What the Mastodon ecosystem needs to scale

This is our collective chance to fix social social media. To make that happen I think the items below are necessary, in very roughly descending order.

(Edits: New FAQs at the bottom.)

Dashboard metrics

Mastodon publishes the number of servers, accounts, and MAUs (Monthly Active Users). However, this is far from enough to understand how the ecosystem is faring. To incent more people to join and build on Mastodon, the community would benefit from knowing more detail, such as DAUs, retention, and more.

Who’s working on this: Nobody I know of, although bots like @mastodonusercount@mastodon.social are helpful.

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @dashboard@venera.social.*

Hosting

Some organizations joining the fediverse will want to set up their own servers, but many will prefer a hosted solution. There’s currently a shortage of hosted providers, so it’s exciting that institutional-grade providers are starting up, and that existing providers are looking to expand.

As the fediverse scales, I hope/expect that specialized providers will emerge. For example, in joining the fediverse a media company and a local government will have overlapping but different sets of needs.

Who’s working on this: Not fully clear, but the capacity gap might be addressed by this summer. There’s at least one startup that’s been announced, currently known as #SpaceHost. Existing providers are smaller but looking to expand. It’s possible that large organizations like Medium and Mozilla will offer this service.

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @hosting@venera.social.*

Community onboarding

There’s not yet a broad enough diversity of content or users on the fediverse. Social network retention is best when new users find others who share their interests. If members of Community X each join one by one, they all find an “empty room” and leave. (Community X could be anything people are passionate about; Giants fans, anthropologists, cruise lovers, whatever.)

To grow the fediverse, we need to help more communities join with enough scale to overcome this problem.

Engineering at the server and client level can help solve the cold start problem with solutions like recommended follows for new users (and this is starting to happen). Mastodon-native groups would also be helpful. But ultimately there’s no replacement for finding real community with like-minded people.

Who’s working on this: Only scattered volunteers, such as the people behind this great effort (which is by far the largest I’ve found).

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @spreadmastodon@venera.social.*

A more organized movement

There is a Mastodon/fediverse movement, it just doesn’t yet have a name or a home.

This is the moment when we finally make social media what it must become; decentralized and pro-social. There is so much energy out there to make it happen, which shows in people doing things like:

• Organizing their communities on Mastodon (as academics in many fields are doing here)
• Supporting Mastodon on big platforms like iMessages, GitHub, and Buffer
• Creating clients and tools that improve the Mastodon experience
• Making artwork and merchandise (in advance of Mastodon offering its own), and drawing mastodons with their bike route
• And of course, running and moderating thousands of servers

This energy is fantastic; and I believe there’s way more out there that hasn’t yet found a way to get engaged. This energy could be channeled to play an important role in community onboarding (described above), but only if we give volunteers the right advice and tools.

Who’s working on this: Obviously many people are already supporting Mastodon and the fediverse in all sorts of ways. Nobody is yet making these actions legible as a movement, but I will soon launch a basic web site to support and amplify these efforts.

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @spreadmastodon@venera.social.*

Product improvements

Mastodon isn’t as easy as it needs to be for mass adoption. And how could it be? For its entire existence, it was an obscure and scrappy passion project. Now that the world’s attention is suddenly focused on it, it needs upgrades (internally and/or via third-party tools) to improve things like:

• Onboarding flow
• Quote-posts
• Better discovery and search that also respect privacy
• Actual DMs (ideally encrypted)
• Social graph importers

Who’s working on this: Mastodon gGMBH and various app and tool developers are all building various parts of this. That said, there is lots to try and experiment with, so there is plenty of room for great designers or engineers to contribute independently or with existing projects. (Mastodon is hiring.)

Organizational successes

For most organizations, the concrete benefits of joining the fediverse aren’t yet clear. These benefits probably exist, because all organizations are worse off with their followers locked away inside a walled garden (as brilliantly illustrated below by Matthew Inman, @oatmeal@mastodon.social). Bringing media, creators, brands, and others to the fediverse will require successful case studies from peer organizations building communities here.

Who’s working on this: Hard to say; nobody leaps to mind.

Moderation

Decentralized volunteer moderation has created flourishing spaces for some marginalized communities; this obviously needs to be preserved. On the flip side, current fediverse moderation has had high-profile failures and made some communities feel unwelcome on Mastodon; this obviously needs to be improved.

Volunteer moderation will hopefully continue as an important part of the fediverse, but unpaid labor can only scale so far. It’s unlikely that every organization joining the fediverse will want to create its own moderation staff. To fill this need, there will need to be some kind of “moderation as a service.” This may include a mix of volunteer-led efforts, as well as paid services offered by for- or non-profits. (At least some large servers already use paid contractors to handle some of their moderation; a service would make this more readily available to others.) Other needed improvements in this area include better admin-side moderation tooling, as well as better tools to track and combat disinformation.

Who’s working on this: I’m aware of one early-stage effort exploring ways to provide moderation support. In addition, a very few disinformation researchers are beginning to explore what the fediverse means for their work and how to get ready for it.

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @moderation@venera.social,* and/or email jaz [at] toot . wales.

Transparent optional algorithms

A chronological feed works well for many people, who prefer it to the profit-maximizing and opaque algorithms of central platforms; but it’s not to everyone’s taste. An ethos of the fediverse is control over one’s own experience, and algorithms serve that goal provided they are transparent and optional. Algorithms aren’t just for fine-tuning; they could also make it easier for people to find community, which may be a big factor in growing the fediverse.

Who’s working on this: A few small experiments like Fediview.com exist. It’s a great area to dive into, especially for anyone who has experience in social media algorithms.

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @algorithms@venera.social.*

Identity verification

It’s easy to make fun of Twitter and Facebook for instituting verification fees, but identity verification is a real need. Mastodon’s current verification system is good, but ideally would be even more straightforward (like blue-checks used to be on Twitter).

Some kind of ID-as-a-service might be the best solution, where users or server admins can optionally pay a one-time charge to link a Mastodon account to an authoritative identity, and where this could be indicated inline similar to blue-checks on Twitter.

Who’s working on this: There are a few efforts underway that I learned of only recently. Also check out hello.coop and press.coop. But not all of these are building towards something as straightforward as Twitter blue-checks.

To collaborate on this: Follow then mention @identity@venera.social,* and/or reach out to the individuals mentioned in this post.

Fediverse media

There is so much happening in the fediverse that it’s hard to keep track. More frequent, short-form reports would help keep up with the constant drumbeat of good news. For longer-form content, there’s just one volunteer-produced newsletter, which inevitably leaves many great stories untold. People could be interviewing or writing about the work of app developers, server admins, community leaders, and more.

Who’s working on this: The Fediverse Report is a great resource and is run by a single volunteer (wow!). You can also follow and then post to @fediversenews@venera.social.

To collaborate on this: Email Laurens Hof at fediversereport [at] proton.me, and/or follow then post to fedimedia@venera.social.*

Server revenue besides donations

It’s fantastic how far the fediverse has come while relying on donations; I’m skeptical that this model will remain sustainable at scale. For the fediverse to remain decentralized, it would be best for small servers to be sustainable long-term. A very few servers already charge subscription fees. Some other possibilities for how server admins might earn revenue include:

• Placing ads in a feed (but not federating them to other servers)
• Offering algorithms (see above) or other non-core services for a small fee

Who’s working on this: Nobody I’m aware of on the two topics above, although the upcoming SpaceHost will offer crowdfunding support.

Marketing and PR

Mastodon and the fediverse need better marketing. It will remain hard to go big until there are clear answers for questions like what a server is (more like a community, or an email provider?), what benefits the fediverse offers besides “decentralization,” and more.

I’m not sure how much of this function can occur outside of Mastodon itself. However, several of the items described above in this essay would create better stories and data for general media to pick up and use. Mastodon is working on its part, but it remains a small and overstretched organization.

Who’s working on this: There have been some really good materials produced to try and explain the fediverse, and I hope that more people keep working at it. More organized PR may need to be a function of Mastodon gGMBH itself.

Other fediverse platforms

I’m not sure that other fediverse platforms are necessary for Mastodon to get large, but they could be very helpful, and I’m excited for them to grow as well. For the time being, they face a substantial marketing challenge. My hope is that they can ride Mastodon’s coattails to reach greater usage, which in turn might lead developers to create amazing new cross-fediverse experiences we haven’t yet imagined.

Who’s working on this: So many great people.

Conclusion

What have I missed? Are you working on anything above and need help, especially those areas where I don’t know of existing efforts? Please post to the groups above or reach out to me at [first at last . com].

Minor endnotes:

* These are Friendica groups; you can follow them like any other user in Mastodon. When you mention a Friendica group in a Mastodon post, the group will boost your post to all other followers, **as long as you already follow the group**.

Note: Some of the items above are controversial topics. I don’t intend to take a side, except that I think it’s possible to create those functions in a manner that respects community values.

Followup edits: FAQs

Q1: Why growth? Isn’t the fediverse great as is?

Yes it is! Mastodon is full of my people; progressives and nerds. I’m happy as a clam.

But there’s a problem. I think that Big Social has and causes a lot of big problems. And I agree with the many (much more experienced) people who view decentralization as the solution. The fediverse can’t solve Big Social’s problems if it remains a small club for progressive nerds like me (and if you’re reading this, probably like you). I want to fix big problems. And I’m optimistic that we can do that without ruining the experience of those who like the fediverse as-is. What do you think?

Q2: What about all the other federated platforms? The fediverse is bigger than Mastodon.

I know and agree! I’d like for the whole fediverse to grow, and the essay is my best idea for how to achieve that. In other words, I think the best way to grow the fediverse is to grow Mastodon (see para of the essay on other platforms, near the end). That’s not because Mastodon is better in any particular way, but because the Musk takeover created a new opportunity and Mastodon is the one in the zetigeist. More on that is in my earlier essay linked here. What do you think?