Numbers matter because activity is directly proportional to user count. A lot of mainstream users won't join a platform until it already has a critical mass. They don't want to be early adopters or trail blazers. They want to go where their friends and good conversations are.

We've got to set the table for them. With a lot of users there will be more buzz and more social gravity to pull people here. We're the first drunk uncle on the dance floor at the wedding that gets the party started. A dance floor with a few drunk uncles is fun for the uncles but unless a couple nieces and a grandma doesn't join in then it's not a party.

People have been burned by so many hot new social networks that they wary. They don't believe that they can have a good network that's not full of ads and selling their info.

But the time is now, the DJ has put on Montel Jordan's This is How We Do It and it's up to us, the drunk uncles of the fediverse, to get everyone onto the dance floor.