Fediverse

Having been around since the early days of identica/statusnet: no, not really.

It's always been small and a generally nice set of communities but it won't reach a large enough audience to matter. US (and to some degree) global politics are such a clusterfuck that it'll take more than some little servers with people discussing open source software and art or whatever to create substantial change.

that's not to say it's pointless. it's nice to have these little groups to focus on. it doesn't give me any hope but it does regulalry lift my spirits.

EDIT: I also dont think it needs to be any kind of agent or tool of change. Why can't it just be what it is? Groups of people socializing with one another?

I don't think the fediverse as it currently exists will draw a significant amount of people away from the larger social media communities, but who knows? My partner isn't particularly tech-savvy and she was on Mastodon without me ever having mentioned it to her. She was also the first person between us to use PixelFed.

I feel like the fediverse in its current incarnation is much like the early internet. It has a lot of promise, but most people on it are those who are enthusiasts and/or idealists. If the fediverse becomes easier to engage with over time, I can see it growing in appeal. If the fediverse equivalent of a killer app or high-profile voice gets established, we could see some huge growth.

I think that one of the hurdles it will face is that hosting these instances isn't free. With the centralized apps, they have VC funding they can burn through while they try to figure out how to monetize their service and to build it to be robust enough to be stable while handling growth.

What happens when a large instance has to pull the plug due to lack of funding, or they fail because they get hacked and/or don't have working backups, or the person/people who run it turn out to have an agenda? How things move on from those disruptions will be very telling for the future of the fediverse. They're all things that could happen, and I'm sure at least one of them will happen at some point.

the Fediverse really seems like it could be our response to these fuckers controlling the narrative on social media. It could be more than just an interesting decentralized social media platform. I really think this could be a key step in reclaiming our democracy.

Agreed, and I would add that finding ways to get nonprofit news organizations (e.g. ProPublica) and public media (e.g. NPR, PBS, etc.) to host and administer their own instances and to start directing their readers/listeners to those services would be a great way to advance this goal

It gives me hope. We have an opportunity to level the playing field. So much hope that I'm actually starting a show to try to help folks get to know people behind the Fediverse! I truly believe in it and hope we can claw back the internet from the tech giants.

Oh, no. Not at all. All hope is lost, this is just a comfortable place to die.

Yes but then I realized that unfortunately it will never take off and suffers from most of the issues that centralized sites suffer from. So yea, rip.

I mean it's really depressing even being in Europe honestly but at the same time it's a huge opportunity. It's time to take it :) Let's show them how decentralization AND open source can be a new standard! I'm seeing the same trend in Linux too and this is so important as well.

Also a lot of new projects to help decentralization are emerging, check https://spritely.institute/ which there's Christine Lemmer-Webber a co-author of the ActivityPub protocol :)

I don't live in that country, but while I like Lemmy, no, I don't have hope any more. I've not had that for a long time now.

It's interesting though, to see the US slowly turn into our enemy, and to consider that Germany will be one of our strongest democratic, antifascist allies against the new axis of evil when the time comes.

Thankfully I'm too old to be forced to fight in the next war against fascism, but I suppose poverty and climate change might kill me before then anyway. There truly is no hope left for me.

Using the Fediverse feels like a small step in the right direction. Big changes are built on lots of small steps. I would say move in the direction of using the Fediverse more, the old alternatives less, and think of more small steps in the right direction you can do. I don't think just using the Fediverse is enough, but it is an important step to take. Keep going.

Mark Zuckerburg was up there at the inauguration because he is one of the richest men alive, and he became so mostly because of the platforms he owns.

By using the Fediverse and not his platforms, I'm denying him revenue from ads and data, even if its an infinitely small amount.

Use open platforms, give your money to ethical businesses and keep it from these assholes. Money isn't the only way for someone to have power, but there's no denying that the net worth on that inauguration stage was the most concentrated anywhere on earth. Don't give them a cent more.

Yes

Yes. The fediverse is a pretty difficult thing to be controlled by a single group: that's sorta the idea. I see it as almost a refuge from all the bullshit. The lack of ads, tracking, content farming, censorship and control etc is refreshing. Here's to hoping the fediverse continues to spread.

It gives me confidence. I know that now that I host my own lemmy, I cannot be randomly banned because I triggered some automatic spam filter with my scripts (happened in reddit), or banned because I talked back to the wrong mod. I know that our internationally distributed nature makes it harder to control top-down, so takeovers like Musk-Xitter are not possible. We can still be affected by disinfo campaigns and troll farms, and we unfortunately have weakened defenses against that, but I'm confident that a lot of smart admins and tooling providers will bunch together to figure out the countermeasures that will work.

In general yes, but I would prefer if it had a wider variety of viewpoints on societal issues. I don't even always disagree with the prevailing circlejerk here on everything, but I would occasionally like to read counterarguments to it too.

There are a few specific people on fedi who do give me hope.

The Fedi is the only hope right now.

Nothing gives me hope.

At least there is some small respite.

I like Fediverse because I get much better engagement with people here than anything else

The Fediverse and open source world do give me hope. But my worry is seeing people not adopt them. I know they aren't pertect but compared to the big tech alternatives they're a no oasis.

We don't have control of our world, we never did. Just distance yourself from the madness and embrace the good in the world. Focus on those things and it becomes your reality.

For me it does. I'm really enjoying Lemmy, and have curated a bunch of communities that I follow and participate in in a way that feels helpful, hopeful, and not toxic.

it does. as an mbin cheerleader, its heartwarming to see the disparate AP based servers communicating with my server. lemmy/friendica/mastodon etc.... knowing that no entity could control all those products. the key of course is the protocol and maintaining ActivityPub as functional, standardized service.

I don’t think you’re dramatic.

For me it’s about reclaiming my right to participate in online discourse on my own terms. In a way the fediverse is freedom.

I plan on trying to self host a mastodon instance for myself and rebuild my blogs.

I don’t think I’d ever want to self host a lemmy, I like being anonymous to a reasonable degree. But I like that lemmy lets me have a voice without acquiescence to reddits enshittification.

Also the community is largely great. I love the memes, I love the comments and discussions, and I like that I learn things from fellow internet users again.

It seems like the only semi-viable alternative to oligarch run social networks.

I am not American, but behaviour exhibited by oligarchs such as Zuckerberg/Musk (and these are just the ones that get in the news) is not at all surprising.