this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

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This is a follow-up from my previous thread.

The thread discussed the question of why people tend to choose proprietary microblogging platfroms (i.e. Bluesky or Threads) over the free and open source microblogging platform, Mastodon.

The reasons, summarised by @[email protected] are:

  1. marketing
  2. not having to pick the instance when registering
  3. people who have experienced Mastodon's hermetic culture discouraging others from joining
  4. algorithms helping discover people and content to follow
  5. marketing

and I'm saying that as a firm Mastodon user and believer.

Now that we know why people move to proprietary microblogging platforms, we can also produce methods to counter this.

How do we get "normies" to adopt the Fediverse?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What made reddit so popular in my opinion was that every sub wasn't filled with agenda driven narratives you could find interests or memes random people with deep insights to whatever the topic was.

In Lemmy it seems every sub is skewed with left wing or DTS filled insane ppl and to find just normal shit is the rarity

Much like when there is an exodus on other platforms to host only right leaning viewpoints a "normal" person viewing it will see the same thing Lemmy has become and just go back to what they were using before

The problem is not the platform its the people. Chill tf out with all that propaganda horseshit and u might get regular ppl to use your product.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Maybe the "age of the free internet" has passed and people just expect bad faith and react completely radicalized today.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

So I have been on Mastodon and Threads for quite awhile. I'm on BlueSky now too. Threads is the most enjoyable of the three by far. I don't see how marketing has to do with it in any way, but after spending some time on each, I prefer Threads. It's the only one that I've found content I wanted to engage with.

With Mastodon, I feel like I still can't get started. I'm not sure what to do.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Tell the people calling for nuking half the planet to stop it, enforce it.

Boom. You just eliminated 80% of the hostility on the platform.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

A sweet interface like Sync for Lemmy and respectful content and engagement are the key to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I've had more than one person tell me they don't think microblogging is worth any learning curve whatsoever. They'd rather not use anything than have a single conversation about federation or feed building.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Is it an option to not? Cuz if so that's what I'd choose.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

To do that in the short term, the Fediverse probably just needs more money. The competitors have a fuckload of it and can introduce features way faster because of it. I think Mastodon's been "exploring/planning" quote posts for like 18 months and haven't even begun working on it. I'd love to have user-controllable, optional algorithmic feeds in Mastodon (not replacing the main reverse-chron feed) but I can't imagine it existing in less than 5 years.

Mods cracking down on the plague of 'polite' harassment (ex. passive-aggressive FYIs about CWs) wouldn't hurt. It's not as bad as it used to be but it's chased a ton of people away.

I think in the long term the Fediverse has an advantage. The only real goal Fediverse services have is to get better for users. At some point, Bluesky and Threads will have to make money or die. I don't think they have a way to do that without damaging the user experience.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (5 children)

There are some loud voices in the fediverse who don't want it to be very welcoming. Here are a couple examples:

Threads defederation - what could onboard people to the fediverse faster than a giant platform run by Facebook joining? Yes, I hate Facebook as much as everyone else here, but they're making an offramp for their users and half the fediverse wants to close that off?

Overbearing enforcement of norms - yes, it's good if people put alt text on their images and content warnings on stuff lots of people find upsetting. It's harmful to hassle people about it until they leave.

I think people who a small network with strong social norms are better off on servers that are selective about what they federate with to ensure stricter adherence to the preferences of their users. One of the great things about federated systems is that users can pick a place that's run in a way that works for them.

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