Guys, when you talk about the Fediverse to friends, family, or colleagues, how do you explain it?

Do you call it a “decentralized social network,” an “alternative to big tech,” or “a collection of open-source networks”? And how do you convince someone to create an account on Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, etc., without them getting scared by technical terms like instance, federated, or peer-to-peer?

I’m asking because my so-called friends don’t believe me and even call me crazy when I talk about this “nonsense.”

The future is open source, decentralized, and federated!

  • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    16 hours ago

    You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use a social media.

    You are entirely right when it is about centralized social media (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter and the likes).

    However, for example; Lemmy and Mastodon you at least need to be a bit tech-savvy.

    • Making account is different but then you get;
    1. The multiple instances.
    2. Multiple communities that are the same name.
    3. What is exactly decentralization.
    4. Federation.
    5. Difference instances can give different results (blocking, rules, and what you can and cannot see from other instances).
    6. How Moderation works is different than the usual platforms.
    7. Community discovery is different. Searching for something can be quite difficult on Lemmy.
    8. Lemmy’s community has a lot of tech-jargon which non-tech savvy people might find difficult to wrap their head around.
    9. How the banning system works on Lemmy is different than the usual platforms as well.
    • Tuukka R@piefed.eeEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago
      1. The multiple instances.

      You only use one. You don’t need to care too much about this.

      1. Multiple communities that are the same name.

      This one can be confusing indeed. I hope they will ask if they encounter this. Then you tell them they’re on a different Lemmy, and that the two are interconnected. And that’ll help them understand a bit about federating.

      1. What is exactly decentralization.

      Not really important for using Lemmy. Nice to know, if you like being tech-savvy, but not necessary for using.

      1. Federation

      This was already mentioned as “2.” You can read and write posts without understanding this. You’ll get the point of federation at some point.

      1. Difference instances can give different results

      Different groups have different rules anyway. Some of them are derived from the instance’s rules, but whatever. Same end result. Not necessary to understand for basic usage.

      1. How Moderation works is different than the usual platforms.

      How is it different, actually?

      1. Community discovery is different. Searching for something can be quite difficult on Lemmy.

      I’ve never had trouble searching for something. Maybe that’s because before Lemmy I basically used only Facebook and there you cannot really find anything by searching anyway. For me Lemmy’s search works just fine for searching for what communities exist. Haven’t felt a need for something more.

      1. Lemmy’s community has a lot of tech-jargon which non-tech savvy people might find difficult to wrap their head around.

      You don’t need to understand everything on this planet. If you cannot wrap your head around something, then don’t. You don’t need to participate in every conversation.

      1. How the banning system works on Lemmy is different than the usual platforms as well.

      They’ll figure this one out if they ever get banned. Otherwise, it’s irrelevant for reading and writing.

      All in all… Understanding federating isn’t strictly necessary for reading and writing in communities, but yeah, it is good to understand at some point. Everything else… Meh. Things that are nice to know, but you are able to follow communities and write in them just fine also without understanding those things.