I’ve been using fediverse stuff (Mastodon and, most recently, Calckey—I’m just going to use “Mastodon” as shorthand here; purists can bite me) for over a year now and have been doing so full time for about six months, following Elon Musk buying Twitter (since on principle, I decline to give Elon Musk money or attention). This latter part coincided with the “November 2022 influx,” when lots of new people joined Mastodon for similar reasons. A lot of that influx has not stuck around. Everyone is very aware at this point that active user numbers of Mastodon have dropped off a cliff…
What do you think about this article? Have you perceived anything similar?
Yes, the percentage of Twitter users that moved to Mastodon was small BUT the numbers of users was a huge increases over previous users.
Yes, many instances came up and went down BUT they had small user counts.
Finally, yes, many people tried out Mastodon but didn’t stick around BUT the Average Mastodon Active Users by Month (first line chart) increased in the last period.
I’m sticking with Mastodon (and Lemmy). Besides, I know John Mastodon.