Mastodon is on the right track. They’ve been doing so much right, the UX has improved considerably.
I think there’s some mainstream appeal, but there are also ecosystem issues that aren’t solved easily, as well as a lack of algorithmic curation, which a lot of people deem very important.
> lack of algorithmic curation
They can get that elsewhere. Mastodon will never win that battle. It's not wrong to want algorithms feeding you content, it's just that Mastodon will always be like the tenth best option for those users, and they always will be. Mastodon's advantage is with users that don't want posts written for algorithms. (I used Twitter that way for many years, but when they killed off Tweetdeck I visited less and less, to the point that I just don't often go there any longer.)
I'm not very optimistic about the technical direction of Mastodon.
Mastodon had a minimal HTML-only interface before, you could read posts and replies of each profile.
They removed it some time ago, now you just see a blank page if you don't have JS, and I think it's a huge mistake; it was a clear albeit small advantage over mainstream social networks.
> ownership moves to a new not-for-profit entity based somewhere in Europe, with the exact location still to be finalized. The organization is currently headquartered in Germany, where it was a nonprofit until its charitable status was stripped last year.
So it sounds like Mastodon was run by a non-profit, but the non-profit ran afoul of some legal issues, and they're now creating a fixed version? This seems to be administrative details, not news.
I was hoping to see something like this in light of the WordPress situation and the lack of independence in the non-profit.
I've been thinking of how to disrupt the Discord market. I really, really, don't want Discord of all things to succeed.
I was thinking something like Mastodon could be it: as a combination of Twitter + Discord.
They need to support create guilds and channels like Discord.
I fear many of these alternatives are “backend is the appeal” and really, most people don’t care.
It's usually bad news when implementing control by commitee to a mass medium. Like what happens with publicly-owned TV
I didn't know Mastodon has a CEO. Why does it need one?
Interesting to see that Biz Stone is on the board of the new Mastodon non-profit.
I think this is a happy consequence of the WordPress drama.
With bluesky bursting on the open source (and not yet enshittified) microblogging scene, mastodon needed to regroup and reposition.
This organizational change seems aligned and is a good sign that there is ambition and appetite to build further, starting with solid governance.
The first chapter of the re-decentralization of the online experience is closing. Lets hope there are many more and curious what the shape of new things to come will be.
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Curious: Do they really need 5 million Euro?
Strangely, the story fails to mention Bluesky, which is already owned by a B Corp. (public benefit corporation) and is Mastodon's real competition.
I'm impressed by Eugen. Giving up full ownership is absolutely the right thing to do. But most people in this situation would become too greedy and start rationalizing why they should be in control (benevolent dictator). Hats off! Mastodon is heading in the right direction.