i find getting people onto element is impossible. i’ve got two people there after years of trying, and only because they don’t even use phones due to paranoia. and since my hobbies are more conventional, there are no relevant communities for me (or anyone else that i know personally), nor does the current userbase likely have any interest of joining such hobby groups.
i’d love for element to have relevance. but one of the core reasons facebook works is simply because of the pre-existing userbase for every new community started, making it easy to grow (and even outcompete communities on other platforms). if facebook gets knocked down, then the commonality of the fediverse has a bigger chance of people adopting the niche community through the platforms available with other use-cases beside the community you’re trying to start, a lot more so over a chat application that has barely any users at all, especially none in common. and i say this, as someone who basically see matrix as the future and would never recommend anything but matrix for the purpose of chat and community communication.
Even getting people on a Slack group would be a huge improvement in my opinion. I do agree that Fb is still around largely due to network effects. Once people build a community on there, it becomes painful to move it to another platform since you have to get buy in from a critical mass of users in the community.
for us it’s Groups and Messenger. marketplace is trash compared to our local monopoly service.
I find making a group on Element or even Slack works great for doing everything you’d do on a Fb group.
i find getting people onto element is impossible. i’ve got two people there after years of trying, and only because they don’t even use phones due to paranoia. and since my hobbies are more conventional, there are no relevant communities for me (or anyone else that i know personally), nor does the current userbase likely have any interest of joining such hobby groups.
i’d love for element to have relevance. but one of the core reasons facebook works is simply because of the pre-existing userbase for every new community started, making it easy to grow (and even outcompete communities on other platforms). if facebook gets knocked down, then the commonality of the fediverse has a bigger chance of people adopting the niche community through the platforms available with other use-cases beside the community you’re trying to start, a lot more so over a chat application that has barely any users at all, especially none in common. and i say this, as someone who basically see matrix as the future and would never recommend anything but matrix for the purpose of chat and community communication.
Even getting people on a Slack group would be a huge improvement in my opinion. I do agree that Fb is still around largely due to network effects. Once people build a community on there, it becomes painful to move it to another platform since you have to get buy in from a critical mass of users in the community.