Here's a thing that makes Mastodon instances work less well than they could...
when you visit an instance, all the front pages look the same.
"About this instance" is a TINY little link under the sign-up form. This is crazy.
Instances should LEAD with a community description, not bury it.
That's like a newsgroup leading with the OS it used to run the newsgroup rather than saying: "This is a Kenny G community"
So here is a weird thing that I just realized...
Mastodon does not show you a number with a post to indicate how much reach it has had.
I suppose with federation this would never be complete, but it is still strange.
I wrote this post that went a bit viral, but I have no clue how viral beyond like sitting and counting notifications...
Is that a feature? I am not 100 pct sure it feels like a feature to me.
Is this a confession? I loved hits on Twitter.
Maybe too much?
@BradyDale if you expand the post details, it will show you number of (local) favs/boosts. but I agree, it's a weird combo of low bar for engagement (bc there aren't many users) and limited ability to quantify engagement.
@will ohhhh, I see it now.
Cool... thanks! I thought maybe I had seen something somewhere, so THANK YOU
My ego thanks you
(51 boosts, 60 faves... NOT THAT I CARE)
@BradyDale it's weird, 59 followers here feels like mild success, and 300-ish on twitter feels like abject failure. the online ego is a strange and fragile thing.