this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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Technology

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Abstract

Following change in Twitter’s ownership and subsequent changes to content moderation policies, many in academia looked to move their discourse elsewhere and migration to Mastodon was pursued by some. Our study looks at the dynamics of this migration. Utilizing publicly available user account data, we track the posting activity of academics on Mastodon over a one year period. Our analyses reveal significant challenges sustaining user engagement on Mastodon due to its decentralized structure as well as competition from other platforms such as Bluesky and Threads. The movement lost momentum after an initial surge of enthusiasm as most users did not maintain their activity levels, and those who did faced lower levels of engagement compared to Twitter. Our findings highlight the challenges involved in transitioning professional communities to decentralized platforms, emphasizing the need for focusing on migrating social connections for long-term user engagement.

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[–] recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 8 months ago

It's a shame, really. A non-centralized internet has existed before and must exist again if it's to remain useable. It's sad so many have given up because of early internet struggles. Things are even far less painful now than I remember them being in the past.

[–] darkphotonstudio 34 points 8 months ago

And how's that academic discourse working out on a service that caters to fascists and actively hates academia?

tbh it's the same here although I'm starting to see an upwards trend in positive and wholesome activity🌻

"No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen."

  • Epictetus
[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 months ago

It's hard to imagine free and sane people intentionally using xitter.

[–] Fitik@fedia.io 1 points 8 months ago

@tardigrada@beehaw.org At least thanks to Bridgy ( @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy ) BlueSky is becoming more connected to the Fediverse, sadly only a few thousand people have opted in, but it does have a lot of a potential