i'm new to alternative social media platforms, and i really appreciate the posts from more experienced users with thoughts/analysis on mastodon and some anecdotes about how things could go/how they have gone and pitfalls to avoid. as a naive baby, what i've noticed is that A) people genuinely seem to love mastodon, B) it seems to be filling a void for people that other platforms really aren't, and C) people are donating to the creator and hosts. these things make me very hopeful.