this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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I'll bite: most people don't give a fuck about the fediverse and the hassle of having to understand it all in order to navigate it is only a barrier to entry that will slowly drive away people until the platforms die a slow, painful death.
Everyone on here saying they like it this way and prefer it over the mess that is Reddit or X are completely missing the point that negative growth will only lead to a failed platform.
The fediverse tries to solve a problem that doesn't exist for everyone, while promoting itself as the solution to everyone's problem.
You're right, most people don't give a fuck about it, and many of the attitudes on Lemmy aren't shared by the vast majority of people. That's not necessarily a problem, but it is if you think that Lemmy is going to suddenly overtake Reddit.
I beg to differ. Twitter and Reddit CEOs having meltdowns affect more or less everybody who uses those platforms, don't they? Learning how the Fediverse works is a small price to pay for a guarantee that their platform will never disappear out from under them again.
Not really. On many popular subs, most users seemed to be pissed off that mods were closing due to API calls blocking third-party apps. As for Twitter, those that just ignore Musk's antics probably haven't noticed a significant difference.
Many of these people have had accounts on these sites for over a decade, which is probably the longest account they've ever had outside of email. Nothing has changed for them.
Even if it did, people want to go where others are. No fediverse product has anywhere near enough people to make the switch worth it for anything outside of niche topics. Hell, even Threads is a bit empty for the average person, and most see it as a billionaire retaliation to Musk.
So yeah, a manufactured problem for the few.
Why will growth be negative? At worst it will be zero. Once people get over the initial hurdle of figuring out how federation works they don't tend to leave. We'll have slower growth than non federated platforms because of it, sure, but we aren't going to lose users.
We are losing users.
Are we? Fediverse Observer tells a different story.
Where I have (mostly) found myself freed of political extremists and bots on lemme, they've been replaced by relentlessly hubristic tech pedants who can find fault with anything I can think of to say.
So it's gone from infuriating to endlessly aggravating. I guess that's an improvement?