this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

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The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:

  • ~30 years old or older

  • tech enthusiasts/workers

  • linux users

There’s nothing wrong with that particular demographic or anything, but it doesn’t feel like a win to me if the entire fediverse is just one big monoculture.

I wonder what it is that is keeping more diverse users away? Is picking a server/federation too complicated? Or is it that they don’t see any content that they like?

Thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Younger folks have been raised on apps and other polished devices with oodles of effort put into UX design.

Older folks grew up learning DOS commands, memorizing the IRQ of their sound card, and other clunky shenanigans.

In their current state Lemmy, Mastodon and other services are too complicated for most young folks to bother with. Not all, but most, especially the filthy casuals.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the answer. I'm 26 and most of my peers didn't really use the internet beyond the occasional usage of the school library computers until Apple released the first iPhone. By that time places like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit were up and running.

That's all their experience with the internet is. Polished experiences through dedicated apps on extremely popular platforms. Now those people have had kids and all those kids know is the same thing. It's all apps on phones and tablets.

Lemmy: A) Is too complicated in it's current form for those types of people to effectively understand and use.

B) Lemmy is currently emulating a type of early internet experience that only nostalgic older millennials nerds crave. General users tend to prefer bigger platforms.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Lemmy is nostalgic? Lemmy is novelty for me. Looks and feels so modern. Simplistic, yet modern. Am I weird?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

No I feel the same way. I think it’s because it’s part of an ecosystem of concepts built with all its predecessors mistakes in mind. There’s still learning to do but the foundation is simple but is also modern.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I mean, Reddit killed off ‘polished UX’ and that’s what drove me here. All the great 3PAs are on the Fediverse, after all!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My Soundblaster used IRQ 7. Why do I still know this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Because when the great reset happens and VHS is hot shit again, you'll be ready.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm 26, probably among the oldest of gen z. I love lemmy. The quality is higher here because the community is smaller. There are much less reports than there used to be on reddit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah Im like one of the youngest with an age of 14.But thats okay because lemmy is just awesome for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Word! I feel active learning and feeding off one's brain curiosity diminished for younger folx.

With that comes laziness to "set things up". "OMG, it's too complicated for me. I'm having a headache. I can't, I just can't."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I use Ivory for browsing Mastodon, and I’d bet that the app is more polished than any other first-party social media app.

The problem with Mastodon (and Lemmy to some extent) is that the onboarding process is not as straightforward, thus causing some friction for the less tech-savvy users.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Couldn't agree more

We are used to Comfort and once you are used to it (or even never experienced else) its hard to lay it off for other benefits

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

aka: early tech adopters!

these folk are always the ones trying new things, especially anti-corporate things. They aren't keeping people away. this is just how the bleeding edge of new technology. The communities natural grow out over time as more people show up and start to outnumber them. But it's thanks to them that niche new stuff gets supported in the first place while it builds up it's audience (and reduces the friction to joining)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In reddit's early days, it was exactly like this. I remember that it felt like a Linux user forum, but with some conspiracy theorists. I actually feel that lemmy is a little more diverse than that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My take on this is not that this is the default early adopter demographic (bereal, TikTok, etc…cmon old dudes don’t act like we are “leading the charge”). But, there’s a good chunk of older tech oriented folks that see a glimmer of hope in the fediverse bringing back some bits of the “old web” imo.

While most of the people like me don’t love meta or Twitter it was kinda good enough, but Reddit was kind of a last straw. I was there when all these companies were born and at the time we were all teen and 20-something early adopters (believe it or not even Facebook used to be cool!) and we’ve watched them all slowly degrade. Very young folks prob don’t care as they don’t really use any of these services, but us old nerds want to avoid the pitfalls of the Web 2.0 era.

Web3 and the crypto-decentralization efforts were really ham fisted…I think most experienced techies saw through all the BS and recognized how wildly inefficient it all was, not to mention outright scammy in many cases. Fediverse is unproven but I think it has potential, and I think many of us older techies feel that way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

While most crypto/web3 ended up being get rich quick schemes for their founders, I actually think that the main weakness of lemmy right now will be funding for the long term. So some sort of web3 type micropayment system may need to be the eventual alternative if you don’t want a reddit style ad infested experience.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Even as a crypto enthusiast, the web3 movement smelled like VC manure being dumped on a field hoping something grows.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm Gen Z, don't use Linux, don't know the first thing about programming (I know how to use file explorer though), and never intend to learn, and I'm here because I don't wanna use the official Reddit app and because I'm convinced that the Fediverse is likely to become big in the future and I wanna be able to say I was here when it all began.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I know how to use file explorer though

What are the kids being taught that this is worth mentioning???

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is me as well. gen z, hate that trillion dollar corporations run our social media. The fediverse is the future.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's what I'm here for lol. I mean this is how reddit was when I first started there. Same with digg

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This place reminds me so much of early reddit. It's been a strangely nostalgic experience so far. The part of that which I'm enjoying the most, is that commenters are more polite to each other as far as I've seen

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

That’s what I’m here for lol. I mean this is how reddit was when I first started there. Same with digg

This is what people always miss. Generally, sites become popular because niche subcultures form outside of the "big" websites as they no longer really serve their purpose of connecting to like minded individuals. They never "start big", they generally snowball from small hardcore users to larger more generalized userbases over time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just your average Hollywood celebrity here to promote my new movie "Barbie", only in theaters July 21st.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Because ipad kids are happy with instagram,tiktok and other shit and doesn't give a fuck about privacy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

● under 30

● i mean im getting there in terms of tech interests

● Yeah ok i use linux

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I started back in the Wild West BBS days on the 80s; graduated to USENET in the 90s, website forums in the Web 1.0 days, /., Reddit, and now Lemmy. Yeah, I’ve been around. Been “Yaztromo” all that time too.

I don’t mind that “Eternal September” hasn’t infected this space yet — that’s a feature, not a bug!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Young people don't even understand that the internet isn't only the 5 websites that have existed since before they were born lol

That's probably a big part of it. We kind of designed the internet to become an information super oligarchy, even if it wasn't intentional.

I'm 33 for the record so I guess I'm an older tech nerd. Nice. 😎

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My 15 yo ass

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Maybe I'm am outlier but I'm 21 and here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If I wasn't a tech nerd I would have given up on signing up for Mastodon and Lemmy. There is a lot of focus on how instances work and it seems a bit overwhelming. I had a lot of internal, 'what if I make the wrong choice', or 'how can I move if I don't like the community' type questions. So being the nerd I am I researched the crap out of it and overwhelmed myself and said fuck it and just chose the popular instances since I know that I can move at a later date.

I personally think this format is favored by a lot of the demographic you mentioned. Most of us, I am generalizing here, grew up being active members in bulletin board systems. Then Reddit came along basically murdered the BB, but there was a good community to interact with. Now Reddit is basically unusable in my opinion because the community doesn't care about the content or the people behind the screen. That brings us here. We learned so much of our trade, laughed a lot, and made real friendships on these types of system and it is a place a lot of us feel comfortable.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • ~30 years old or older
  • tech enthusiasts/workers
  • linux users
  • hates Elon Musk
  • hates capitalism
  • loves free software but somehow hates free markets
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Old tech nerd here. Is this the meeting spot?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

as a young IT with friends who dont know much about IT i have to say that most around 20 use reddit, instagram, ... cause its the only thing they know. everyone they know uses them and many of them want likes, ...

if they would join the fediverse:

  1. they wouldnt understand how it works. what is a server? why choose an instance? its just too complicated
  2. all their friends dont use the fediverse. they would be alone and have nobody who they can share things to
  3. they would mostly see tech stuff and less in categories they are interested in
  4. none of the people they follow on instagram are here. the cant follow their celebrities, ... and see their content
  5. the fediverse still has to less users to be successful worldwide. its growing. and just like facebook in its first years, its growing slow.

=> give it a few more years and get your friends, family & collegues on here and see the fediverse grow

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Is picking a server/federation too complicated?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Literally the single biggest problem with fediverse adoption, brought up in every discussion about migrating to it. It will never replace centralized sites as long as it remains confusing and complicated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/14t9t66/im_so_lost_is_there_an_easy_mode_to_the_fediverse/

https://www.reddit.com/r/LemmyMigration/comments/145epgc/looking_for_a_lemmy_website_try_lemmyworld/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh c'mon, 30s is not older.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Good. I don't want to see some teenagers doing some dumb dance or whatever is on normie platforms.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Well it's new open source tech that can be self hosted by the 30+ tech nerds that have the money and interest in it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't want to stereotype anyone, but in my own social experience, younger groups don't give a shit about corporate monopolies or privacy, they just want things to work fast and automatically (ex: TikTok). And those I know in older brackets are still on Facebook and complaining that they don't want to deal with change because their family/business/workflow would be affected.

I happen to be 38, a linux user, and a gamer. And I concur that my age-group has just always seemed to be more open to new technologies for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think younger people don't give a shit about privacy because they grew up in a post 9/11 surveillance world. Facebook, Instagram and the internet at large became a giant surveillance machine and they've never known another possibility, so it's normalized to them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago
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