I've been asking people around me what is holding them from using Mastodon (even after some of them joined), and I got 4 reasons:

1) Not many people here
2) Can't find people here even if they're here
3) It looks very complicated, especially the instances thing
4) Doesn't seem too different from Birdsite so why bother

For people to adopt this platform, these four points need to be addressed. And that too in ultra-simple non-nerdy language.

Some answers I've come up with:

1) Not many people

Yep. But the platform is gaining traction. Just look at the kind of conversations I have been having here. People are crazy responsive.

(Here I show them the same post I've done on Birdsite, Facesite and Mastodon.)

The quality of responses here are wayyyy better too. Not some "jali na teri" memes. People will come! You come first!

2) Can't find people here even if they're here

Sure you can. But then, think of it this way, go to #India #Introduction and just follow a new lot of people. You can follow the regular folks on Birdsite only, but here you get to follow a whole new crop of interesting folks.

(Here I tell them to go to "Follows" on my profile)

Hopefully this will help. I'm following a lot of Indians here. Cheggit.

3) Looks too complicated

Yes it does. But just use it like Birdsite and start shitposting. Since there are few people, go crazy. You'll figure it out eventually.

Come, toot something. I'll boost ya!

4) Doesn't seem to different from Birdsite

Sure it is. Think of it like a 1000 birdsites split up with different people managing those, instead of one single entity. That's about it. Plus, no abuses and shitty low effort attention seeking behavior is a definite bonus. At least for now.

Try it!


Exactly! Also: birdsite but with open source code, so that every programmer in the world can verify that the site you're using is indeed not running any unethical code. Here on mastodon, you can be reasonably confident that you're not being psychologically analyzed with each click, toot or boost you do to sell adds or otherwise profit from your data :)

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