon where the first step is to go server shopping without any real basis for making a decision.