It’s rough right now politically in the US. A lot of people around me seem like they’re ready to give up hope. It makes me incredibly angry seeing Zuck up there with all the other billionaires, and Elon is a parasite that has infected the government.
I often find myself wondering how I can make a difference. How can we regain control of our world?
Idk if I’m being dramatic, but the Fediverse really seems like it could be our response to these fuckers controlling the narrative on social media. It could be more than just an interesting decentralized social media platform. I really think this could be a key step in reclaiming our democracy.
Am I being dramatic lol? Do you all feel the same way? I was kinda getting emotional even. Like we could bring real change. That gives me hope, which is something we are desperately lacking right now.
It’s not just Lemmy. It makes me happy to see all the Fediverse platforms (specifically activity pub based) blowing up.
Friendly reminder if you have the financial means, donate to your instance, donate to the Lemmy devs, donate to Pixelfed or any other social media app fighting big social media. And better than a one-time donation, set up a monthly contribution even if it’s just $2/month. It really helps open-source developers when they have a steady income.
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No, it’s continued relative unpopularity in the face of universal hated-but-contined-use of the mainstream networks continues to be depressing.
Although the onboarding process for most of the major fediverse platforms is a bit scary for normies.
the Fediverse really seems like it could be our response to these fuckers controlling the narrative on social media. It could be more than just an interesting decentralized social media platform. I really think this could be a key step in reclaiming our democracy.
Agreed, and I would add that finding ways to get nonprofit news organizations (e.g. ProPublica) and public media (e.g. NPR, PBS, etc.) to host and administer their own instances and to start directing their readers/listeners to those services would be a great way to advance this goal
It gives me confidence. I know that now that I host my own lemmy, I cannot be randomly banned because I triggered some automatic spam filter with my scripts (happened in reddit), or banned because I talked back to the wrong mod. I know that our internationally distributed nature makes it harder to control top-down, so takeovers like Musk-Xitter are not possible. We can still be affected by disinfo campaigns and troll farms, and we unfortunately have weakened defenses against that, but I’m confident that a lot of smart admins and tooling providers will bunch together to figure out the countermeasures that will work.
oh snap, db0 the person! Love your instance.
How expensive is it to host your own instance? Assuming you aren’t doing it in house.
About 5-20 eur/month should be enough for most instance admins, depending on their provider.
Which do you use?
My setup is quite complex and I have 1000+ MAU so we’re not a small instance anymore. That said we use hetzner, ovh, and mailgun. Our hosting hosts are more than 100 per month but I could probably be running a bit cheaper if I wanted, but this way we have easy growing space.
I’m curious about this too
Yeah, being banned because a mod didn’t like you was the worst thing on Reddit. Especially if they modded multiple subs and banned you from a subreddit you never even came close to breaking the rules on. Some Reddit mods were just assholes.
It’s nice to see a significant portion of people (probably still not enough though) leave proprietary social media. Unfortunately, it took them extremely long to realize why that’s a bad thing to use.
So that’s one step in the right direction I guess.
On the other hand, there generally isn’t much hope for humanity left because we haven’t learned from past mistakes, haven’t listened to science, and haven’t ensured ourselves a decent future on this planet.
Using the Fediverse feels like a small step in the right direction. Big changes are built on lots of small steps. I would say move in the direction of using the Fediverse more, the old alternatives less, and think of more small steps in the right direction you can do. I don’t think just using the Fediverse is enough, but it is an important step to take. Keep going.
I agree! Another small step - though I do enjoy the like-minded crowd - would be to get some different perspectives here. Even if I don’t necessarily agree with all those ideas, I don’t think it’s healthy for my own ideas to be trapped in an echo chamber.
Yes. The fediverse is a pretty difficult thing to be controlled by a single group: that’s sorta the idea. I see it as almost a refuge from all the bullshit. The lack of ads, tracking, content farming, censorship and control etc is refreshing. Here’s to hoping the fediverse continues to spread.
There’s plenty of censorship here though. Some instances are worse than others but even on a community basis, your average moderator is just some random dude who is free to remove your posts/comments and ban you just because they don’t like something you said and there’s not really anything you can do about it.
Not all moderation = censorship 🙄 You play by the rules or you face the consequences. Nowhere on the planet are the consequence-free zones - at least not forever.
If you really want fediverse instance where absolutely everything is permitted, make it. I bet you after the first CP post you’ll rethink your stand on “all moderation = censorship”.
Yeah but there are a few notorious large instances that censor things that aren’t stated in their rules at all.
Like criticising china or russia will get you banned from the ML instances but their rules don’t mention that.
But the point is, you have freedom to choose whatever instance and thus whatever level of moderation you want. I’m not saying censorship is impossible here, that’s just not the argument. The thing is, you aren’t locked in to the control of a specific group/owner/company. If you don’t like the way things are being run, skip to somewhere else, or alternatively make your own instance.
For people who value freedom the most, you can choose a platform with less moderation, and thereby accepting the risks that come with it. For people who value a more safe, stable and curated platform, choose one with more/stricter moderation.
Oh yeah, for sure(I blocked the lemmy.ml and lemmygrad instance). But there is a difference between censorship and moderation.
That’s quite the number of assumptions you made there
Not all moderation = censorship
It is, by definition.
Let’s not argue semantics and argue realistic uses of moderation.
If you don’t want to argue about it then don’t bring it up.
Do paste the definitions and sources here.
Help yourself.
Oh, no. Not at all. All hope is lost, this is just a comfortable place to die.
I like Fediverse because I get much better engagement with people here than anything else
I made a post about a blender project I am working on from my Mastodon and tagged the Lemmy community. This project is pretty dear to my heart, and I wanted it to be seen by many people, so I made the same post on Reddit.
I got 35 stars on Mastodon + 80 upvotes on Lemmy + many cool comments.
I got literally no upvotes on Reddit. maybe skill issue on my side but the Fediverse is, in my general experience, so much better when it comes to engagement.
It’s cause no one on Reddit goes past r/hot on their sorts. If it isn’t found by people in New and given an initial boost, it dies there. Plenty of stuff has died with 3 up votes while a repost that has a bot farm behind it hits r/all every other week. Reddit now is a feed people scroll with no interaction; bots with an agenda and a select few users interact with stuff.
It feels much more social being here not despite the smaller audience, but because of it.
People have time to respond to me if I have a question, and I have time to give really good and complete responses to anyone that asks me about something I post.
It gives me hope. We have an opportunity to level the playing field. So much hope that I’m actually starting a show to try to help folks get to know people behind the Fediverse! I truly believe in it and hope we can claw back the internet from the tech giants.
What kinda show?
Calling it Fireside Fedi, where I just talk to folks around the Fediverse and get to know them. I have Gabe Kangas first tomorrow. He’s the lead Dev of Owncast. Created a community !firesidefedi@lemmy.world if you’re interested. Fully Fedi powered. Livestream, Voss, socials, eventually setting up Fedi audio player as well.
Edit: fixed link to community
Cool idea!
I hope. :-D. I’m no Dev, but I enjoy talking to people and I really believe In the Fediverse so just trying to contribute anyway I can to make it a more welcoming and interesting place.
It gives me hope, but hope for a slightly better future; not for a cure for fundamental ills of online communities.
Having been around since the early days of identica/statusnet: no, not really.
It’s always been small and a generally nice set of communities but it won’t reach a large enough audience to matter. US (and to some degree) global politics are such a clusterfuck that it’ll take more than some little servers with people discussing open source software and art or whatever to create substantial change.
that’s not to say it’s pointless. it’s nice to have these little groups to focus on. it doesn’t give me any hope but it does regulalry lift my spirits.
EDIT: I also dont think it needs to be any kind of agent or tool of change. Why can’t it just be what it is? Groups of people socializing with one another?
Bruh, I’ve been tracking it for years and the fediverse was dead before the Reddit exodus. Now I can have discussions about fantasy football without going on Reddit or X
Nothing gives me hope these are the darkest times ever
Mark Zuckerburg was up there at the inauguration because he is one of the richest men alive, and he became so mostly because of the platforms he owns.
By using the Fediverse and not his platforms, I’m denying him revenue from ads and data, even if its an infinitely small amount.
Use open platforms, give your money to ethical businesses and keep it from these assholes. Money isn’t the only way for someone to have power, but there’s no denying that the net worth on that inauguration stage was the most concentrated anywhere on earth. Don’t give them a cent more.
Vote with your dollar! You can also vote by donating to projects you believe in!
The Fedi is the only hope right now.
it does. as an mbin cheerleader, its heartwarming to see the disparate AP based servers communicating with my server. lemmy/friendica/mastodon etc… knowing that no entity could control all those products. the key of course is the protocol and maintaining ActivityPub as functional, standardized service.
