How do you introduce the Fediverse to other people?
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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 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.
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Name checks out
It's better to be coherent than not, Miss Princess.
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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! -
My main talking points focus on the lack of personalized feed, no advertising, no one corporation with political motivation is in control of it, clear moderation log, etc.
I think the key is that you have to show them why the platform they’re already using isn’t in their best interest. Why use Lemmy when they already have Reddit? Why use Piefed when they already have Instagram? Most people don’t realize the surveillance social media puts them under or how its personalized feeds manipulate their state of mind.
Until you explain that, it’s hard to give any reason to try anything other than what they’re already used to.
exactly!
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I don't, because they'll ruin it.
I don’t, because they’ll ruin it.
lmao
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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.
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!
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"Lemmy is like Reddit the same way Linux is like windows. Its not really as good, but turbonerds will give you a thousand reasons why its better and you wont really understand."
"Its not filled with wankers and bots yet though so its got that going for it."
“Its not filled with wankers and bots yet though so its got that going for it.”
hahaha
I use Arch, btw -
Lmao, exactly me!
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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.
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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.
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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 don't. I say oh yeah I read that on Lemmy. They don't ask, I don't offer.
If for some reason they say what is Lemmy? I say just a community version of Reddit not run by companies.
They never ask further, so I don't need to start explaining parallels to email.
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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!
Just wait until they get banned from reddit, get them to sign up and show them the Boost client (that used to work on reddit) and away they'll go. That's how i did it
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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!
Here's a better link from mastodon. It gives you a preview and has no ads.
"I'm trying to cut down on social media."
Great, mastodon isn't optimised for engagement, it's just stuff you follow in chronological order.
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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 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.
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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!
A free and open source social media platform supported only by the users and not by spying on its users.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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. -
- 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.
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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!
Lemmy is to Reddit what Methadone is to Heroin
