Fediverse

Fewer people, fewer idiots. I'm glad that people here are actually sane.

I agree with much of the article but.. Dude, go on holiday. Billionaires and corporations make up the vast majority of emissions that are driving climate change. See the world before the rich end up destroying what's left of it. You're allowed to enjoy yourself.

A small reminder that clickbaity titles like this work against the author's view for all the people who read just the title and scroll further. (And they're not to blame. You can't read everything)

TL;DR of the article:

Fall of Twitter and Reddit helped the Fediverse grow. Most users don't know or care how Federation works and don't realise the necessity of donations. Fediverse either remains niche or becomes mainstream, the future is not set in stone.

There's a sweet spot, right? Popular enough to be viable; not so popular that the quality decreases.

Honestly, a pretty valid take, all things considered. I can see why many people would find the headline outrageous, but reading through the article, I think it's a message that a lot of people do need to hear. And I think everyone should read what OP is conveying before jumping to conclusions.

I've seen people on Lemmy with mixed opinions on how Lemmy and the Fediverse should be treated. Some want to expand Lemmy and siphon off as many users from Reddit, while others want to keep the gates tight. Some want Lemmy to remain a small, niche community for enthusiasts, while others want the Fediverse to be a new paradigm for the maintstream internet.

I agree, that Fediverse platforms built up with donations and little to no profit incentive will likely remain dwarfed compared to the tech giants that can afford to give the public the high-end, high-production social media they ultimately prefer. As OP said, that's okay. The fediverse can remain a viable alternative, even if it doesn't become the new #1.

I think this is a message people should hear if they think Lemmy has the potential to outright eclipse Reddit at the moment, or think the Fediverse will take over the entirety of the internet and give the top tech companies a run for their money in doing so.

It doesn't need to be. It just needs to be better than Reddit, which it is. That's enough to make me happy.

Good. Hopefully, those that make Reddit the experience it is stays there.

The main reason behind Reddit’s API changes and Twitter Blue is money. This is and always will be the driving force for companies.
It makes sense. The people need to be payed, the servers need to be run.

Twitter Blue exists because Musk is an asshat, and screwed himself out of billions of dollars, and he's trying to claw some back. Reddit's API changes are because they're trying to set up for an IPO to line the pockets of the board and executives, not just of Reddit, but of Advance Publications, the parent company.

That IPO set up isn't only about profitability right now, it's also about the profitability of reddit going forward. The effect of all the nonsense that's going on over there is that the userbase is having the critical people culled away, leaving only the people who don't understand or care. This means that Reddit The Company will be more in control of the content. Advertisers don't like their ads showing up next to porn, and it's arguable that people who are critical of the way reddit behaves are less likely to click ads (on purpose), and certainly less likely to convert into customers for those advertisers.

Did Reddit The Company plan it that way? Not a chance. They've been doing stupid things hamfistedly for a while, some might say since the very beginning.

As a counter to your opinion that the fediverse is not the future of the internet: Meta jumped in, Threads is an ActivityPub platform. Wikimedia has an instance now. I believe the Netherlands government stood up an instance. I don't know the federation status of any of those, but it's something.

The difference between standalone siloed platforms like Instagram, or Reddit, or, Digg, or SomethingAwful, or Fark, or Twitter, or, or, or -- is that ActivityPub is a protocol. Anyone can write code to create a platform to use ActivityPub, and have that platform interact with other ActivityPub content in a myriad of ways. I fully expect there to come an ActivityPub platform that really catches on, much more powerfully than any of the current ones out there.

Yes. Quality over quantity is the way.

Neither is the internet the future of the internet.

I sure as hell hope it doesn't become mainstream - I don't think there's ever been a single thing that's benefitted over the long-term from mainstream popularity.

I understand that you don't want to be seen as gatekeeping, but I don't share that aversion. I overtly want the fediverse to remain somewhat confusing and opaque, and specifically so that dumb and/or impatient and/or lazy people will stay away. I think that every single person who gets confused and frustrated here and goes back to Reddit or Twitter is a net gain for the fediverse.

The future of the internet is personal. It won't be the case globally.

The inspiration we need

I absolutely agree.

Reaching the masses and keeping all of the mass content requires money, since investors are starting to realize that gazillions of views do not necesarilly equals profit, they are asking about ROI, which in turn makes the masses-reaching platforms look for ways to monetize those views, and that does not sit well with privacy caring people, but the masses don't care about that.

I really hope the masses never fill the fediverse with their nonsensical content.