Mastodon should stop mimicking Twitter (or TweetDeck, to be precise) and go for the internet forum revival.
It should be done by different protocol/software
Mastodon needs a patron to host & manage the site. but somebody who can avoid mission creep and the strong lure of tracking & ad dollars. maybe if craigslist folks can do a bare minimal version with just good enough content discovery algos they may be able to. but you do need a big name for people to start gravitating towards it when twitter screws up (& screw up it will!).