With the future of TikTok hanging in an uncertain balance, I’ve been reminded of various efforts to create a suitable replacement. Loops by Pixelfed aims to create an entire platform and client ecosystem from scratch. Bluesky is attempting to embrace video and offer feeds built around the feature. Surf capitalizes on those feeds, to present an easy presentation layer to users.

On the surface, these all feel like cool, shiny new products for people to use. However, there’s some serious problems with presenting these as viable alternatives to one of the most popular mobile video platforms of this generation. I’m talking about community growth, and user adoption.

We’ve Been Here Before

Over the years, the Fediverse and the wider open source community have fallen for a common assumption: if we simply adopt the form of existing popular apps, that will be enough to get people to use them. I’m not saying that it’s bad to try to build these things – if anything, many of these platforms and apps fundamentally help the network grow and become richer in diversity. As it stands, the network now supports microblogging, music sharing, video publishing, community forums, event meetups, and more.

Within the Fediverse proper, we’ve built platforms and apps with the same assumptions over and over again. Mastodon replaces Twitter. Pixelfed replaces Instagram. PeerTube replaces YouTube. Mobilizon replaces MeetUp. As a community, we’ve actually done a pretty solid job of recreating most existing social experiences. The problem is that the “if you build it, they will come” mentality only goes so far if the only thing a project does in software development. It’s like presenting a vegan replacement for meat, and assuming the majority of people are going to go for it. Aside from adoption by enthusiasts, this isn’t enough.

The Secret Ingredient is People

When it comes to advocacy, one of the biggest missed opportunities for Fediverse projects involves community building. I’m not just talking about setting up social instances with decent community guidelines and moderation, either. The truth is, a lot of projects don’t really think about facilitating migration from The Old Place to The New Place, beyond offering an Instance Picker and saying “good luck!” to prospective new users.

Looking at how the Fediverse has grown in the past, I have two ideas on things worth trying.

1. Platform Migration for Groups of People

One approach for naturally developing the network further would be to develop ways for people to join the Fediverse together, as a group. We’ve already seen a little bit of that on the grassroots side, with frustrated users leaving X in droves and pointing to their Bluesky and Mastodon profiles.

One way to take this idea further might be for projects to build in some kind of support for mutual connections. In the ancient days of Diaspora, this took the form of a user invite system, where every person you invited turned into a mutual connection the minute they signed up. Another approach may be to put together an app where a group of friends sign-in, join a random server from a list, and automatically connect regardless of what server they’re on. Maybe that app could even check to make sure the destinations all federate.

Aside from technical solutions, a community initiative could provide a lot of value for helping groups of friends get signed up, logged on, and set up with apps. A simple course could help familiarize users with what’s different from the place they came from, while also getting out of the way if they just want to talk to a few specific people.

2. Providing Incentives for Creators

Look, I’m not going to sugar-coat it. Content discovery on the Fediverse is dire. There’s some interesting projects trying to help change that by helping people find the good stuff more easily, but one side of the equation is currently much rougher than the other. I’m talking, of course, about content creators.

Part of the problem with any new network is that they need interesting and engaging original media, preferably made by members of the space. Text is easy enough to put together in bite-sized statuses, but things like memes, art, music, and videos all require some level of time, talent, and specialization to put together. While I think the situation with PeerTube has really improved over the past few years, there are a series of barriers preventing bigger names from moving over and trying the Fediverse.

One of the more important aspects involves professional relationships between creators and the platforms they take part in. It’s easier for a popular Twitch streamer or YouTube video essay creator to get a ton of engagement, metrics, promotion, support infrastructure, and financial contributions through the platforms they’re already using. Even if a creator wants to switch, they might be entangled in a professional contract with a studio or management group that has no interest in making substantial changes.

I don’t think many Fediverse projects have the support or infrastructure to facilitate this today, but I think it might be worth trying to build relationships with these different groups and creators, and figure out what their basic needs are. Maybe they could be helped with onboarding and support, and give feedback on specific pain points.

It’s Not Hopeless

It may seem like I’m taking a gloom-and-doom position in regards to our network’s current prospects. I’m not! But realistically, these are areas that a lot of Fediverse projects have either repeatedly stumbled over, or completely ignored. We often make the mistake of confusing a thing’s form for its soul and essence, without fully understanding what made the original thing special. We then go on to market the wrong things about our own projects, misunderstanding what makes those things special to people as well.

Going into 2025, I think we’re in a pretty unique position. People are pretty pissed off with Meta, X, Google, and other big platforms. Some platforms, such as TikTok, remain ambiguous as to whether they’ll survive in the long term, either through being banned in the US, or by being acquired by a billionaire loyal to the current presidential administration and its values. This is a great time to build new things, explore new ideas, and think about new ways to communicate.

Just…if you’re hoping to compete with the big platforms and provide a transformative new experience, think about making it easier for people to sign up and find each other. Make it easier to find the good stuff. Help prospective creators tap into this place. And most importantly, think about ways to help keep your users safe on the network.

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