Well in a nutshell brands and corporates firstly like to reserve their #brand name and secondly they like to pay something to have their posts boosted into everyone's streams.
Neither of these will happen with Mastodon very easily....
1. Reservation of Brand Name - there is no single central instance like Facebook or Twitter has where you can just reserve your name. Each identity or name is unique only to that Instance. So toyota@mastodon.cloud is different from toyota@mastodon.social. You could try reserving across all 958 Instances but new ones start up daily... and will you post from all 958 accounts?
2. Sponsored posts - each Instance runs on its own rules, and right now this #sponsorship functionality does not exist. Is it possible? In theory yes, if the admin of the specific Instance was to allow something like that and build a script in to do it, but it would only reach the people registered to that Instance. If it irritates them they could leave that Instance and go elsewhere, or worse still, if this sort of behaviour irritated people at other Instances, the whole Instance could be banned from linking to other Instances in the federation.
Other factors also affecting the above from happening are:
* Most of the people joining Mastodon have left Facebook and Twitter because they are fed up with #advertising, #censorship, busy interfaces, etc. Many also leave to start afresh with new followers and to not be restricted by existing family or other ties. The culture at Mastodon is more about freedom of speech freedom to see what they choose to see in their streams (in real chronological order!). Real names need also not be used.
* Mastodon's hosting of Instances are privately set up and either funded by the admin or by the people themselves voluntarily contributing a $1 per month or so. It is already paying for itself so no corporate sponsorship is being sought. Some admins are receiving $400 per month for their $70 hosting costs.
* Follows need to actually be earned. People follow others because of similar circumstances or interests. In fact, there is no easy way to just search for a person or brand across all Instances. You get boosted and followed when your posts are found interesting of entertaining by others. You can follow or unfollow at will - there is no stigma of "friendship" attached to it.
So is it not then like the Wild West? In a way yes it is but a healthy ecosystem is developing and there are some community checks and balances in place. If someone wants to post something that is considered inappropriate they need to flag it as such (with a specific Warning button which will hide the test after the title text) or if it is graphic then a NSFW button is available which will hide the graphic until it is clicked on. Persons violating these rules of conduct (depending on the Instance) can be reported and banned. If the Instance admin does not act, any person from other Instances can report it to their admins and that whole Instance risks being banned. But because of this flexibility I still would not recommend the use of Mastodon for young children (not right now at least although they could have an Instance of their own which is not connected to te federated universe).
Below is the user count stats as at the last hour on Mastodon. The user base has more than doubled in just the last week. It probably won't topple Twitter or Facebook but it is offering an important alternative to people, and it looks like it is going to sustain itself going forward. You can find me also on Mastodon at danie10@mastodon.social.
Neither of these will happen with Mastodon very easily....
1. Reservation of Brand Name - there is no single central instance like Facebook or Twitter has where you can just reserve your name. Each identity or name is unique only to that Instance. So toyota@mastodon.cloud is different from toyota@mastodon.social. You could try reserving across all 958 Instances but new ones start up daily... and will you post from all 958 accounts?
2. Sponsored posts - each Instance runs on its own rules, and right now this #sponsorship functionality does not exist. Is it possible? In theory yes, if the admin of the specific Instance was to allow something like that and build a script in to do it, but it would only reach the people registered to that Instance. If it irritates them they could leave that Instance and go elsewhere, or worse still, if this sort of behaviour irritated people at other Instances, the whole Instance could be banned from linking to other Instances in the federation.
Other factors also affecting the above from happening are:
* Most of the people joining Mastodon have left Facebook and Twitter because they are fed up with #advertising, #censorship, busy interfaces, etc. Many also leave to start afresh with new followers and to not be restricted by existing family or other ties. The culture at Mastodon is more about freedom of speech freedom to see what they choose to see in their streams (in real chronological order!). Real names need also not be used.
* Mastodon's hosting of Instances are privately set up and either funded by the admin or by the people themselves voluntarily contributing a $1 per month or so. It is already paying for itself so no corporate sponsorship is being sought. Some admins are receiving $400 per month for their $70 hosting costs.
* Follows need to actually be earned. People follow others because of similar circumstances or interests. In fact, there is no easy way to just search for a person or brand across all Instances. You get boosted and followed when your posts are found interesting of entertaining by others. You can follow or unfollow at will - there is no stigma of "friendship" attached to it.
So is it not then like the Wild West? In a way yes it is but a healthy ecosystem is developing and there are some community checks and balances in place. If someone wants to post something that is considered inappropriate they need to flag it as such (with a specific Warning button which will hide the test after the title text) or if it is graphic then a NSFW button is available which will hide the graphic until it is clicked on. Persons violating these rules of conduct (depending on the Instance) can be reported and banned. If the Instance admin does not act, any person from other Instances can report it to their admins and that whole Instance risks being banned. But because of this flexibility I still would not recommend the use of Mastodon for young children (not right now at least although they could have an Instance of their own which is not connected to te federated universe).
Below is the user count stats as at the last hour on Mastodon. The user base has more than doubled in just the last week. It probably won't topple Twitter or Facebook but it is offering an important alternative to people, and it looks like it is going to sustain itself going forward. You can find me also on Mastodon at danie10@mastodon.social.
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