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Is the Fediverse worth it? Every so often I read some article about some protocol or stumble across some server, but then it's like mehh, yet another thing that you sign up for, another password, another bunch of people to deal with...
Jul 25 · 4 months ago · 👍 mediocregopher, norayr, blurrycat
There was discussion about making meta-fediverse. Where you wouldn't have any accounts, but still could post on diffirent fediverses as an anon.
🍄 Ruby_Witch · Jul 25 at 18:06:
The fediverse is worth it if you have any interest in the types of services that it offers. Are you looking for an extremely welcoming and mostly-right-wing-nutjob-free social media experience? Do you think you need an alternate to YouTube? How about a Reddit replacement or art hosting site?
If none of those things interest you, then no, the fediverse is not worth it. There's no point forcing yourself to consume content you're not interested in. :)
I'd love to visit nutjob-free spaces, be they left- or right-wing, but that is probably not likely... As I've cut myself off YouTube and BBS fills the space of Reddit, I probably don't need another place... Thank you for your responses.
🐻 moddedBear · Jul 25 at 19:12:
I have an ok time on the fediverse, but it takes a lot of effort to curate it how I like it sometimes (just because there might not be many right wing nutjobs doesn't mean there aren't nutjobs). The upside is that a lot of fediverse software is really customizable and makes almost any experience you might want possible.
The protocol is interesting but I found the social aspect to be highly cliquey.
I like mastodon as an alternative to Twitter and I had tried most other types of sites as well (but you are right about the passwords), e.g. I have a pixelfed account or a lemmy account
The problem with modern online communities is their design philosophy. Oldschool online communities are topic-oriented. Users post to threads or boards that are based on a topic. Modern online communities (aka social media) is ego-oriented. In these communities, the user is the topic. Other users post to the user's vanity page, which further strokes the user's ego. The result is the e-drama and cults of personality that plagues modern online discourse.
I’ve stopped and wish I never had. There is some good stuff but too much bullshit to sift thru and not good enough discovery
nope
@simul8 -- I think you hit the nail on the head!
🐉 gyaradong · Jul 26 at 03:22:
it's a good question. What do you get from social media? For me, I follow and connect to people I know. I get to hear news and ideas I'm interested in. The big downside is that many in the Fediverse are still connected to the outrage machine, so I have to actively ignore the daily insanity. I was happier not knowing about the Twitter rebrand for example and Mastodon is breathlessly snarking about it. Lemmy is a lot better but I suspect that's the instance I'm in (slrpnk).
Nothing beats gemspace though
🍵 michaelnordmeyer · Jul 26 at 19:57:
@simul8 Old-school forums and newsgroups had the biggest egos and the great dramas.
simul8, that definitely feels right. I've seen the same behaviors on the old forums I posted on, but back then it seemed to be a manageable set of individuals. Having all those types mingle in the same ecosystem has proven to be exceptionally toxic.
to me fedi is about having one account and being able to communicate with people of all nodes. ideally.
🦀 jeang3nie · Jul 28 at 01:39:
I think I'd enjoy the Fediverse if all of the various projects were trying to create something /new/ rather than copying horrible proprietary social media. I have found a number of people who I enjoy talking to over there due to shared experience and interest, but I'm not a fan of eg. character limits on Mastodon, which get in the way of expressing anything deep.
As with most things, it's a mixed bag. The good thing is that it's easy to tailor your experience by picking the right server and carefully selecting who to follow.
i found the character limit on mastsodon to be ok in most cases, i have created a few single page posts that I linked on mastodon (similar to tweetlonger) using my own wiki
first of all, character limit is specific to mastodon, it is not in activity pub standard. there is write freely, which has no character limit. i use socialhome and write long texts there.
i also edited mastodon configuration and set it to 10000 characters limit on my instance.
my friend explains (in armenian) how to configure mastodon to increase character limit, it is not officially supported. i guess you can translate or find relevant information somwhere else.
🦀 jeang3nie · Jul 29 at 04:14:
I was mostly pointing out that many of the fediverse services simply clone ideas from proprietary services, some of which were never really good ideas to begin with. Character limit on Mastodon is just one example. Then you have things like upvotes/downvotes on Lemmy which make for a terrible commenting system where bad behavior is almost encouraged.
My point is, why create something new and open and then give it the same flaws as the walled gardens? Just being more open and federated isn't in itself enough to make these platforms good if they keep copying anti-patterns.
— google plus vs diaspora design timeline
true. mastodon is more engaging than socialhome or diaspora, since it shows you what your friends are commenting on in your stream.
diaspora on the contrary doesn't show you how your friends interact with other people.
plus, diaspora is, i believe, designed very well, this idea of aspects which, i guess, was then borrowed by google. so this time it was the other way round.
and it didn't live well even with google resources. eventually google decided to close g+ and give it up.
Copying antipattern is a big pattern in open-source. Linux UIs are constantly cloning the look/feel of Windows and sometimes Mac, for instance.
and next step. but i am glad i have my windowmaker. (:
