{"id":26359,"date":"2022-12-28T20:36:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T20:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/28\/elon-musks-biggest-success-story-convincing-people-to-try-out-an-open-distributed-social-network\/"},"modified":"2022-12-28T20:36:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T20:36:58","slug":"elon-musks-biggest-success-story-convincing-people-to-try-out-an-open-distributed-social-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/28\/elon-musks-biggest-success-story-convincing-people-to-try-out-an-open-distributed-social-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Biggest Success Story: Convincing People To Try Out An Open, Distributed Social Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

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from the Elon-Musk-is-underpants-gnomes<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

A few months ago, I attended a wonderful conference<\/a> put on by the \u201cGlobal Freedom of Expression\u201d program at Columbia University discussing decentralized social media and regulations around social media. One of the speakers, Alison McCauley from Unfinished Labs, gave a very interesting presentation on the first day of the conference, October 3rd, (which kindly praised my Protocols, Not Platforms<\/a> paper), talking about how the world world would eventually move to decentralized social media. I found one slide in the presentation particularly interesting:<\/p>\n

\"Slide<\/figure>\n

Even as it showed exactly what I think would be good for the world, to move away from the internet giants to a more open, decentralized, protocol-based world, I\u2019ve spent years thinking through all the reasons that seemed unlikely to happen. So this chart seemed a bit too\u2026 underpants gnomes<\/a> for me.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s great to put \u201cevents that trigger disillusion\u201d into the slide, but they certainly felt like that giant Phase 2 \u201c?<\/strong>\u201d in the underpants gnome project.<\/p>\n

Lots of people had been saying for years that privacy scandals or other scandals would trigger the grand awakening, but I\u2019d yet to see anything actually happen, and so I thought that if you were to put that into a slide, it seemed like we needed a deeper discussion on what would actually make people get disillusioned. Because very little seemed to have worked to date.<\/p>\n

The very next day, while we were at the second day of the conference, Elon Musk announced that he was no longer trying to get out of the deal to buy Twitter, and would go forward with the acquisition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while that prompted an immediate hallway discussion with some other conference attendees on what available alternatives there were that could handle an influx of folks, I still didn\u2019t quite expect things to play out as they have. I\u2019ve already wrote about how I\u2019ve come around to now realizing that I\u2019m just not that interested<\/a> in centralized platforms, after seeing (1) how much worse Elon has made Twitter in just a short while and (2) how quickly Mastodon grew and adapted.<\/p>\n

Others are noticing as well. NBC has a somewhat snarkily titled article, noting that Elon Musk is growing a social network \u2014 just not the one he expected<\/a>. It highlights how Mastodon\u2019s recent surge in growth is almost entirely driven by Musk\u2019s whimsically stupid (and quite often hypocritical) decision making. From the article:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Basically, each time Musk does something stupid, such as banning links to Mastodon, it just\u2026 drives more people to Mastodon.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk has become a one-man \u201cevents that trigger disillusion.\u201d<\/strong> And it\u2019s kind of incredible given all of the previous events and nonsense that failed to do so.<\/p>\n

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Mastodon-powered sites averaged about 130 new sign-ups an hour from Oct. 1 to Oct. 26. The number jumped to 2,000 an hour after\u00a0Musk took control of Twitter on Oct. 28<\/a>. Sign-ups rose to more than 5,000 an hour after Twitter\u00a0began mass layoffs a week later<\/a>, and they peaked at almost 10,000 an hour after\u00a0employees resigned en masse<\/a>\u00a0following an email ultimatum Nov. 17.<\/em><\/p>\n

New sign-ups spiked again in mid-December, when\u00a0Twitter suspended journalists<\/a>\u00a0who had been reporting on Musk and the company, and again when Twitter abruptly\u00a0banned users from sharing links<\/a>\u00a0to their profiles on other major social networks.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It makes you realize just how random some of this is. Obviously, it\u2019s not over yet. Many, many people still believe that Musk will right the Twitter ship and everything will be fine. Or that Mastodon\u2019s growth will hit limits in the near future. But, the service has grown by leaps and bounds and has become incredibly useful. I\u2019ve almost entirely stopped checking Twitter when just a couple months ago, Twitter was my main way of keeping up with the news.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the kind of \u201cdisruption\u201d we usually talk about in Silicon Valley, but it certainly is\u2026 disruptive.<\/p>\n

\nFiled Under: disruption<\/a>, elon musk<\/a>, mastodon<\/a>, underpants ghomes<\/a>
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Companies: twitter<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n