@MissWarcraft I would say there are many reasons.
I also think that Mastodon just doesn't have a large marketing budget, that would be useful to get people on board.
That, and I think the initial step of choosing a server can be offputting

@lucien @realcaseyrollins
Yeah, I have to say the "private mentions" are interesting. I like that I can take a discussion from public to private within the same thread.

I like the private mentions, but they aren't DMs.
And maybe it's ok not to have DMs for now?

@realcaseyrollins @hpod16 they are indeed, or an equivalent of them. They're like any other post/reply, only restricted between the 2 (or more) participants and not e2e encrypted.

The issue is that most users are looking for a 'DM' or 'Message' button and struggle to understand that this is how you 'privately' message someone.

@realcaseyrollins @lucien,
Well, in my view, DMs would land in an inbox, and create a continuous back and forth between two people.
If I stopped answered to your DMs, you would notice next time you opened your inbox.
Private mentions happen in threads under posts. When I stop answering there, you probably wouldn't notice.
I phrase it like this, because as a girl on the internet... I CAN get creeps in my DMs. So maybe I like that things are a bit more... decentralised here. Makes sense?

@hpod16 @realcaseyrollins and to your point, that's probably a good reason for not having fully fledged 'DMs'.

I also don't like people popping in my inbox uninvited...

@hpod16 @lucien This is the way. People need to hear it.

@hpod16 Being locked into a Server is why I do not post often, I don't see what people in Europe really think. But on X I do. It is a true hodge podge of posts from around the globe. I try to stick to Warcraft, animal and science stuff. Very little of that here. On Mastodon they just post Hate Trump Hate America. Why would I want to see that all day.

@hpod16 you are doing awesome work!

@MissWarcraft
I see what you mean. I think. Actually, wait, what do you mean you are locked into a server? If I follow you, I see your posts, regardless of what server I am on, no?
PS: For the Horde!

@realcaseyrollins @lucien oh dang, there goes my excuse to ignore DMs! But thanks for telling me!

@lucien so far I have more UX issues with current Facebook than with fediverse.

Here I can choose from wide selection of client apps...

@hpod16

@hpod16 A cheap way to market the platform would be for EU politicians to start migrating here en masse. That would be headline news in and of itself, and journalists would have to follow them here, which would inevitably be a huge publicity generator for Mastodon.

@hpod16 @AnachronistJohn @jztusk @hannah @lucien

HANNAHS OF THE FEDIVERSE UNITE!! ️

should we do a meetup, like Ryans do?
https://www.ryanmeetup.com/

@lucien @hpod16 Facebook users might also be more comfortable with Friendica rather than Mastodon.

Maybe collaborate with Friendica developers to get a good beginner's guide for Facebook users going?

When working on such a guide, it's always good to have the view of somebody completely new to the software like yourself.

@hpod16 @MissWarcraft not sure I get it either; don’t know about Warcraft but I’m getting lots of animals and science from the people I follow here. Maybe you have your feed set to “Local”? Then you only see whatever people on your instance post. I personally never use that.

The Hannahverse

@haubles @hpod16 @AnachronistJohn @jztusk @hannah @lucien

@hpod16 @MissWarcraft Have you tried using filters to get most of the US politics off your timeline? https://fedi.tips/filtering-your-timeline-to-hide-posts-on-mastodon/

Also, hashtags are your friends, follow lots of those.

@hpod16 @lucien One example I like to repeat a lot: imagine that when a channel you follow on YouTube publishes a video, you saw that publication on Twitter. And you could leave comments and give likes directly to that YouTube video from that same Twitter publication… you can do that on the Fediverse with Mastodon and PeerTube. That’s the nature of federated content using a single protocol, but sharing different content on different instances of different services.

@MissWarcraft @hpod16 You have to put some effort into customizing your timeline (follow #'s, find people you like to follow...). This takes some time, while x gives you all imaginable content from the start, but I prefer tweaking my timeline myself. I think its special, that the timeline is in real time here, so if you want to see more European content, you have to follow European user's and hashtags first, but you also have to consider day and night times in Europe.

@MissWarcraft Where is this data from?

https://fedidb.com shows a bit over 1 million active accounts across all of the fediverse.

@hpod16