I assume this is mastodon.social. Small compared to twitter, but it’s progress.
The norwegian mastodon instance https://snabelen.no has also increased it’s userbase dramatically. From having 100 active users to 250 active users. I don’t know how many new accounts has been created. I have also seen a new norwegian instance being created with 6 registered users.
While I am happy about all the publicity federation is getting, it seems this is also the time to reduce over-reliance on one instance (mastodon.social, for example) as it will bring a hangover of the bird-site. Technical federation is one step. Social communities to nurture these instances is a more tasking ask, but far more stronger in fighting against monopoly.
I started to use Mastodon recently. I’m sorry if I sound grumpy, but… that’s a hell of an awful user interface. Basic features seem to be missing. I wanted to collect some topics I’m interested in… and you can’t do that. You have to type in the hashtag of your interest every single time. You can’t mix multiple hashtags for an overview. Simply put: You can’t follow hashtags. That’s a feature that is discussion since more than 5 years. I honestly don’t get it.
I have a couple of hashtags pinned in a column (desktop browser), so can see any of those topics as they are posted. For me this is actually better than Twitter has?
That’s a problematic workaround only possible with the “advanced view”.
Well not “problematic” as it actually works great, and I’ve never had to touch it. But yes, I’m not sure all the mobile app clients have implemented this option, which is why I mainly use the desktop browser. Having such a “watchlist” is essential for me for monitoring topics of interest. I prefer to follow topics, than profiles.
