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this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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Technology
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Mastodon is fine, it'll outlive every commercial social media platform because it doesn't need a funding runway or to show profit to shareholders.
I does need users though and from the stats, it doesn't look like it's gaining. If something else comes along that convinces people to leave, it could die.
But, I'll stay optimistic that the EU and other countries will want to get rid of their US tech addiction and slowly move over to federated alternatives. Not crap like "W".
It's a completely different dynamic from commercial services. It needs enough users to continue developing the software, to operate servers, and to create content on the platform. There is more than enough users on the platform to ensure that it can operate indefinitely at this point. Meanwhile, most people on Mastodon, just as the case is with Lemmy, are on it because they want an open source platform. So, they're not going to jump on another proprietary garbage platform BlueSky or W. And if a better open source platform comes along that's a win for everyone.
And I'd argue that chasing growth for the sake of growth can itself be harmful. When you have a slow trickle of new users then they adapt to the existing culture of the platform. But if you have a huge influx of people all at once they can erase the existing communities in the process.