Some writing around Mastodon's rise focuses on mass adoption being the ultimate goal. I don't think we need one platform to rule them all whether it's decentralised or not. Further development shouldn't be polluted by thoughts of scalability & monetisation. Of course bills have to be paid.
Then there's chat about social graph portability. Yet it's refreshing to drop into somewhere you can start from scratch. Yes I'd like my friends to join but I'm not keen on rushing headlong into the bloat :)
@Documentally I think the thing is, low-population social networks tend to die out. The social networks which really engage people over time are those where there's constant activity, you can always go in for that dopamine kick of content and recognition...
@abgd do they not mostly die out because monetisation is the goal and there are not enough people with money on the platform?
It's down to the users to create the stories and moments which feed into the shared experience.