In my experience, artists tend to be followers in social media, not leaders. They go where the people are, and they use the platforms with the largest user-base because they want social media to expand their audience and, hopefully, secure more patronage. Furthermore -- and this is my art school experience talking -- most artists are either borderline Luddites or they're ignorant/apathetic with regards to issues like software freedom, Internet centralization, and personal media rights. OStatus federation/GNU social isn't fatally flawed. I honestly think we will see a remedy to the broken conversation problem soon. But there are two reasons why there don't seem to be a lot of artists, musicians, or poets around here: 1. Because the web and mobile client UIs aren't as slick as they need to be -- although Quitter is really quite close. Artists care A LOT about packaging and presentation. Why do so many artists use Macs? Because the packaging and presentation are very tig…