I don’t think it has to be that way. Like with Linux, I think there’s a set of UI and onboarding and accessibility and features problems that don’t get addressed well enough for it to draw in and work for a lot of people, but those are workable problems if enough people agree they’re problems and work on them.

I tried Linux once. Mint, because it was recommened as the most user friendly and akin to Windows. Installing it at all involved following a detailed walkthrough and checking a hash using cmd. Then it turns out it doesn’t even have a colorblind filter mode - the most basic of accessibility features people can just expect from Windows. And the Linux forums were full of people who wanted to lord it ovee others and make fun of newbies and try to trick them into deleting their OS, rather than helpful peple. Linus Tech Tips did a good video on similar problems trying to use Linux as a newbie.

This obviously isn’t near as bad as Linux in that regard, but still, it puts the fediverse thing forward first, and in a confusing way. It needs a clear, simple, stripped down onboarding just to get people in the gate, then if they want to stick around they can learn more later on.

That said, Tumblr also has a shite onboarding and that’s doing pretty well these days, too.

It’s worth it even if it never becomes the most popular, however. My favorite communities tend to be of middling size anyway. The disadvantage is the lower amount of hyper-specific communities that a giant userbase supports.