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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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I don’t think this will be a popular take but I think big companies joining the Fediverse has the potential to be a healthy thing. They’d have the resources to make it more viable to onboard the masses. This would grow the graph and the content pool.
Once onboarded, people can hear the gospel from us Fediverse-freaks and potentially migrate. The concept of finding and joining a federated instance won’t be so scary. The people that won’t migrate probably never were going to.
Will they be perfect citizens? Almost certainly not, but it doesn’t have to be all bad
But with big companies comes advertising which is one big reason why I'm here and not on the official Reddit app.
Ads do suck and the whole industry is a hazard, but if another instance wants to run some and recoup server bills it doesn’t seem like my problem; I’ll find a new instance with a different financial model. If they inject ads into feeds I’d want them defederated; it all becomes a selling point to move to a different instance
Do you want to onboard the masses though?
These are the masses that literally do not seek anything that is not packaged and maketed and placed directly beneath their noses as the latest zeitgeist, the must have, if you don't join you're out of touch!!!
It's not exactly conducive to critical thought processes, and a large part of valid arguments about social media being harmful.
I do think there’s lots of people who have something meaningful to say that can’t or won’t take the time to learn to navigate the Fediverse
That's the sad pickle though - you don't want to gatekeep voices, but at the same time there needs to be some effort put in if you want your voice heard - an ersatz idiot filter.
I mean, there are multiple visual and audible walk-through videos on YouTube available to teach people how to make an account here. They are step by step, and you can see what to click.
I learned by googling it, myself.
How easy are you talking, here?
No one needed a walk-through to sign up for Threads last week; that should be the goal IMO for any decentralized network to thrive. Being decentralized makes that inherently more difficult but I believe it’s a worthwhile goal.
I know it probably sounds insane but I think the Fediverse has more potential than a niche social network for the data conscious - but I think it needs to be accessible to fulfill that vision