Why does everyone keep thinking fedi needs to be the next “big thing.”
It’s great as it is. It doesn’t need to be easier, or more widely adopted.
The internet used to be difficult to use and that acted as a filter to keep the brainless masses away. It’s fine. It was BETTER back then.
I’m sick of people acting like they’re superior and only they deserve the Internet because they think they’re intelligent. The “brainless masses” have just as much right to use the internet as you do. Stop trying to gatekeep the Internet.
More mildly put, people are diverse, which is a great resource.
I want to follow communities about a wide variety of topics. Some appeal to intellectual, tech-savvy people, others don’t.
If the platform is deterring to the later group, my experience suffers because I lack content in these areas.
People can use their brains in many more ways than understanding technology. Just because a person is not good in navigating technology does not mean they have no brain.
For example, I’d love to see more going on in communities about performative arts, philosophy, activism, regional cultural events. Occasionally, I like to peek into bubbles which are completely different from my own.
With power comes responsibility. I see it as the responsibility of people who understand technology to make it accessible to those who don’t.
I would even go further and say that I also want to interact with people who just want to be silly or want to share their bizarre views about things. Variety is the spice of life. As long as these communities can remain separate (like how the fediverse has communities), then the more the merrier.
id rather not use a platform loaded with greasy snobs saying “brainless masses” too
Then you might want to get off the Internet because, as long as there’s idiots, smarter people will call them out for their idiocy.
Did you know there’s a surgery where you can stretch out your vertebrae so you can suck your own bits?
You seem like you’ve got the flexibility to manage without surgery.
I honestly don’t think something having a higher barrier to entry is gatekeeping. Ofcourse you shouldn’t try to make things actively more difficult but I don’t think lemmy is doing that anyways.
Let’s go further! Computers should not come with an operating system installed.
careful, there’s a lot of Linux users here. you thought you made a good point but you only just gave them erections
better run before they tell you to start using Linux!!
You cannot run from us, silly. Got a minute to talk about our Lord and Savior GNU/Linux? continues to elaborate
Linux is not an OS, but you GNU that.
People want the Fediverse to grow because we can see how much damage corporate walled gardens have done to our society, and we care about others who are still trapped in a cycle of corporate abuse. We dream of a better world and see the massive potential benefits a decentralized global communications protocol hold for humanities future.
The bigger a social platform gets, the more synergy it spawns. That’s what adds utility to a social platform.
I don’t think anyone here wants it to be ‘the next big thing’, but I do think a lot of people (myself included) want to see it become ‘one of the next big things’. As in…we want it to become big enough to be a viable alternative to the proprietary walled-garden corporate establishments that have become the current standard.
More choice = better, and for as long as this platform remains small and elitist (referring back to your 3rd sentence), it will never truly be a viable choice. There’s still a lot of engagement I’m required to use Reddit for - and I hate that - and the only reason for it is we just don’t have the community size needed (yes, it’s getting closer every day) to be that viable alternative.
You are young it sounds like. If Lemmy becomes that size, all good things about it goes away, and we get ads and corporations moving in to profit from it. That turns the entire thing into the same shit as everything else.
It happens over and over and over again in tech. It’s a pattern that all older people knows about because we have lived it.
So I hope Lemmy stays small. Bigger than now, sure, but not big enough to attract corporations.
You are young it sounds like.
No. But it’s humorous to me that you immediately go there for anyone who disagrees with your take. I’m >5 decades.
If Lemmy becomes that size, all good things about it goes away, and we get ads and corporations moving in to profit from it. That turns the entire thing into the same shit as everything else.
Sounds like massive speculation. Especially for an open platform system that anyone can self-host. If you don’t like ads or paying for service, light up your own instance and self host. That is, by definition, why lemmy works the way lemmy works. I hate to accuse you of making shit up, but you are making shit up.
It happens over and over and over again in tech. It’s a pattern that all older people knows about because we have lived it.
I’ve probably lived through more of this than you have. I’ve made my career in the tech industry and have been at it since 1991. Again, you keep trying to imply that you somehow have more experience or more time in industry just because I disagree with you. That’s awfully pretentious.
So I hope Lemmy stays small. Bigger than now, sure, but not big enough to attract corporations.
That’s elitist. And it’s self-defeating. Sounds like you’d be happy just joining a few email list servers…because you aren’t going to get any more value than that out of the self-inflicted handicap of keeping community sizes tiny.
You seem to have equated what you think is superior age and experience with superior wisdom. You’re wrong on multiple counts and committing numerous logical fallacies while you’re at it. Larger platforms are more successful because they have the community sizes needed to make even niche topics relatively engaging. There’s a critical mass of users needed to make that happen. Lemmy is a few orders of magnitude too small for that yet, but that’s what it will take to be a viable alternative. I’m not suggesting that Lemmy should get so big that it causes places like Reddit to disappear…just that it gets big enough to be a viable alternative. If it’s not big enough to be a viable alternative, then what’s the point? To just be an elitist circle jerk for for a few people discussing a few popular topics somewhere outside the mainstream so they can think they are some kind of techno-hipsters? What a waste.
We disagree with eachother for sure. I’m also about your age, and I havent seen any platform become big without also becoming user hostile. Google, Youtube, Reddit, Meta, you name it.
It seems that you believe that just because Lemmy is federated, it will be able to not be affected by Threads and it’s users. We will see. I doubt it.
It seems that you believe that just because Lemmy is federated
No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that because federation is a two-way street and can ben enabled or disabled between any two instances, it will always be possible to have instances that are unaffected by threads. Certainly, some instances will choose not to federate with threads - and so there will always be the possibility to join a community (or create one) that shuts itself off from that influence. Take beehaw.org for example - they didn’t like the influence lemmy.world had on their community so they defederated. They are no longer influenced by lemmy.world. The point I am trying to make is that because of that fact (that possibility), there is no reason at all to desire to limit the total scope (userbase) of all of lemmy. If you want a private/closed community, then make one or join one - you don’t need to suppress everyone just to achieve your own personal goals for a community.
There was an article not long ago about how blocking threads won’t make the problem go away. Not sure how to find it again here, I tried searching for it but there are so many articles about Threads so it’s hard to find. Either way it made a very good case why blocking won’t make a difference.
I do not fully agree with this. Simply because by having a lack of users, there will not be answers to questions that require expertise
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This is the exactly the unwelcoming approach which would result in an unwelcoming environment
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What I am saying is that the community should be open for as many people as possible.
Making/keeping something purposefully difficult to use is like saying to someone that you won’t talk to them because they don’t have a PhD. in math.
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This post has the energy of a treehouse with a “no girls allowed sign” on the door.
The gatekeeping just makes some people feel like they’re special because they are the ones doing the gatekeeping rather than the ones being excluded by it. And it usually involves defending flaws in the community that drive most people away because they serve the same purpose.
Oh no! Not concerns! If only there was an open source, decentralized platform that had an active community that could address said concerns if they become an issue.
Weird, it’s like you only read the title. The article names several things. Data breaches. Unremovable content. And then some stuff that’s sort of solved by defederation but still kind of an issue, like moderation.
This is the internet. Data breaches, and unremovable content have been here from the start, including with big tech companies. Also, how is moderation more of a problem here then on dumpster fires like Reddit and Twitter? I don’t buy these criticisms of the Fediverse, sorry.
