Black users on Mastodon have been asking for years for the features that are driving BlueSky's recent success. These features don't cost millions to build.
When I started focusing on on-boarding, lots of my friends on Mastodon said, "We've been asking for these things for years! They won't do it. They won't accept patches if you do it. They don't want it."
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112906563677820632
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110676311935295522
As I've said elsewhere, they do want it!
Progress is just slow.
@mekkaokereke I agree. Mastodon could implement things that marginalized people have been demanding for years. It would be easy; in many cases the code is already written. The maintainers have chosen not to, and it's hard to ignore whose feedback keeps getting ignored or minimized. These are intentional own goals.