The Fediverse is Not The Future of The Internet. - eviltoast

I don’t think the Fediverse will become mainstream. But I’m actually happy about that. And so should you.

    • TheSpookiestUser@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I want the place to be just big enough that the real niche communities (mostly gaming) start blooming. After that, though, I’m good.

    • Dandroid@dandroid.app
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      1 year ago

      Eh, feels mostly the same to me. Some people didn’t like the meme I posted and accused me of wanting to murder my neighbors.

    • Wabbitsmiles@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s quite telling that by having a more ‘complicated’ sign up process and ‘how-things-work’ around here is able to keep idiots off the Fediverse (for now)

      And I appreciate this, which means as a potential user I need to do my own background research, look around at different sources of information, lurk for a bit, before committing to a platform. And this in and of itself, for me at least, gives me a better appreciation of the ‘verse’ and how I can contribute to it.

      From the article “The Fediverse is not that. It’s kind of… different. I mean, the very first thing you get asked when signing up for a Fediverse platform is “Which Instance?”. The signup process in the Fediverse is more complicated than people are used to.”

      A counter example to this ‘barrier of entry’ would be threads. Super easy to join, making it almost ‘stupid’ not to join if you’re already on IG and using Twitter, without understanding what it offers besides simply being an alternative to threads (this is where I was at, could not outweigh the cons vs twitter, thus did not join)

    • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I like it too honestly. It reminds me of stories about how Usenet used to be before the Eternal September.

    • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I have not found that too be true. In fact I am getting more negative replies here than Reddit for similar comments. Like I just had one linking me to the whataboutism definition, but my comment they were replying too was the opposite. Unsure if a dumb bot triggered on a keyword or a person who didn’t understand the definition they sent. Been lots of little micro aggressions here. Wonder if the crowd or AI a grouping is using to sour the experience.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I really think the typical Lemmy user falls into a lot of the same trappings as the typical Reddit user. It’s especially obvious on political or otherwise emotionally charged topics. In the end it doesn’t really matter if you are downvoted or not, it’s just an imaginary number.

        But it’s definitely organic, not trolls or bots; just an inevitability of online spaces

      • rusticus1773@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Go back to Reddit. I read through your post and you are a snowflake. I believe you’re looking for an echo chamber, which hopefully will not be found here.

        • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          I sadly have to agree… I see that this post has a 2:1 up/down ratio. I was hoping that people with different opinions would speak up more because I would love to hear them

          • mysoulishome@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Edit: congrats on publishing your blog! It’s cool that your put yourself out there. Hope you have a good night.

            (My comment wasn’t nice, didn’t realize op wrote it and now feel embarrassed)

            • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              As you may have seen, that was my first blog post. It would be nice if you actually had something constructive to say. Care to elaborate on why you don’t agree?

              (Edit: Spelling)

                • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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                  1 year ago

                  You didn’t have to do that. If you feel embarrassed saying something rude, just don’t but if you disagree with me, please do tell. I love hearing different perspectives, it makes you grow as a person.

        • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I mean all it takes is to read this comment from you and then your post history to realize who you are. Name calling is just an emotional reaction and not discourse.

        • nicholas@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Lemmy is a massive left-wing echochamber though. It’s honestly a problem.

          • Kichae@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You’re more than welcome to make a cogent argument for right-wing policies. Please, by all means, convince us that “fuck the poor”, “fuck immigrants, but also fuck indigenous people”, and a dictatorship of the wealthy is what’s honestly best for people, communities, and the environment.

            I’ve been waiting 25 years to hear the case for right-wing policy, but all anyone ever seems to say is “fuck you, I got mine”, and there’s nothing to say back to that other than “well, fuck off with yours and leave the rest of us alone, then”.

            • Alto@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              I’m about as far left as they come, but yeah it’s definitely a fairly strong left wing echo chamber, and thay absolutely can very quickly become a problem.

              I’m not even talking about “silencing the right” or whatever those chucklefucks want to complain about. We’re not there yet (nor are we particularly close at the moment), but I’ve seen plenty of communities turn into a hivemind because they’re not careful about that sort of stuff.

              • rusticus1773@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Your claim to be leftist does not strengthen your opinions strength. I want an echo chamber of users with empathy. That by definition excludes all on the right. Why the fuck should I care about the opinion of a sociopath.

                • Rottcodd@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  I want an echo chamber of users with empathy

                  Really?

                  I would think then that at the very least, you wouldn’t be such an asshole.

                • activator90@lemmynsfw.com
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                  1 year ago

                  “I want an echo chamber of users with empathy”

                  You don’t even want an echo chamber, you want a cult. No thanks

              • rusticus1773@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                60% of the US has empathy and 40% does not. I don’t give a shit about the opinion of those without because I already know what it is. Take your left/right paradigm bullshit away and talk about personality traits. I want an echo chamber of those with empathy. If you define that as “leftist” then yes.

                • activator90@lemmynsfw.com
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                  1 year ago

                  You can’t openly say that you want a leftist echo chamber. Hence you cover it up in the name of “empathy”. Good other way around mindgame

          • effingjoe@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            What would you consider an example of “right wing” speech? In 2023 that usually means bigotry or misinformation, and I can’t help but agree that I don’t see any point in allowing that, but I’m willing to be convinced that there’s more than that.

  • Sarla@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I agree with much of the article but… Dude, go on holiday. Billionaires and corporations make up the vast majority of emissions that are driving climate change. See the world before the rich end up destroying what’s left of it. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself.

  • Machefi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A small reminder that clickbaity titles like this work against the author’s view for all the people who read just the title and scroll further. (And they’re not to blame. You can’t read everything)

    TL;DR of the article:

    Fall of Twitter and Reddit helped the Fediverse grow. Most users don’t know or care how Federation works and don’t realise the necessity of donations. Fediverse either remains niche or becomes mainstream, the future is not set in stone.

    • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      That is a fair point, I’ll keep that in mind going forward, thank you

      Edit: I do want to add that skimming the title and voting based off of that is not how it should work. I would at least scroll to the conclusion, even though this article admittedly doesn’t really have one. Going forward I will make a clearly marked conclusion and summarize my pov better in the title to avoid confusion.

      • Machefi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Regarding voting, of course, it should be done after familiarizing oneself with the post to some degree greater than the title.

        I meant changing people’s minds. While just the title won’t convince people to think a certain way, it will remain in their minds as one of many opinions on the topic they encountered. And it’s a shame if that opinion is the opposite of what the author has in mind.

  • Dave@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There’s a sweet spot, right? Popular enough to be viable; not so popular that the quality decreases.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      Yes. I’m already noticing a lot more rude and immature people as the number of users grow.

      • TotallyNotADolphin@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I feel this is just a natural step in a new, growing platform/community.

        Initially there is a smaller userbase tending to be more like minded/interested, and people will mostly behave.

        As some get more comfortable and as more users join there will be a point where conflicting views and interests congregate while there may still be lacking people and tools to moderate the discussion, in addition to there being just the amount of content that it is difficult for bad faith content to be buried.

        I think a lot of the fediverse is here now, where users are exposed to other users and content with either differing views or straight up intentional bad faith, whereas they previously were in heavily moderated communities or was only exposed to their section of content. Sometimes this might lead to good discussions, while other times it will devolve into rudeness or spite (especially with bad faith parties)

        Eventually the amount of content may grow so that these incidents will be harder to notice, and/or more users will also bring more people and tools to aid in moderating said users and content

      • bron@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This is where the system of Favorite and Reduce comes in. Same concept on Reddit with upvotes and downvotes. Hopefully the community will help to filter out the noise, but again, history tends to repeat itself.

      • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        I’ve noticed some transphobia and homophobia recently too (usually from lemmy.world accounts 👀)

        • mrmanager@lemmy.today
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          1 year ago

          Well of course. Lemmy is not censored like the other social media platforms so you will get to hear what people actually think here.

          A lot of people feel uncomfortable around gay and trans people. It will take time.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It doesn’t need to be. It just needs to be better than Reddit, which it is. That’s enough to make me happy.

  • XYZinferno@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, a pretty valid take, all things considered. I can see why many people would find the headline outrageous, but reading through the article, I think it’s a message that a lot of people do need to hear. And I think everyone should read what OP is conveying before jumping to conclusions.

    I’ve seen people on Lemmy with mixed opinions on how Lemmy and the Fediverse should be treated. Some want to expand Lemmy and siphon off as many users from Reddit, while others want to keep the gates tight. Some want Lemmy to remain a small, niche community for enthusiasts, while others want the Fediverse to be a new paradigm for the maintstream internet.

    I agree, that Fediverse platforms built up with donations and little to no profit incentive will likely remain dwarfed compared to the tech giants that can afford to give the public the high-end, high-production social media they ultimately prefer. As OP said, that’s okay. The fediverse can remain a viable alternative, even if it doesn’t become the new #1.

    I think this is a message people should hear if they think Lemmy has the potential to outright eclipse Reddit at the moment, or think the Fediverse will take over the entirety of the internet and give the top tech companies a run for their money in doing so.

  • Nougat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The main reason behind Reddit’s API changes and Twitter Blue is money. This is and always will be the driving force for companies.
    It makes sense. The people need to be payed, the servers need to be run.

    Twitter Blue exists because Musk is an asshat, and screwed himself out of billions of dollars, and he’s trying to claw some back. Reddit’s API changes are because they’re trying to set up for an IPO to line the pockets of the board and executives, not just of Reddit, but of Advance Publications, the parent company.

    That IPO set up isn’t only about profitability right now, it’s also about the profitability of reddit going forward. The effect of all the nonsense that’s going on over there is that the userbase is having the critical people culled away, leaving only the people who don’t understand or care. This means that Reddit The Company will be more in control of the content. Advertisers don’t like their ads showing up next to porn, and it’s arguable that people who are critical of the way reddit behaves are less likely to click ads (on purpose), and certainly less likely to convert into customers for those advertisers.

    Did Reddit The Company plan it that way? Not a chance. They’ve been doing stupid things hamfistedly for a while, some might say since the very beginning.

    As a counter to your opinion that the fediverse is not the future of the internet: Meta jumped in, Threads is an ActivityPub platform. Wikimedia has an instance now. I believe the Netherlands government stood up an instance. I don’t know the federation status of any of those, but it’s something.

    The difference between standalone siloed platforms like Instagram, or Reddit, or, Digg, or SomethingAwful, or Fark, or Twitter, or, or, or – is that ActivityPub is a protocol. Anyone can write code to create a platform to use ActivityPub, and have that platform interact with other ActivityPub content in a myriad of ways. I fully expect there to come an ActivityPub platform that really catches on, much more powerfully than any of the current ones out there.

    • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Interesting take. I know about Meta and it wouldn’t be out of character for the Dutch government to go into the federated direction. It would be really awesome to see more federated platforms catch on like Mastodon. We just have to be careful about letting companies like Meta in. What happened with XMPP can’t happen with the Fediverse. I do admit that I probably make it out to be worse than it will be, I’m just the cautious kind. Let’s hope that the Fediverse will be a nice place with nice people for a long time.

    • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Lots of people actually use Lemmy, Kbin and similar platforms as alternatives to Reddit and other traditional social media. It’s great that you’re open to donating/hosting, that’s exactly the kind of person we need imo. I simply pointed out that too many people that are opposed to donating/hosting or simply don’t know the necessity of it could become problematic. Basically encouraging people to help make the Fediverse even greater. I also stated that it will probably be fine, just as Mastodon is doing fine.

      I checked out your cooking content and it’s actually quite interesting! Keep up the good content :)

  • Rottcodd@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I sure as hell hope it doesn’t become mainstream - I don’t think there’s ever been a single thing that’s benefitted over the long-term from mainstream popularity.

    I understand that you don’t want to be seen as gatekeeping, but I don’t share that aversion. I overtly want the fediverse to remain somewhat confusing and opaque, and specifically so that dumb and/or impatient and/or lazy people will stay away. I think that every single person who gets confused and frustrated here and goes back to Reddit or Twitter is a net gain for the fediverse.

    • uselessauth@lemmy.worldOP
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      I agree that it would be beneficial to have this space be filled with people that understand it. What I meant by “I am not gate keeping the Fediverse” is that I don’t want to be rude to new people by being annoyed at people not knowing stuff yet. It’s okay to be new, it’s okay to learn. I just want people to be willing to learn, that’s all.

  • techviator@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I absolutely agree.

    Reaching the masses and keeping all of the mass content requires money, since investors are starting to realize that gazillions of views do not necesarilly equals profit, they are asking about ROI, which in turn makes the masses-reaching platforms look for ways to monetize those views, and that does not sit well with privacy caring people, but the masses don’t care about that.

    I really hope the masses never fill the fediverse with their nonsensical content.