The Fediverse will exist henceforth as the place people go who are "fed up" with wherever they were.
I have zero worries about Lemmy or Mastodon over the long term, but I have no hope whatsoever in their popularity. We will always be one of the smaller, peanut-galleries of the internet, and that's ok.
That's preferred. I remember when reddit absorbed all the outflow of Boomers from Facebook, and they slung shit on the walls with abandon until every corner reeked.
Fediverse still has linux and github vibes. Which is good in terms of functioning and free and made in the spirit of comraderie. And bad in terms intuitive and easy usability.
Programmers either don't understand that "nice to look at and use" is actually a really important aspect of an app/program, or it's a lot harder to do that well than it seems from the outside. I really don't know. When it's just one person making the whole thing, it makes sense that they split their work where they can.
But when you're dealing with a serious contender for a major platform, it's not optional anymore, and it's not a normie thing.
Programmers either don’t understand that “nice to look at and use” is actually a really important aspect of an app/program, or it’s a lot harder to do that well than it seems from the outside. I really don’t know. When it’s just one person making the whole thing, it makes sense that they split their work where they can.
It could be both. I guess the former is widespread amongst Linux-based hobby coders who use a minimalist window manager or even a terminal multiplexer instead of a full-blown desktop environment. They don't see the appeal in good UIs.
But they may also fall victim to the latter because they see good UIs so rarely that they simply don't know what good UIs look like. That, and most hobby FLOSS coders are backend devs above all. Even if you assemble 20 hobby coders for a project, you may have to appoint one who'll begrudgingly have to make a UI without actually knowing how.
At least, some Fediverse server applications can not only be themed, but you can replace the entire Web UI. And there are capable UI designers in the Fediverse, just not so many as capable full-stack devs. Granted, they may not be on the same level as frontend devs with Apple paychecks, but still.
For example, Pleroma and Akkoma have gotten to a point where, I guess, Pleroma-FE and Akkoma-FE only see so much use because not everybody has heard of stuff like Mangane yet. But people who have gotten a taste of Mangane usually don't want to go back.
Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte are so extensively themeable that a user-selectable theme is very close to an all-new frontend. In practice, Hubzilla's themeability fell victim to the effort of keeping Hubzilla's monstrous backend maintained, and so it's down to one theme whose name is not the only hint at it being stuck in 2012. Well, enter people who make new third-party themes to stop Hubzilla being as unuseable as it's being made out to be.
Gonna put this out there: the fediverse is vastly depressing and not very fun. Lacks creative-types, too.
I see why people would choose the alternative.
And full of propaganda, especially from Lemmy.ml
Not surprising to me that its faltering, but very disappointing
The general user base is off putting and creates a shit experience. The fediverse will unfortunately never grow beyond a niche platform. It’s a great idea, it’s too bad so many of the people are such shit. Even in this thread another user calmly pointed out what non technical users care about and sure enough, someone with their head so far up their ass they probably haven’t been able to walk outside in weeks is blasting off while smelling their own farts because it’s so inconceivable that some portions of the population may not be as technical or similarly vested in things as they are.
My Lemmy experience is kinda shit, but Mastodon is alright
i've come to believe that something in reddit's design with the upvotes and the downvotes brings out the worst in people
Honestly it's fine. Keep fedi niche, it's why it continues to be comfy.
Bluesky: install an app and make an account.
Mastodon: first pick a server. What does that mean? You figure it out. Ok, now select a client and install it. Doesn't matter which one, but it actually does. Then use that client app to log onto the server you made an account on. Now you just need to figure out who to follow and you're ready to participate!
The how-to-search-for-people-to-follow thing caused me trouble with Mastodon. I could handle getting a client and an account, but actually finding people not on the same instance as me was a challenge. Discoverability was pretty broken.
Bluesky doesn't seem to have that problem.
Lemmy I've stuck with because it handles that better.
The latest version of Mastodon does suggest accounts to follow. But you're absolutely right - Bluesky being fully centralized can do a lot of things easier than it is for the Mastodon network. I have high hopes that @dansup@mastodon.social will help alleviate this a lot though with the Fediverse equivalent for "starter packs":
Download "Mastodon" from an app store. Create an account. Post.
It's been a few years since you last tried, right?
install an app and make an account
Mastodon is pretty much the same now
There is an option to pick another server, but non-technical users are probably going to glance over it entirely
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2022/04/official-apps-now-available-for-ios-and-android/
Happy twitter is dying. For awhile I though modern society will take anything from fascists, but maybe there're still some lines normies won't cross.
And yea bluesky is just infant twitter, but it's like vaping: may be not great for you but hella better than smoking.
That’s cause the Twitter format is not for people who want the open source experience.
Twitter format is about self promotion, it’s not a place to discuss ideas anonymously.
Fediverse is the over-engineered great solutions that most people don't understand
I tried to explain the Fediverse to the marketing department at my company and the looks of confusion just made me gave up.
"It's like email. We have our company domain and others have theirs and it all just works"
That's a great start to an explanation, but first, you are assuming that people know how email works, and second, unlike email, federated social media has discovery, feeds, and in general content that gets pushed to you. How all of that works can be complicated and if you join a small instance, you may not realize how much content you are missing because of it.
Breaking: Musk offering to buy BlueSky.
/s, but barely.
I want Mastodon to work as much as I want Lemmy to work but as long as all the people I want to follow are on/going to Bluesky I'll be on Bluesky too. At least until it gets entshitified and everyone flees again.
Memes about the Fediverse
