according to https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222 it's the most popular Fediverse platform by far.

do people still use Mastodon?

Yes. Every single day, we see hundreds, if not thousands of posts.

Scientists and mathematicians do. The rest will follow when bluesky's monetisation strategy becomes too unbearable

I briefly tried mastadon. I don't like the format, it's a twitter basically, the federation is a plus, but the entire thing is a popularity contest. Almost all engagement is driven by those with large follower counts, 99 percent of posts are seen by almost no one.

Which is ok if you want to build a following, but for your everyday user, reddit or lemmy is more egalitarian, your posts, and your comments, can be considered on their own merit regardless of your follower count.

Yes, I have two active accounts. The autistic and neurodivergent communities there are great.

I try it every now and again but I simply don't "get" the format. This isn't an issue wtih Mastodon, it's just that style of social media, I had the same issue with Twitter. The vast majority of content seems to be people just dumping their thoughts into a post. I think it's because I have no interest in following people, but topics, which I find that Lemmy/Reddit easier to follow.

gotta find loads of interesting accounts & hashtags, to basically tailor your feed manually, then it can feel very lively. I follow 500 accounts and it has given pretty unique feed compared to bluesky.

I do, but almost no-one else I'd want to follow does, which makes it feel pointless at the moment. Quite a few 'celebrities' (for want of a better word) seem to have dormant accounts. One of the few people I know who is posting regularly is Bernie Sanders.

Yea, but it's growth is limited. People seem incapable of using a platform if there isn't an algorithm telling them what to look at.

I love it. There are very few arseholes on it.