Brazil blocking X could deal a fatal blow to stan twitter

I’ve never been on twitter, but I’m not that surprised so many of us here were driving engagement.

  • @InfiniWheel@lemmy.one
    5•8 months ago

    Its the absolute lack of algorithm. No, really. I know Mastodon toots it as a feature, but without an algorithm to keep people scrolling most people just close the app and do something else. People who don’t understand instances would just go to mastodon.social anyway, but since no mastodon instance is actively trying to keep its users engaged 24/7, people naturally realize they have better things to do than to use social media all say.

    Which is better for humanity, but bad for retention.

    • @CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      3•8 months ago

      Great, so the perverse incentives aren’t beatable then. Time to bug lawmakers, I guess?

      On the bright side, Lemmy feels just about like Reddit to use, so that bodes well for us.

      • @GiveMemes@jlai.lu
        7•8 months ago

        From a content creator’s standpoint, sure. The issue is that when the end user doesn’t have a shiny new thing they’re interested in in front of them every 30 or so seconds they just log off and stop using the service. Why use mastodon if bluesky/threads/whatever shows them, generally, more of what they want to see and less of what they don’t?

        Most people are using social media as a way to veg out and unwind these days. They don’t really care if somebody is able to game the system, just that they see more that lets them veg out (or alternatively makes them angry, driving increased engagement).

        I agree that this is generally bad, but trying to sidestep it completely like Mastodon is is just going to result in a network that never hits the critical mass necessary to start exponential growth.