Before I start define active how you want, I mean at a minimum you have seen some of the highs and lows of the sites. The "drama" (racism). For example, If you understand the joke "what's the meta with witches live" this question is definitely for you. (That also means if you have a new account but have been here before, chime in)

Why do you stay here? (And if you want, tell me why you joined)

I don't mean like "get out" I mean, a lot of people (I exclude myself as I never used it) would say mastodon is no better than twitter. And...
seeing as how mastodon social and mastodon online are seemingly unmoderated so you have to defederate from them, or the fact that (probably because of the prior) the official apps don't even include the local timeline or a lot of the features a lot of people like (you may see I'm drafting this post from tusky), I'm curious, what makes it "worth it" for you?

To be transparent, I do not know the answer for me. I love the friends I've made on here, and mastodon undoubtedly helped with my social anxiety, but at the same time, I could say, leave tomorrow and talk to a fair chunk of you elsewhere. To be clear, I don't think I'm leaving, but I don't know what makes it worthwhile in my mind.

Like, I could never in good conscience RECOMMEND Mastodon to anyone I know elsewhere (not to say I'd stop them from joining, I would try to help them pick a good instance but I am not going to evangelize if that makes sense)

So in short:

• Why do you stay here?
• ( Why did you join? )
• What makes mastodon "worth it" to you?