Public opinion seems to be souring on all the big corporate social media sites, and I truly think if we’re able to get the word out about federated social media platforms, people will jump ship.
Also, it’s hard to dislike a platform that isn’t showing ads, selling user data, or generally making decisions for the enrichment of shareholders.
It’s so weird, I don’t even notice the lack of ads most of the time (pihole, never leave home, so it’s roughly the same experience I’m used to)
But when I go out? Oh man fediverse is the only site I’ll use because I know it’s safe from ads. The other privacy/user-focus stuff is just a bonus.
(I don’t have any friends around here, so just sort of go out to be out, and usually for food)
Inevitably there will be a fediverse instance with ads, but whether or not people want to use it will be up to the individual.
I use Boost and it has ads. But they’re ignorable as a banner here and there, not constantly. I can live with that.
Misskey has support for ads. Its mostly used for shitposting by admins.
Fediverse is the future of the internet
For the lowest common denominator social media user, the bar is even lower. As long as everyone else they follow and care about is on the platform, they will happily move. They won’t even care that they will be free from ads and tracking because they never cared in the first place.
Gonna be honest, a lot of times I feel like I don’t belong here, I’m still figuring things out. I’m not a “techy” type person (that seems to be some kind of prerequisite) and I barely know how to explain the fediverse to the layman, but I left reddit when they fucked over Joey (my preferred reddit app) and read enough to give reddit the middle finger and never look back. It’s been nice, really. I spend more time outside of the internet now. But I believe in the fediverse, I think it’s the right thing to do. I still check up on lemmy daily, but I get much more value and human connection and only spend the time that is appropriate on lemmy instead of endlessly scrolling. Most days I end up in some Wikipedia rabbit hole. Just like the good ol’ days. Learning new things, meeting new people. That’s what I love about the internet.
It’s what we all loved about the internet I think, before the web become… “that” (looking at the pile of shit the web has become).
But actually it’s not the web, not really. It’s the big tech platforms that most people seem to think is the internet now. It’s sad to watch how people log on to “Facebook” and not the general web anymore. And then Google in front of everything, like a big cancer growth.
Lemmy is not the new internet either I believe. But it’s here to show people that something else can exist. As soon as we let advertising in here though, it’s over.
The beautiful thing about decentralisation is that if an instance tries to as ads, then you can go to a different instance and see the same content.
If an instance creates as posts, your instance admin can block the whole instance.
Interestingly, the big instances seem to easily get enough donations to cover costs. I think that’s the great thing about this model, people are willing to donate when they know it’s not some big corporate making profit for shareholders.
A way I have found to explain federated social media to people, that seems to work is this: Imagine reddit, but instead of one company, with one administration, owning the whole site, it is a bunch of different reddits, that are independently run, that choose which other reddits they wish to associate themselves with. When you log into one instance, you automatically can see, and interact with, all the other ones that one chooses to associate with. You can have accounts on as many instances as you would like, even having accounts on instances that do no associate with each other.
Hey, I also was a Joey user. I am pretty tech savvy (I’m a software dev and a former sys admin). I’m not a Linux daily user though, so I still understand that out of place feeling. Like I have used Linux for things, but after working on my computer all day for work, I don’t exactly want to deal with roadblocks or tinkering on my computer in the evening.
I have also noticed that I spend less time scrolling on here than I did on Reddit, which is a good thing for me. It’s a place where I can satisfy that itch without getting lost in scrolling of posts or comment sections for hours.
Doin’ muh best to shitpost.
You’re all welcome, citizens!
Heroic Trumpet Music
Farting sounds
I’m doing my part too!
I have many, many sovereign citizens to keep us alive.
Admins. Thank you. Users. Thank you.
Mods?
What I like about the fedi is I don’t care if it’s a “success” in the same sense that the closed social media sites have to be. It’s not like this project has quarterly profit targets to hit or else it’ll have to enshittify or else the investors pull out and we’re all screwed because there’s no more app.fediverse.com monolith or whatever.
Nah it’s just us doing our thing and enjoying ourselves. The activity around here already reached a critical mass a while ago, to the point that there’s more content than I could hope to enjoy, so anything from here is vegan gravy.
Ehh. What’s the average age around here? I’m guessing it wasn’t the youth that migrated from Reddit.
Im interested in this as well
I’m 33. Joined up during the APIcalypse and ensuing exodus from Reddit.
Some sorta survey/census for the fediverse might be cool
We’ve had lots of them. It’s depends on the community but we’re generally older than r/, more female then you think, and slightly to very ‘techie’.
I’m not that young, but sometimes I see people here refer to their childhoods, and then I feel like a baby.
Now I feel old because my childhood was basically over before Reddit was born. Am I already old at 33? Gross!
I’m OP and I’m 50 and female.
I’m in my 20s, is that considered youth?
Everyone one of my shitposts is making history
Hey, shitposts are like manure that helps other posts grow.
Just trying to take it easy for all those sinners.
Im just here for the memes
I know that you will
im taking a shit
This is what Lemmy is all about, right here. Just a good, honest nutsack taking a simple shit.
I lurk!! But, thanks y’all.
Not anymore!
That means everything I am doing is becoming trendy, which makes no sense.
The thing that I love most about Lemmy and the wider Fediverse is the sense of actual community. Many of the users feel like actual people I could meet in real life. It’s essentially a digital cafe. Sure as hell not going back to Reddit or those other shit Big Tech sites.
Yeah, Reddit was like that about a decade or more ago.
The current level of bot activity there is actually insane.
Every day I am thankful for the work that has been done. It is life changing.
That’s it! I post a lot (you’re welcome all) and I feel like I have friends I talk to in the comments every day.
Now my username is not completely meaningless.
Every morning /kbin is working on some issues.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.