• The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1471·
    26 days 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.netEnglish
      59·
      26 days 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.netEnglish
          29·
          26 days 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.worldOPEnglish
          152·
          26 days 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.

      • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
        5·
        26 days ago

        What you can do is install wireguard server at home and then set your phone to use that wireguard connection always. That’s what I do and then my pihole at home filters all my mobile traffic as well.

        • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
          3·
          25 days ago

          I usually have a private vpn. It’s just isn’t always up. And I can’t be bothered to have it maintained most times because I’m not in control.

          I’m considering setting it up through my router which has a built in option, so I don’t have to rely on my third party, but honestly I almost never leave pihole protected networks. So not a priority.

          • AeroLemmingEnglish
            1·
            25 days ago

            You don’t need an entire VPN just to block ads. I use RethinkDNS on Android and it blocks ads in most apps.

            • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
              1·
              25 days ago

              The vpn doesn’t block ads or do really anything, it just routes all my traffic back to my home network so I’m using my pihole for DNS.

              I’m not about to install even more crap to do a half-ass job when I could just renew my certificate and pass it along for config, and be done with it and never get ads in any app, home or not.

              I’m just lazy, and it doesn’t really come up all that often.

    • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
      222·
      26 days 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.worldEnglish
        7·
        26 days 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.onlineEnglish
          21·
          25 days 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).

      • muntedcrocodileEnglish
        2·
        14 days ago

        ”Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

        In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. " - Karl Popper

        The only reason u see them constantly dunking on everyone is because all the truthfull factual backed up with evidence replies they get get censored if it has a single thing to do the hexbear or .ml. Idk how they do it but a replete to .ml on a .world community can be censored by .ml but replete to that censored comment still work fine. .ml selectively federates the modlog as well to hide admin abuse. They will ban u from every .ml community for 1 comment disagreeing politically especially if u have evidance proving them wrong.

        We have tried countering them by rational argument and public opinion but that is failing. We canot tolerate the intolerance of tankies ob lemmy.

        • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
          1·
          14 days ago

          I have stopped recommending Lemmy to people, bc I would be embarrassed for a new user to come here, get bullied as I have been (far more than happened on Reddit), and blame me like “you recommended me to talk to that crowd!?”). Kbin.social was different bc those communities were blocked from the start - at an instance level even - though that server has been down for days, and now I see it’s back up and full of advertisement posts as usual, bc many mods abandoned their communities due to all the technical problems with the service.

          But there is hope for change in the future, in terms of perhaps making getting dunked on an opt-in rather than as it currently is an opt-out feature delivered to members of the Fediverse with little to no warning. e.g. here is a discussion I had with an instance admin. Progress, since so many of us joined the Fediverse since the Rexodus, has been (understandably) slow, but can happen, if we work at it!

    • edricEnglish
      10·
      26 days 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.comEnglish
      4·
      25 days ago

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

  • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    882·
    26 days ago

    Doin’ muh best to shitpost.

    You’re all welcome, citizens!

    Heroic Trumpet Music

    Farting sounds

  • polarpear11@lemmy.worldEnglish
    76·
    26 days 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.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
      21·
      26 days ago

      It’s what we all loved about the internet I think, before the web become… “that” (looking at the pile of shit the web has become).

      But actually it’s not the web, not really. It’s the big tech platforms that most people seem to think is the internet now. It’s sad to watch how people log on to “Facebook” and not the general web anymore. And then Google in front of everything, like a big cancer growth.

      Lemmy is not the new internet either I believe. But it’s here to show people that something else can exist. As soon as we let advertising in here though, it’s over.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
        7·
        25 days ago

        The beautiful thing about decentralisation is that if an instance tries to as ads, then you can go to a different instance and see the same content.

        If an instance creates as posts, your instance admin can block the whole instance.

        Interestingly, the big instances seem to easily get enough donations to cover costs. I think that’s the great thing about this model, people are willing to donate when they know it’s not some big corporate making profit for shareholders.

      • Excrubulent@slrpnk.netEnglish
        4·
        25 days ago

        I think the answer is not to gatekeep against advertising actively, but to have a platform that is resilient to that kind of thing. Like, if there were advertising on an instance people would fucking BOUNCE I think. And if it got somehow baked into the platform itself there would be a new fork with the advertising excised before the sun went down.

        • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
          3·
          25 days ago

          I’m not sure about that. What if advertising were used to cover server costs, just like donations right now? Then the community may be fine with it.

          But I think it’s very dangerous to go down that route. Because it’s going to become about higher profits, not just covering costs, in the long run.

          • Excrubulent@slrpnk.netEnglish
            2·
            25 days ago

            I don’t know either, but so far not a single instance has even tried to my knowledge. I have a very hard time imagining people being okay with it.

      • gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        25 days ago

        adding to the old internet thing, using mojeek reminds me of the old search results! searched for something mildly obscure, actually got good results and also a porn site lmfao.

    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.netEnglish
      17·
      25 days 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.comEnglish
      13·
      25 days 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.worksEnglish
      11·
      25 days 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.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      10·
      26 days ago

      It’s easy to feel that way even if you are a techy. It seems like being minimally neurodivergent is the abnormal here.

      That being said, I’ve been introduced to many different ways of thinking that I wouldn’t have gained otherwise. Think of it like you’re different, but that’s ok because everyone here is different - and that makes them (and you) all the more beautiful for it (especially in the context of idea exchange). In fact, being the different one here will give you the perspective that many of the people who use Lemmy experience simply by existing which, in and of itself, is a valuable thing.

      • EmmieEnglish
        4·
        25 days ago

        Everyone being nd would explain a lot of why this place feels way better than Reddit for me lol

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      25 days 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.worldEnglish
        1·
        25 days 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.worldEnglish
      4·
      25 days 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.comEnglish
      4·
      25 days 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.worldEnglish
        1·
        24 days 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.

  • UnderwaterbobEnglish
    43·
    25 days ago

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

  • dkc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    37·
    26 days 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.worldOPEnglish
      11·
      26 days 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.zipEnglish
        7·
        26 days 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.worldOPEnglish
          5·
          26 days 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.onlineEnglish
      2·
      24 days 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.worldEnglish
    31·
    26 days 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.

    • MyOpinionEnglish
      8·
      26 days ago

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

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      25 days 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_sEnglish
      5·
      25 days ago

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

      The current level of bot activity there is actually insane.

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.netEnglish
    26·
    25 days 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.mlEnglish
    25·
    26 days 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.ukEnglish
      12·
      25 days 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.xyzEnglish
      9·
      26 days 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.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
      9·
      26 days ago

      You can rent an instance for like 10 dollars per month and grow from there. Then expand if you get users and things get slow. Lemmy runs ok on 4 GB of memory but it’s better with 8 GB. Postgres use the most.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      26 days ago

      I’d certainly be interested to know for the sake of donations. I would gladly donate to keep the fediverse alive.

    • rar@discuss.onlineEnglish
      2·
      24 days 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.