Guys, when you talk about the Fediverse to friends, family, or colleagues, how do you explain it?
Do you call it a “decentralized social network,” an “alternative to big tech,” or “a collection of open-source networks”? And how do you convince someone to create an account on Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, etc., without them getting scared by technical terms like instance, federated, or peer-to-peer?
I’m asking because my so-called friends don’t believe me and even call me crazy when I talk about this “nonsense.”
The future is open source, decentralized, and federated!
I say it doesn’t sell all your data to random companies all over the place.
I don’t introduce people to the fediverse
The fediverse introduces people to you
HELLO FRIEND
Correct answer, my fight for privacy is weird enough for the average. Introducing the fediverse would make it worse.
deleted by creator
Lmao, exactly me!
I normally just say, “I read [x] on Lemmy.”
If they ask and are genuinely curious what that is, I tell them it’s like a reddit offshoot, but the users control the network and servers with a high level of transparency in administration/moderation and run off software that can have tens of thousands of crowdsourced eyes helping to find and fix any bug or security issue.
I normally just say, “I read [x] on Lemmy.”
If they ask and are genuinely curious what that is, I tell them it’s like a reddit offshoot, but the users control the network and servers with a high level of transparency in administration/moderation and run off software that can have tens of thousands of crowdsourced eyes helping to find and fix any bug or security issue.
interesting!
Yup, I just namedrop Lemmy and don’t explain unless people ask. Usually then the explanation is simple and about how I’ve chosen not to use Reddit for ethical reasons.
The whole thing with federating is irrelevant to most users.
I tell them it’s a social media built in a way that makes it impossible for any company to take over it in order to make profit. And then I show them to some instance I’ve hand-picked for them, without really telling them there are other instances as well. It’s not something they should worry about at that point. I can explain it later on, anyway.
The whole thing with federating is irrelevant to most users.
I tell them it’s a social media built in a way that makes it impossible for any company to take over it in order to make profit. And then I show them to some instance I’ve hand-picked for them, without really telling them there are other instances as well. It’s not something they should worry about at that point. I can explain it later on, anyway. interesting!
I don’t. It’s bad enough that people spend too much time on social media. Why the fuck would i introduce another one?
I’m practically only here because rif died. Its not because it’s enjoyable. I open the app to maybe see one good post among the thousands and thousands of “same”-posts.
I don’t. It’s bad enough that people spend too much time on social media. Why the fuck would i introduce another one?
I’m practically only here because rif died. Its not because it’s enjoyable. I open the app to maybe see one good post among the thousands and thousands of “same”-posts.
You made me think.
“The memes and news site I use.”
That’s it. No infodumping, no explaining the technicalities, just tell them “just pick one, it’s basically like a username” and worry about it only if they want to learn about the underside of it.
We don’t “explain” email to people - they just pick a site, sign up, and move on.
Working in tech I learned to only explain the workings of something if they ask since most users are perfectly fine on a surface level and can intuit more than we credit them for once they know the basic gist.
A free and open source social media platform supported only by the users and not by spying on its users.
Yeah but then there’s still no buy in from friends and family. They are most likely going to retort “Well none of my friends use it”. We could have open source social media in 2020s but people don’t want to use something they don’t know. Meta is comfortable for them and they are OK with being tracked and monitored by Meta intelligence, its stupid that they rather live like that but only they can change their minds
The reality is it will take some disruptive force to alter the status quo. Maybe the government splitting up tech giants, maybe some public backlash to current events or maybe we will be invaded by aliens. Whatever it is, I will be waiting here on the Fediverse to welcome any and all who wish to join. Now having glimpsed a world free of invasive spying and constant manipulation to buy more stuff, I will never go back.
I don’t. Even I don’t like it here. I’m just a man of principle so I’m not going back to Reddit so this’ll have to do.
Why do you not like it here? What can/should be done differently?
Quite a homogenous user base with incredibly predictable reactions and views on world events, and the feed is basically just US politics and other news articles designed to make people angry or reinforce their pre-existing beliefs. This simply isn’t a fun place to be. The so-called “regrettable minutes” make up a really high percentage of the total time spent here. And that’s even after I’ve blocked virtually all of the worst communities and users, as well as built a long list of content filters based on keywords. I just have no desire to recommend anyone come here, since I’d consider that bad advice. This is a perfect example of what’s wrong with social media. Reddit’s nowhere near perfect either, but I was much less unhappy there.
You could just read from sources you have subscribed to and skip the “All”. That way you don’t need to bother with content filters :) You also aren’t really forced to follow the communities that are about US politics.
I don’t really bother until they’re looking for an alternative.
When I’ve put people on Linux, to make an analogy, it’s basically been because they entrust me with their choice of new computer, not because I won an argument about the relative merits of different software licences.
Most people IRL aren’t even on Reddit, so Lemmy wouldn’t make any sense for them. People might be on Twitter, but for whatever reason it hasn’t come up, so no Mastodon either. Mostly I hear about Tiktok and Instagram for the young, and Facebook for the old. Pixelfed is Instagram-ish IIRC, but I’m not sure how active it is.
Edit: And if people want whichever platform they have the most friends on, well, they’re obviously in the last 50% of the population you can recruit.
“the place I found after reddit because reddit is fucking garbage”
It’s (insert platform here) for furries, communists and nerds. If I want to explain the basic concept, I talk in terms of phone carriers
I don’t bother explaining it unless asked. I just share content with them. They can figure it out if they’re interested.
If I am asked, then it’s “a decentralized platform similar to…” whatever. Most folks are “don’t know, don’t care” when it comes to anything technical.
I don’t introduce them to Fediverse and don’t talk about it None of the people I know in real life are tech-savvy except one guy.
You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use a social media.
You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use a social media.
You are entirely right when it is about centralized social media (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter and the likes).
However, for example; Lemmy and Mastodon you at least need to be a bit tech-savvy.
- Making account is different but then you get;
- The multiple instances.
- Multiple communities that are the same name.
- What is exactly decentralization.
- Federation.
- Difference instances can give different results (blocking, rules, and what you can and cannot see from other instances).
- How Moderation works is different than the usual platforms.
- Community discovery is different. Searching for something can be quite difficult on Lemmy.
- Lemmy’s community has a lot of tech-jargon which non-tech savvy people might find difficult to wrap their head around.
- How the banning system works on Lemmy is different than the usual platforms as well.
- The multiple instances.
You only use one. You don’t need to care too much about this.
- Multiple communities that are the same name.
This one can be confusing indeed. I hope they will ask if they encounter this. Then you tell them they’re on a different Lemmy, and that the two are interconnected. And that’ll help them understand a bit about federating.
- What is exactly decentralization.
Not really important for using Lemmy. Nice to know, if you like being tech-savvy, but not necessary for using.
- Federation
This was already mentioned as “2.” You can read and write posts without understanding this. You’ll get the point of federation at some point.
- Difference instances can give different results
Different groups have different rules anyway. Some of them are derived from the instance’s rules, but whatever. Same end result. Not necessary to understand for basic usage.
- How Moderation works is different than the usual platforms.
How is it different, actually?
- Community discovery is different. Searching for something can be quite difficult on Lemmy.
I’ve never had trouble searching for something. Maybe that’s because before Lemmy I basically used only Facebook and there you cannot really find anything by searching anyway. For me Lemmy’s search works just fine for searching for what communities exist. Haven’t felt a need for something more.
- Lemmy’s community has a lot of tech-jargon which non-tech savvy people might find difficult to wrap their head around.
You don’t need to understand everything on this planet. If you cannot wrap your head around something, then don’t. You don’t need to participate in every conversation.
- How the banning system works on Lemmy is different than the usual platforms as well.
They’ll figure this one out if they ever get banned. Otherwise, it’s irrelevant for reading and writing.
All in all… Understanding federating isn’t strictly necessary for reading and writing in communities, but yeah, it is good to understand at some point. Everything else… Meh. Things that are nice to know, but you are able to follow communities and write in them just fine also without understanding those things.
Let’s agree to disagree. We both have different opinions and I’m not in the mood to go over and over and over with the chats about something we won’t agree on anyway.
No worries :)
I just describe it as an online forum I like to argue in. 🤷
Name checks out
It’s better to be coherent than not, Miss Princess. 😁
