Given the #vero hype, we #mastodonians need to ask ourselves some honest questions, and answer them truthfully, and rationally.
* Are we jealous about Vero's success? Yes, we are.
* Do we have too few users? Well, matter of opinions, but it's not unreasonable to say, yes, too few Mastos.
* Do we have a visibility problem? Heck, yes. We spend a lot of time on our masto instances, but how much do we reach out to bring in new users? And more painfully, when we reach out, how effective is it?
@atomicbutterfly Are you a relatively new user? Because it seems you still have a fresh memory of all the quirks that #mastodon has when getting used to it. That's a great resource, and paired with your product designer experience I'd really recommend reaching out (maybe on Github? or tooting to the devs?) and saying clearly what you think should and could be improved :) It's the tiny details that hold users off.
@turion yes, I'm relativly new, and also as a designer, I take notes of all my impressions. I would love to help this project! great idea. I tend to think "oh, i don't program"
@atomicbutterfly That's fantastic! I like the spirit!
And there are lots of people who can program but would love someone to design for them! (Me for example *^_^*, but that's a different story)
And it's so important to think about _all_ the users who are going to use it. A typical programmer only thinks about themselves in terms of usability, preferring command line over GUI etc., but that's not what a regular user wants. So in a sense, your input as a non-programmer is very valuable!
@turion Even finding the devs to toot at is hard, on github I only see programmers contributing and no structure for discussing user flow. So i'm joining the IRC channel but it seems meta to have two group chat tools
@turion Honestly, I see mastodon as being "too hard" for the average user (i'm a product designer, btw). But a client interface that only shows federated timeline and a simpler way to share your instance link would help. There is hope.