Fediverse

I don't live in that country, but while I like Lemmy, no, I don't have hope any more. I've not had that for a long time now.

It's interesting though, to see the US slowly turn into our enemy, and to consider that Germany will be one of our strongest democratic, antifascist allies against the new axis of evil when the time comes.

Thankfully I'm too old to be forced to fight in the next war against fascism, but I suppose poverty and climate change might kill me before then anyway. There truly is no hope left for me.

I don’t think you’re dramatic.

For me it’s about reclaiming my right to participate in online discourse on my own terms. In a way the fediverse is freedom.

I plan on trying to self host a mastodon instance for myself and rebuild my blogs.

I don’t think I’d ever want to self host a lemmy, I like being anonymous to a reasonable degree. But I like that lemmy lets me have a voice without acquiescence to reddits enshittification.

Also the community is largely great. I love the memes, I love the comments and discussions, and I like that I learn things from fellow internet users again.

It seems like the only semi-viable alternative to oligarch run social networks.

I am not American, but behaviour exhibited by oligarchs such as Zuckerberg/Musk (and these are just the ones that get in the news) is not at all surprising.

In general yes, but I would prefer if it had a wider variety of viewpoints on societal issues. I don't even always disagree with the prevailing circlejerk here on everything, but I would occasionally like to read counterarguments to it too.

For me it does. I'm really enjoying Lemmy, and have curated a bunch of communities that I follow and participate in in a way that feels helpful, hopeful, and not toxic.

That’s a cool idea? How do we actually make that happen? Call up NPR?

The Fediverse and open source world do give me hope. But my worry is seeing people not adopt them. I know they aren't pertect but compared to the big tech alternatives they're a no oasis.

I mean it's really depressing even being in Europe honestly but at the same time it's a huge opportunity. It's time to take it :) Let's show them how decentralization AND open source can be a new standard! I'm seeing the same trend in Linux too and this is so important as well.

Also a lot of new projects to help decentralization are emerging, check https://spritely.institute/ which there's Christine Lemmer-Webber a co-author of the ActivityPub protocol :)

…abd this goes on anticorporate. Thank you very much. And yes, I think it does and we do make a difference. Keep it up. Organize and search for people like yourself. Instead of turning the naysayers one by one and burning out, find your allies and spread the word efficiently. Think of the ideal situation and make it happen. I‘m here, lets fucking go (same mission, different continent)!

Yes

No, the Fediverse is full of conservatives. The technology is great, but the people here suck.

set up a monthly contribution even if it’s just $2/month

~~I remember somewhere on the fedi, some instance admin saying that on average it cost $2/month per user. So, if you are relatively active on the server, $2 monthly recurring donation might cover your share of expenses.~~ maybe not a very good idea

how I can make a difference

https://blog.elenarossini.com/supporting-the-fediverse-one-small-act-at-a-time/

Yep. I think that we're on the precipice of what's to come.

I don't think the fediverse as it currently exists will draw a significant amount of people away from the larger social media communities, but who knows? My partner isn't particularly tech-savvy and she was on Mastodon without me ever having mentioned it to her. She was also the first person between us to use PixelFed.

I feel like the fediverse in its current incarnation is much like the early internet. It has a lot of promise, but most people on it are those who are enthusiasts and/or idealists. If the fediverse becomes easier to engage with over time, I can see it growing in appeal. If the fediverse equivalent of a killer app or high-profile voice gets established, we could see some huge growth.

I think that one of the hurdles it will face is that hosting these instances isn't free. With the centralized apps, they have VC funding they can burn through while they try to figure out how to monetize their service and to build it to be robust enough to be stable while handling growth.

What happens when a large instance has to pull the plug due to lack of funding, or they fail because they get hacked and/or don't have working backups, or the person/people who run it turn out to have an agenda? How things move on from those disruptions will be very telling for the future of the fediverse. They're all things that could happen, and I'm sure at least one of them will happen at some point.

Fediverse? Maybe. It will stay small and not monetized. For some that's good.

Lemmy? No hope. Lemmy and the pessimistic world views here give ME no hope for anything on this planet. I want to leave, but keep finding myself back here doom scrolling. Some communities seems good though. The platform is good though and seems to be picking up.

Yes but then I realized that unfortunately it will never take off and suffers from most of the issues that centralized sites suffer from. So yea, rip.

It gives me memes and that’s close enough

Absolutely.

Hopeful that some parts of the population won't be giving all their data away. There will always be bootlickers (apple fanboys, google lovers, reddit aficionados, Musk-worshippers, ...) , people who just don't know better (too old, uninterested, ignorant, unexposed, ...), and people who can't join due to things like censorship, internet speed, or whatever else.

Not particularly. History is long. And history tells us people don't have any self-respect. Even when doing something as simple as NOT doing something, like using an abusive platform.

Numbers are going up, yet I don't know a single person who has made the switch. I made an appeal on Facebook and several dozen people liked and commented and agreed and expressed interest, but not one of them switched.

I have, however, seen dozens of people firing up accounts on the VC-backed centralized platform that is BlueSky, and hundreds of millions of people switching to Meta-owned Threads, proving that they've learned absolutely nothing.

I feel safe, definitely. No one has ever insulted, harassed or trolled me here, compared to reddit, where even safe spaces are overrun with trolls.

Nothing gives me hope.

At least there is some small respite.

Its nice as a place to talk to mostly like-minded people and avoid the increasingly common AI bot slop, but it is too spread out internationally to be a useful communication tool for organizing local activities, which is a bit sad.

We don't have control of our world, we never did. Just distance yourself from the madness and embrace the good in the world. Focus on those things and it becomes your reality.