> One can engage on multiple platforms. Don't have to leave something else to use Mastodon.
Sure, and those who have a technically savvy audience can use Mastodon can post on multiple platforms.
In this instance of bad changes X has made, the majority of those who are moving away from X this time round are more likely not going to engage on Mastodon as a second platform.
Too much hassle for them.
They are more likely to engage on platforms that have more engagement, like Bluesky or Threads.
I cannot see artists, journalists, etc going to Mastodon when X makes changes to their platform time and time again.
I used to see a lot of furry accounts in the Discover feed, but I mute them when I see them, and now I rarely see them any more. I don't have anything against furries, but it's not content I'm interested in. This is more a comment that Bluesky does seem to have an algorithm (at least in the Discover feed) that is sensitive to what you do or don't show interest in. Or it could just be that a lot more people have joined recently, so the furry stuff just isn't as prevalent.
Discover has a separate "show more/less like this" button too.
Every feed on the site is its own algorithm, and most are made by third-parties. Some of the more interesting ones have fallen over and broken a little as the volume of posts has increased. The various "catch up" feeds that show the most popular recent posts give a good impression of what's happening site wide (minus any blocks/mutes).
Bluesky is trying to differentiate itself with moderation tools -- people have created lists of furry accounts so you can bulk-ignore. But yeah I haven't found my "people" there yet, most of the activity is people I wouldn't choose to interact with.
Twitter and Bluesky are also full of furries. Frankly, if your social network lacks furries, it is probably in trouble; they seem to be a viability indicator.
(Not that it’s a guarantee of anything; notably, SecondLife is essentially _only_ furries.)
The tough thing is that for the vast majority of end users, the interface that they see is the software or service. So if their instance has a bunch of disgusting pornography, as far as they’re concerned, mastodon has a bunch of disgusting pornography. For a lot of folks, the browser/server abstraction for regular websites and how that differs from native apps is about as far as they’re willing to go in their understanding of Internet architecture and for many, it’s too far. Requiring people understand that not all mastodon is mastodon despite it being kind of the same, in order to avoid explicit hentai, is a non-starter. My grandparents are dead, but they would probably take their computer out back and set it on fire if that shit flashed up on their screen. They sure wouldn’t have used it as an opportunity to get all of the base knowledge they needed to even realize they had to instance shop. Facebook is just riiiiight over there.
It’s very off-putting and alienating for normal people.