• The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Public opinion seems to be souring on all the big corporate social media sites, and I truly think if we’re able to get the word out about federated social media platforms, people will jump ship.

    Also, it’s hard to dislike a platform that isn’t showing ads, selling user data, or generally making decisions for the enrichment of shareholders.

    • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      It’s so weird, I don’t even notice the lack of ads most of the time (pihole, never leave home, so it’s roughly the same experience I’m used to)

      But when I go out? Oh man fediverse is the only site I’ll use because I know it’s safe from ads. The other privacy/user-focus stuff is just a bonus.

      (I don’t have any friends around here, so just sort of go out to be out, and usually for food)

        • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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          4 months ago

          As long as the ads don’t federate in an un-blockable way, they can do as they like. I wouldn’t make an account there, I’d rather donate actual money than have a degraded experience (which for sure works out better for everyone), but I get the drive to monetize.

          And they should absolutely -not- be allowed to federate ads, for any reason, since it goes against the vibe. But inevitably there will be “sponsored posts” (probably already are), and I think those instances/users will see themselves fade to oblivion, as long as new users are brought to understand that they could just chip in $2 and never see an ad.

        • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          I use Boost and it has ads. But they’re ignorable as a banner here and there, not constantly. I can live with that.

    • OpenStars@discuss.online
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      4 months ago

      I honestly don’t think we’re there yet.

      Remember, something like more than half of all people still don’t use an ad-blocker - some people want ads, or at least want that they provide money to keep the service going, and similarly with selling user data (to the extent that people bother to think about it at all).

      Never underestimate the level of entitlement thinking on behalf of new users - like, “Which instance do I join? Wait, I have to choose!? Nvm, I’m out already.” (and for Mastodon, this has much greater implications than for Lemmy)

      Also, one single reply to a comment in chapotraphouse on hexbear.net, followed by a second reply somewhere on Lemmy.ml, almost made me turn away from social media entirely, thinking that this place was fast becoming not really all that different than Reddit after all - I mean, these are leftists, aka liberals, these are/must be my people, right, R-R-RIGHT!?

      The Fediverse is not for the uninitiated, and requires significant setup work to even be pleasant much less enjoyable, depending on where you go and the users’ innate level of insensitivity.

      Though you and many others are working tirelessly to make it better by offering great content - thanks!:-)

      • Live Your Lives@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        As someone who is much more centrist/liberal, I had to block a whole bunch of leftist communities recently just so that I could keep enjoying the Fediverse. I would have greatly prefered not to, but so much of leftist content on here is far too cynical to any other position.

        • OpenStars@discuss.online
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          4 months ago

          Even if they were correct, the maner of their interactions makes them wrong, especially the hostility.

          Also, being a liberal in America is somewhat similar to being a conservative in Europe, I am told - i.e., “leftist” is a term relative to one’s local surrounding environment. Maybe one day I will become more leftist, although ironically all the leftist comments here are making me start to lean the opposite direction (it would be different if someone explained the positions, rather than simply dunked on everyone who does not share them - groupthink is not a valid way to arrive at Truth, especially when applied in the format of bullying behaviors to outsiders rather than merely acceptance of the in-crowd).

    • edric@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      For the lowest common denominator social media user, the bar is even lower. As long as everyone else they follow and care about is on the platform, they will happily move. They won’t even care that they will be free from ads and tracking because they never cared in the first place.

    • stark@qlemmy.com
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      4 months ago

      You might inspire some of us to create a Facebook, Instagram, X account just to spread the word of the Fediverse.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Doin’ muh best to shitpost.

    You’re all welcome, citizens!

    Heroic Trumpet Music

    Farting sounds

  • polarpear11@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Gonna be honest, a lot of times I feel like I don’t belong here, I’m still figuring things out. I’m not a “techy” type person (that seems to be some kind of prerequisite) and I barely know how to explain the fediverse to the layman, but I left reddit when they fucked over Joey (my preferred reddit app) and read enough to give reddit the middle finger and never look back. It’s been nice, really. I spend more time outside of the internet now. But I believe in the fediverse, I think it’s the right thing to do. I still check up on lemmy daily, but I get much more value and human connection and only spend the time that is appropriate on lemmy instead of endlessly scrolling. Most days I end up in some Wikipedia rabbit hole. Just like the good ol’ days. Learning new things, meeting new people. That’s what I love about the internet.

    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      Honestly this is great, non-techy people making the transition is a good sign and something the system needs to gain mainstream appeal.

      Also, people who aren’t techy are less likely to accept hacky workaround BS and complain until it’s fixed on a system-wide level, and that’s needed to mature the platform to something anyone can use. It’s getting there but it’s still got a lot of rough edges.

    • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
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      4 months ago

      I enjoyed reading this. I came over from reddit when they started banning people for protesting. That showed me that reddit was not what I thought it is.

      I‘m a techy person. I run servers for friends and customers, partly with fediverse services on them. Lemmy being one of them. I donate both time and money to lemmy and other services I enjoy and use.

      The fediverse is a great thing imo. I hope it succeeds.

    • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Gonna be honest, a lot of times I feel like I don’t belong here, I’m still figuring things out.

      I left reddit when they fucked over Joey (my preferred reddit app)

      Are you me? I thought I was relatively tech-savvy, and then I moved to Lemmy. Also, Joey was the best.

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      A way I have found to explain federated social media to people, that seems to work is this: Imagine reddit, but instead of one company, with one administration, owning the whole site, it is a bunch of different reddits, that are independently run, that choose which other reddits they wish to associate themselves with. When you log into one instance, you automatically can see, and interact with, all the other ones that one chooses to associate with. You can have accounts on as many instances as you would like, even having accounts on instances that do no associate with each other.

      • Rolando@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I just say: “It’s like email. There are different email servers, but they can all talk to one another. If there are things you really like, you can subscribe to them, and if there are things you don’t like, you can block them.”

        Or replace “email” with “instant messages”.

    • JustAnotherRando@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Hey, I also was a Joey user. I am pretty tech savvy (I’m a software dev and a former sys admin). I’m not a Linux daily user though, so I still understand that out of place feeling. Like I have used Linux for things, but after working on my computer all day for work, I don’t exactly want to deal with roadblocks or tinkering on my computer in the evening.
      I have also noticed that I spend less time scrolling on here than I did on Reddit, which is a good thing for me. It’s a place where I can satisfy that itch without getting lost in scrolling of posts or comment sections for hours.

    • gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      left when i saw too many reposts and way too many story-comments i was sure i’d seen before

      which led me to realise reddit has been completely astroturfed

      • polarpear11@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Oh yes, good point. That’s a big part of my problem when it came to my reddit experience in the end. I mean shit, I was a redditor since 2009. It was hard to leave but also not.

  • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Ehh. What’s the average age around here? I’m guessing it wasn’t the youth that migrated from Reddit.

  • dkc@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I still haven’t been able to give up reddit but I have always been a lurker there. Here I’m trying to make a conscious effort to participate in conversations. I’m trying to be positive, kind, and thoughtful because that’s what I want lemmy to be.

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      I started to think of Reddit as just an occasional Google search result necessary evil and have successfully ignored it ever since. Log off DKC, there’s a better world out there.

      In all seriousness I think eventually conventional social media will start to feel very siloed like AOL did as more people join the fediverse. I can’t imagine using a site that I couldn’t look at everything from anymore, save for stupid ass Facebook which I do solely for sovcit material. Why would I want to look at crap ads and AI when I can be here?

      • root@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        I started to think of Reddit as just an occasional Google search result necessary evil and have successfully ignored it ever since.

        This is my experience. I try to search elsewhere, but consistently still find good info there. Only when I exhaust other options I go crawling back.

        • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          Oh it’s no biggie if you use it to deshittify Google. It is there, after all. Just treat it like ghetto Wikipedia and don’t hang around. Haha.

    • rar@discuss.online
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      4 months ago

      Similar here. Reddit has become, for better or worse, just another Facebook. I include in my search queries when I need. I get in for specific communities and get out immediately afterwards.

  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The thing that I love most about Lemmy and the wider Fediverse is the sense of actual community. Many of the users feel like actual people I could meet in real life. It’s essentially a digital cafe. Sure as hell not going back to Reddit or those other shit Big Tech sites.

    • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Every day I am thankful for the work that has been done. It is life changing.

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      That’s it! I post a lot (you’re welcome all) and I feel like I have friends I talk to in the comments every day.

    • s_s@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, Reddit was like that about a decade or more ago.

      The current level of bot activity there is actually insane.

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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    4 months ago

    What I like about the fedi is I don’t care if it’s a “success” in the same sense that the closed social media sites have to be. It’s not like this project has quarterly profit targets to hit or else it’ll have to enshittify or else the investors pull out and we’re all screwed because there’s no more app.fediverse.com monolith or whatever.

    Nah it’s just us doing our thing and enjoying ourselves. The activity around here already reached a critical mass a while ago, to the point that there’s more content than I could hope to enjoy, so anything from here is vegan gravy.

  • TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost per month to run a Lemmy instance? Not that I’d want to do that myself, I’m just grateful for our admins that keep Lemmy up and running.

    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      feddit.uk clocks in at under £40/month. That’s hosting, and backups. lemmy.zip is similar.

      Plus our time, but we’re obviously doing it as a labour of love.

    • The Bard in Green@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz
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      4 months ago

      It depends. I run an instance with a whole two users and it costs me about $25 a month.

      But if I let 200 users join, I would need beefier hardware and a higher bandwidth limit.

      However running an instance like Beehaw is probably on the order of hundreds, not thousands of dollars a month.

    • rar@discuss.online
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      4 months ago

      I’m curious as well. I want to selfhost a personal instance, but CGNAT is getting on the way. I can always pay for VPS, but then the recent shenanigans involving CSAM images potentially being synced from rogue instances scared me.

  • ironsoap@lemmy.one
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    4 months ago

    For Lemmy.world a donation would help keep it alive without all the crap. Servers are cheaper then they were, but still not cheap.

    Ko-Fi (Donate)

    Bunq (Donate)

    Open Collective backers and sponsors

    Patreon

    Liberapay patrons

    • jelloeater - Ops Mgr@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      OMG! Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️

      It’s not easy keeping things up sometimes, but we’re always looking for ways to deliver more for less, while still keeping things snappy.

      It’s hard, but without the community, we would just be some nerds with too much time on our hands 😅

      Much love for y’all!!!

    • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Yeah but on the other hand Lemmy world sucks and it would be good for the overall health of the Fediverse if they ran out of money and had to shut down. Give that donation to a smaller instance who actually needs it. World is already the biggest and they don’t need to get bigger.

      • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        I don’t think we should be wishing for the demise of the largest Lemmy instance. However, I definitely agree that focusing resources towards growing small and medium sized instances is good for the fediverse.

        • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          They’re made too many bad decisions. The only reason people use them is they’re the biggest, not because they have a good admin team or even a good gimmick.