Comment on Eight years on, Mastodon stubbornly survives
ArtificialHoldings@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoFrom a content creation standpoint, it does kind of suck. There’s no ego about it. The system doesn’t carry your content to nearly as many eyes, even accounting for the reduced audience. Discovery and suggestion algorithms are extremely effective, and if I’m trying to get my stuff to reach as much of my audience as possible, I wouldn’t only be on Mastodon. I’m not just talking about mediocre content either - even extremely motivating stuff in the niche doesn’t generate even a small fraction of engagement as regular social media sites.
For some people, this is a benefit - it’s a poorly commodified system. For small content creators trying to build an audience and generate paid subscribers, it’s not enough. Most creators on Fediverse are contributing as a free or non-profit hobby.
synicalx@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
I’d prefer for my social media to not be full of ads for “content”.
ArtificialHoldings@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I’m not talking about ads. Let’s say I’m a video essayist and I publish my essays on PeerTube. The recommendation algorithms aren’t going to show the free content I make to nearly as many people as if I put them on YouTube or Tiktok. And overall, that translates to fewer Patreon subscribers, FAR fewer.
synicalx@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
That’s still an ad, you want money for a product you’re offering. The only difference is in your case there’s an extra step between impression and conversion.
ArtificialHoldings@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Okay let me rephrase. I’m offering 100% of my work on PeerTube for free. They’re high quality, long-form video essays, and people clearly enjoy watching them. I link my Patreon in case people wish to support, but no other product exists on a subscription basis.
Even if PeerTube were substantially more popular, the lack of recommendation algorithms would keep my content from proliferating nearly as well as YouTube. This translates to fewer Patreon subscribers which means less opportunity and funding to create high quality videos. No self-promotion, just content that can’t perform as well because it doesn’t get recommended.
ArtificialHoldings@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I’m so sorry but you really need to reevaluate this because it categorizes like 80% of authentic internet content as ads. Is a graphic artist who works commission posting their art on social media an ad, if they’re doing it to hunt for commission? A streamer who posts their funniest clips on social media to get more paid subscribers? A game dev promo-ing features in their next game patch?