What was Musk's logic? Was there any? It's like he ruined the reputation of Twitter and decided to try a restart under a new name but it's predictably failing.

Ironically the two are only half way competing with each other. There's two buckets of twitter peeps:

A) People who keep up with specific people, reducing day by day.

B) The for you page peeps. The vast majority of people I know on Twitter including myself are there for the algorithm feeding us memes and content. Specifically the 2016-2021 algorithm.

Considering mastodon doesn't have any form of FYP/For you it's really only competing for bucket A which in my experience has reduced by an incredible amount in the past few years and continues to reduce and makes it useless to a large majority of twitter users.

Unfortunately or fortunately twitters algorithm also sucks now so there's a pretty big market gap here.

It should be “User x-odus.”

His master mind move will be revealed any moment now! The great plan unfolds in front of our eyes!

It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

I wonder if Elon takes a massive hit before coming up with these ideas

Get them onto kbin.social. we can always use some extra mates! 🦙

Damn, elon's really leaning into that edgelord dystopian faceless corporation aesthetic huh

I completely understand why people would be drawn to Mastodon as an alternative to Twitter. The platform's decision to prioritize white supremacy and far-right extremism was a major factor in alienating many users who found themselves unwelcome on the platform. As a result, Mastodon has benefited from the backlash against Twitter's actions, but it's clear that there are still plenty of people seeking an alternative social media network that doesn't condone hate speech and bigotry.

In addition to the issues you mentioned, I believe that the rise of Mastodon can also be attributed to the increased awareness around the importance of protecting marginalized communities online. It's no secret that Twitter's failure to address harassment and abuse has pushed many users away, leaving them feeling unsafe and unprotected. Mastodon offers a space where individuals can share their thoughts and ideas without fear of being targeted by trolls and other online troublemakers.

Ultimately, while both platforms continue to experience fluctuations in user numbers, it seems likely that Mastodon will continue to grow as long as it remains dedicated to providing a safe and inclusive environment for all. White supremacy is not welcome here, and we must hold ourselves accountable for ensuring that this message is heard loud and clear. Thank you!

I would assume the real surges would be in bluesky and threads. Out of the frying pan and into the other frying pan.

People don't really understand Mastodon and federation (nor do I blame them for that), but those details are now much, much less in your face than they were when Elon bought Twitter. Mastodon's reliability and usefulness has also improved a lot since Elon bought Twitter. Nothing else works quite like sending a few hundred thousand people your way to stress test your product (and some of them are even nice enough to give money, too!)

I honestly can't tell if it's just a collective expiration date for a culture of wealthy incompetence, or if someone's been manipulating powerful idiots, but it almost feels like there's a coordinated effort to stir an abandonment of corporate platforms.