The basis must be simple and clear, that is extremely important. The rest if it is purely optional you don't have to use. And that is exactly where Mastodon fails completely.
@mandy thanx, I think it is just not noticeable to the normal user. Most instances have a few thousand users there and also a few thousand posts. Means the log in, write a post and leave again. This is not a party, this is pure name save ;)
@joe thanx, the M side is not the future and I think I'm more than right about that. They just haven't done anything about it for years. They are not ready for prime time at this moment and therefore will fail completely.
@papierzeit I feel most people are going to rely on closed private messaging platforms which is a shame really. I always think that Matrix has the best chance right now at open source federated messaging protocol.