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John Carlos Baez

I quit Twitter and moved to Mastodon in October 2022 when Elon Musk took over. Many other academics also came to Mastodon, and I was very happy - see my pinned posts. But most of them later became inactive.

I stick around because I've decided that corporate-owned social media are dangerous - especially now, when authoritarians are spreading their reach. Turns out it's unrealistic to expect that most academics feel this way - yet. They may get the idea when it's too late.

(1/2)

arxiv.org/abs/2406.04005

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arXiv.orgThe Failed Migration of Academic TwitterFollowing changes in Twitter's ownership and subsequent changes to content moderation policies, many in academia looked to move their discourse elsewhere and migration to Mastodon was pursued by some. Our study looks at the dynamics of this migration. Utilizing publicly available user account data, we track the posting activity of academics on Mastodon over a one year period. We also gathered follower-followee relationships to map internal networks, finding that the subset of academics who engaged in migration were well-connected. However, this strong internal connectivity was insufficient to prevent users from returning to Twitter/X. Our analyses reveal significant challenges sustaining user engagement on Mastodon due to its decentralized structure as well as competition from other platforms such as Bluesky and Threads. The movement lost momentum after an initial surge of enthusiasm where the main network was fully established as most users did not maintain their activity levels, and those who did faced lower levels of engagement. Our findings highlight the challenges involved in transitioning professional communities to decentralized platforms, emphasizing the need for focus on community building for long-term user engagement.
BashStKid

@johncarlosbaez The fediverse in general is so much better suited to academia in just about every way. But, as you say, clearly a substantial number will stay until the bitter end, no matter how much Twitter turns into a fascist sewer.
Journalists, I can understand are reluctant to leave. What possible academic reason is there to be on Der Stürmer?

Jun 10, 2024, 10:20 AM·Public
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Konstantin Weddige

@BashStKid @johncarlosbaez same reason many politicians have to stay: the journalists.

Mastodon is great if you want to have meaningful discussions. But if you hope that someone will read your paper or statement and quote it in the news, other platforms are (still) better. For wider adoption, Mastodon also needs to serve as a tool for self-promotion.

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