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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Yeah, it does give me hope. I’ve always been a lurker on Reddit, and it made me uneasy.
Here on feddit, i still find it difficult to express my thoughts in a direct and straightforward way, but at least i can try, and i feel like we’re actually making progress, because people are listening and sometimes give well-thought-out responses. that makes me happy. We can both learn a lot.
Apart from that:
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.
Yeah, please do. I’ve calculated that hosting lemmy costs approximately $2/year/user, but the numbers vary a bit depending on how many files you upload. So, that’s not a lot, but for a few thousand users, it would still amount to something. So, please, donate if you can, even if it’s only $5/year.
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.
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.
The Fedi is the only hope right now.
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.
Corporations might accidentally help if they try to make their own instancss, like if you sign up with google to join the fediverse, realize most instances block googles because its corporate, then they make an account at non corporate version.
I think the best way for it to grow would be making it easy to self host, yunohost maes it pretty easy, but more managed hosting options competing or more of the big ones offering it would go a long way.
Fediverse as a technology yes but the userbase here does the opposite. By definition someone commenting on a message board is not a normal person because normal people don’t do that, but to be commenting on a niche platform like this makes you hyper not-normal, and yes, that applies to me as well and I’m well aware of that.
Commenting on a message board is a lot more normal now than it used to be. Facebook, Reddit as well as comment sections on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. are fairly mainstream things by now, I would consider all of these forms of message boards.
And isn’t it our job to normalize Lemmy as much as Reddit has been normalized? Though I guess that depends on your goals for Lemmy. I would like to see it overtake Reddit. Whether that’s an unrealistic goal or not, I say we aim for the stars and see how far we go.
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.
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!
No, the Fediverse is full of conservatives. The technology is great, but the people here suck.
No one is forcing you to be around all of us “conservatives” who suck.
As drag said, the technology is great. Drag believes in the mission of the Fediverse. It’s just that a lot of it is infested with power mods and transphobes. If we could get rid of that sort of person, this space would be much better, wouldn’t you agree?
If I were surrounded by a bunch of people I thought were horrible, I would leave. I hear there are other Fediverse servers out there.
If you’re into masochism, you should really get people’s consent first.
If it’s true that you avoid people you don’t like, then perhaps drag was wrong to think you didn’t like drag. Drag has in the past advised you to block drag, and it seems you’ve decided not to. Drag is flattered. Perhaps you’ve decided to respect the “they” part of your child’s she/they pronouns. If so, you’re very welcome for the push. Drag has always believed that hearing the experiences of trans people makes others more likely to respect differences in gender presentation.
Cool, you didn’t actually read what I wrote in an effort to make a very poor attempt at a witty retort.
If I were surrounded by a bunch of people I thought were horrible, I would leave. I hear there are other Fediverse servers out there.
I know you have a lot of sockpuppets, but you’re just one person.
Well it’s only fair, since drag asked if you’d like power mods and transphobes to be removed from Lemmy, and you didn’t answer.
You saying something stupid in order to get a witty retort has nothing to do with fairness, and I am no more obligated to answer your questions than you are obligated to stay on Lemmy.world just because you like the technology. Because, again, there are plenty of servers.
But you’ve loved trolling, especially the queer community here, since you were doing the Attack Helicopter thing, so why would you leave?
There are a few specific people on fedi who do give me hope.
Finally some god damn recognition
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.
I agree. I like the crowd here, but I also worry I won’t be able to argue my ideas if I never leave the echo chamber.
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.
Why can’t I do a bit of both? Maybe start by voting with my money by supporting less unethical businesses.
Voting doesn’t work, they control the candidates. Money and power is what people like that want, and they get that in exchange for playing along.
That’s why I said vote with your money
I think it’s unhealthy to suggest we have no control over the world. Invidiually, yes we have very little influence, but collectively, we have tremendous power to influence the world. To believe otherwise simply ensures others who will act and believe they can influence things will dominate over those who believe they are impotent.
As someone who suffers from CPTSD, 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. The design of Lemmy also makes me less attached to my device, I don’t feel anxious about notifications and interacting with people, which was very common on reddit. When I signed up, I tossed a coin that it was either the place I’d been looking for or a repeat of the past. I’m also on Bsky, although I’ve never been on Twitter before because some people I follow on YouTube went there. I plan to host my own community in the future to escape the mainstream platforms. I have been banned from many social media sites for no apparent reason. I long for the days before mainstream media took over the internet.
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.
It could grow into something that could be used to organize locally! But for now, I think the goal should be information and comments shared on our terms, not on big social media’s terms.
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