There is only so much that one microblogging app differs from another, or one chat app from yet another chat app. But there's more to Mastodon than what you describe. The fact that you have chronological timelines, and not some random algorithmically generated list and recommendations flying in from everywhere, is really refreshing. This means too that when you first use Mastodon, your UI is mostly empty. It seems quiet. The impatient ones then already leave. If you take the time to build your following, then you get a great personal timeline. And the server instance you choose can already give you a nice community in the server timeline. The fediverse is small compared to Twitter user base, but with millions of users there's plenty to explore and engage with. And there's better netiquette in general.
Twitter also has chronological timelines, there’s a button on the top right.
> The fediverse is small compared to Twitter user base, but with millions of users there's plenty to explore and engage with.
…no, there isn’t. The population mainly consists of cartoon child porn artists and enthusiasts (pawoo.net), tech people (official and semi-official instances), small groups of queer people (on smaller closed instances), and that’s mainly it (from what I’ve seen). Engagement on smaller instances seems to be very low, with most toots being 0-1 likes and almost no comments posted on them.
> And there's better netiquette in general.
No, mob/clique mentality from Twitter is already there (but even more amplified by the federation aspect, since instances can ban other instances) The reason Mastodon doesn’t have that much drama is simply because there aren’t enough people there, and I predict a mass migration to Mastodon will be accompanied by the most dramatic controversies.
