As much as I'd love to see mastodon grow, I feel like a lot of people here like to ignore the number one most important feature of a social network: who's on it.
I don't have a personal account but I live in near a tourist destination not far from the border and there were still plenty of BC license plates around this year (though a big drop compared to last year, and I don't blame them). In other words a lot of people are still making it through apparently.
People worry far too much about what others think of them and what mold they should fit into.
Become proficient in one or more things so others find you interesting.
No offense, cause I think your message is good overall, but you contradict yourself in the same paragraph.
Trying to learn things so others will like you more isn't a great way to do it. I know because I tried that. My self-love became conditional with that mindset, and there was always something else I could come up with I had to learn or change about myself before I could be lovable.
My old therapist called me out on it. He said there's nothing wrong with pushing yourself to improve, but if you don't balance that with unconditional self love it will simply lead to depression.
Reposts aren't a problem. Just because you've seen it before doesn't mean everyone else has also seen it before. Don't worry about them and just move on.
I'm happy to see someone else pushing back against the inevitability line I see so much around this tech. It's still incredibly new and there's no guarantee it will continue to improve. Could it? Sure, but I think it's equally likely it could start to degrade instead due to ai inbreeding or power consumption becoming too big of an issue with larger adoption. No one actually knows the future and it's hardly inevitable.
It warms my heart to see all the Adobe hate and people switching to other things more and more. And I say that as a professional designer who has to pay my adobe tax every year to stay employed. Every person I see switch increases the chance I'll get to kick them to the curb someday myself.
As much as I'd love to see mastodon grow, I feel like a lot of people here like to ignore the number one most important feature of a social network: who's on it.