I'm trying to predict what will happen to Mastodon if marketing people start noticing it. Creating accounts across the entire network isn't difficult when every instance is listed. Will instances start banning advertisers? What about corporations who don't advertise but engage with their customers? What about people who talk positively about corporations? Where do you draw the line? Will we see corporate instances with inline advertising?
@thor Seems like a thing that should be included in the instance rules. I think I have actually already seen instances that don't allow corporate accounts.
But I also believe (hope?) that if the corporations come, they will find Mastodon to be a very hostile environment for them. I will be sure to block them as soon as I spot them ⛔
@thor my personal hope is that if that happens, someone does something like a getsatisfaction instance. Somewhere corporations can engage with their customers but are held to a community standard and shill/advertising is banned.
I praised Sony the other day on making the PS2 so durable, I don't think people have a problem if it's genuine.
@thor I followed @Fairphone recently...
@thor Ideally corporations will start their own instances, and if this is encouraged during the early days, it could become a 'best practice' / expectation. I don't mind businesses being present on Mastodon, and hopefully they will learn how to engage their customers in a meaningful way.
@thor note that some of the largest instances are japanese brands