Fediverse

Branding is also another factor that comes into play here. Most regular users are used to having a more polished app. Simplicity is the driving force behind apps like tiktok and Instagram. They build on top of each other rather than reinventing the wheel. So it's just a transfer of skills and patterns. With the fediverse, regular users have relearn those patterns and skills, which most people just aren't going to do.

One way to solve this problem is to just abstract the idea of the fediverse. Rather than saying "join the fediverse, we're decentralised" we could say "we're a multiverse of internet communities".

I also dont think regular users care about whether a post is from another server or not. This can be abstracted as well by only showing the community not the server. What I'm trying to say is, even though the fediverse is a decentralised network, we need to treat is as a centralized one.

Right now, the fediverse is not very user-friendly for non-tech people.

I mean, there's instances de-federating from each other, weird federation sync anomalies still going on between instances, users have to create and maintain multiple user accounts on multiple instances if those instances have defederated each other, even the 'official' jerboa app for lemmy shits itself if you try and connect in to an instance that's one sub-dot version lower than what it was built for - plus it crashes on 1/3 of my android devices, some of the best lemmy apps have been removed from app stores due to non-compliance with app store terms and have to be installed manually from github. It's all still very DIY right now instead of plug-and-play....and if lemmy is to appeal to anyone other than tech nerds, it needs to become much more user friendly and much more plug-and-play.

I tried explaining it all to my wife (who is still a Reddit user) and she argues that lemmy on fediverse sounds way too complicated...and she's not wrong.

I am around 20 and use lemmy, but I agree my friends need instagram

I think most people don't go to a platform because of how it is implemented but rather what content and what communities already exist there.

People on the fediverse now are using it not because of the content already here but more because of the promise of a platform designed in a different way that will ultimately enable a better internet experience. I think part of the reason why it's mostly techy people is that the sales pitch is complicated enough that mostly techy people will be able to appreciate it. Not to say that non-techy people are too stupid to get it, it's just that it requires a kind of abstract thinking that techy people are more used to.

It feels like lemmy seems to have a sense of nostalgia for old reddit in some ways, so I imagine that a lot of people on here where also on reddit maybe 5-15 years ago, which means that you are probably going to be older than the average reditor as well as techy. Can't speak for mastodon, honestly I find the culture on most instances I've seen to be kinda weird and unappealing but yes it seems to be older techy people as well there.

Yes. I have yet to run across 💀💀💀 or 🔥🔥🔥 in any reply thread as well as popular slang. Also AITA posts with some of the worst advice known to humankind. Thank god it’s over!

Reddit evolved into in something unrecognizable over the last 5 years as it’s popularity exploded.

I don't use Linux, but other than that...

I kind of fit the description so I certainly can't argue with you.

I think a big part of the reason you're so spot on is because of the timing. Painting with broad strokes here, but the group you mentioned is kind of the group you need for something like Lemmy to be built in the first place. And I fully appreciate Lemmy had been around for awhile now, but let's be honest, it's only recently become 'popular' thanks to u/spez.

I hope the username will expand as more people find out about Lemmy. I think with that will come feature changes (more likle9in the form of third party apps) as a more diverse group of people start using Lemmy.

I've seen and even tried to run a few polls on age (mostly on mastodon and microblogs).

The age demographic of the fediverse definitely leans as you think ... on average ... Xennial tech/academia/nerd oriented. Not too sure linux users are too dominant though.

As for more diverse users? This isn't mainstream (yet?). There's a lot of inertia around the big-social era. It lasted for a long time relative to the history of the internet, ~2008-2022, ~14 years, which is nearly as long as the internet had been around for before then. So many are stuck in their ways and stuck on the idea that there's only one or two places to be online and they're on one of them, the "right place". I saw someone on twitter just yesterday say that they'll stay on twitter until it goes down and then never go anywhere else because they don't want to bother with another social media platform.

It seems that the idea of a monopolised internet is breaking apart and fracturing now, which is a good thing, but not completely good across the board. Where for instance should emergency information be broadcast? Previously I would have checked twitter before mastodon without blinking. Now, Lemmy might actually be pretty good for this (only realising this now as I write). So there's also a dimension of kinda believing in the big/monopolised social media. This is likely more prevalent amongst younger people, from whom, for example, I've heard ideas like that decentralisation is some weird tech-libertarian ideology and that the "town square" is actually a good thing and something that should be committed to. As far as anyone that has any commercial interest in their social media profile like businesses (both small and big!) or journalists, not being the town square, and the lack of apparent "engagement" and "virality" on the fediverse is definitely a turn off. And of course having those types on a platform naturally attracts others. All of which is not to mention that the decentralisation thing is something your average person just doesn't have the time or patience for and the insistence of some of the people on the fediverse that you should learn about it and that it isn't hard are off-putting to some.

In the end, we've reached a bit of an impasse it seems, where we've culturally outgrown the idea of an important service like our online existence being at the mercy of private corporate whims, but don't have a clear way out. Accepting that the internet is diverse and not monopolised may just take some time.

Where the fediverse comes in is that it gives you both a fractured and diverse social media space but also the ability to connect anything to anything with a standardised protocol. It's a powerful idea, just like that of the internet itself, and whether it's activity pub or some other standardised protocol, I hope it makes it.

This is me 46 *nix user, nerd

It's funny if so - I was so old on Reddit. But this means I'm old enough to remember Usenet so this platform is comfortable for me.

I don't think it was difficult at all to sign up though, doesn't seem like a barrier to entry.

Definitely the server federation thing is overwhelming. I don't even know what that is. I was told Lemmy.world is the alternative Reddit.

can confirm:

• 28
• DevOps Engineer
• daily linux use

I think that might be because most people who go through the hurdles of setting up an account and figuring out the entire frediverse are people who are much more interested in the tech and it's applications rather than your average social media consumer who can just get all they want in a single location with a easy to understand concept

2* y.o. Linux user & sysadmin/sre/devops/younameit checking in.

I am still gonna use reddit for porn only, using patched Reddit app (by Revanced manager). 😂

24 yr old tech worker / Linux user checking in! I'm not old yet but I've got the spirit!

I don't mind a monoculture if it keeps morons away, that's a price worth paying. The reason I started using Reddit in 2009 was to escape the comment section of YouTube. Erik from Internet Comment Etiquette has been doing sterling work educating the Mongol Hoardes but they're still not ready.

That's how reddit used to be before Digg shit the bed.

I think that's probably accurate, but it needs context. When I discovered reddit, I was a teenager and I just lurked for a long time. At the time, the typical redditor was closer to 30 years old and a tech worker. I was a lurker because I didn't yet understand how to write a thoughtful, worthwhile comment. So there might be some lurkers right now because of that.

All kinds of people gravitate towards conversation, but older users will be more comfortable engaging in conversations at first. Reddit is not a good place to converse right now. We just need to focus on building community and encouraging conversations.

No. Next question

Well, we (old farts) know shit, kids are brainwashed nowadays.

Its the BBS era come again.

Older tech nerdsn are the pioneers of new and open technologies like fediverse and smolnet, because they are smart enough and care enough about technological principles/philosophies to use them. As the services grow they begin to reach a phase where it attracts reactionary people who are looking actively for alternatives to mainstream services ru n by corporations. This tends to be fanatical people who think capitalism/global economic system bad, or the very vocally queer. Then if it manages to grow even further, say from an exodus of users from a competing service, the normal people finally come and attract more normal people with far more varying discussion interest besides conputer technogy, spewing debates on political/economic ideas, and being gay.

Only 1 for 3 there myself, but I get the point.

One thing I have noticed is a big chunk of the memes posted earlier in June were very dated, ~2010-era Facebook style. Made me wonder if the crowd on here didn't at least initially skew older.

For everything except the memes I agree. The memes are clearly not generated by 30+ year olds though, and there are a lot of memes. (all of those 196 communities)