With the recent happenings in the United States, the dangers of the privately owned Internet is more apparent than ever, and frankly, it’s scary. And so I’d like to make a simple request to anyone who is reading this; Please use the Fediverse, just a little more.

I personally hate it when I’m stuck having to visit say, YouTube or Reddit to get information, or to entertain myself in quiet moments, and if you’re reading this, the likely chance is you’re the same.

All I want to ask of you is to just comment a few more times, press send on that post that you felt wasn’t of enough substance to be worth anyone’s time. We have such a small community compared to everywhere else, but what we do have in common is that, in the grand scheme of things, we are the early adopters. And if we take that to heart and make this space a little bigger, maybe it will be just big enough we won’t have to visit walled gardens so often.

Thank you :)

  • the_swagmaster@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    Just joined and the community already seems pretty vibrant. It honestly doesn’t feel that different from Reddit in that regard which is perfect. Reddit and the rest of them can fuck off

  • Archmage Azor@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Recently I’ve been thinking about what the internet was like in the 90s. Back when there was no social media. Maybe we should all return to forums and BBSs.

    • JakoJakoJako13@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      This and the level of free speech that came with it is really needed right now. I don’t mean free speech in a go tell someone you disagree with to fuck their aunt type of way. I mean having real deep hard conversations about organizing and enabling movements. It feels like the Internet is scared of that because of monetization and content policies that have chopped the balls off of any form of organization or resistance. Like there’s so much shit I wish I could say but some mod policy kills it with a pinned post at the top of the comment section before I can even begin typing out my thoughts.

    • Bamboodpanda@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I jumped on board with the reddit API fiasco. I use Sync primarily since I’m familiar with the format and I browse and post often.

      I think one problem is that it’s confusing to your average Joe. I honestly still don’t quite understand how it works. I see posts like .ml and .world and I have no idea what they are even though I’ve been here a while.

      • Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 days ago

        I see posts like .ml and .world and I have no idea what they are even though I’ve been here a while.

        In a group email, you might see people from Gmail and Outlook as recipients. It doesn’t really matter that everyone, everyone can still see the emails and send them to each other.

      • rockettaco37@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Exactly. That’s the main barrier I think.

        Also, the .ml and whatnot are just people on other instances.

  • sircac@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    The first step is to overcome the dependence of the common forum places, being able to renounce to them, remove your profile and learn to enjoy your life without them… only then you can happily drift into a less crowded and active community for ocasional wonders and quality instead of the saturation of engagement that “that” centralised social media offers, the peer pressure to be part of the main stream…

    • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      6 days ago

      you’re right, but these forums also crowdsource information which can be sorely needed, such as debugging help and problem resolution. unless we provide an alternate hub for this, we aren’t likely to see the dominance of these common forums cease.

      • sircac@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I see, my tip was thinking in meta/tiktok-like socials rather than reddit/stackoverflow-like. But I feel that it is not too much different. Probably the error was pouring so much knowledge in such “volatile” places (in the sense of user/community not really controlling it) in the first place, but aren’t human interactions already like that? Accept them as conversations lost in time, something always survive and returns, and new things always born. A pity, sure, but a part of life. In any case, it is quite unlikely to reach in a new place in barely a few years the same quantity of information than more than a decade of knowledge in old forums, yet I feel that pian piano people contributes to the shift… in the end we are humans which enjoy of social exchanges :D

  • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    If anyone can help, what’s the “shit just works” pixelfed version? I joined the biggest one but don’t want to give one instance too much power.
    I tried to join the 5th or 6th largest but the buttons to sign up wouldn’t work :(

  • Elrecoal19_0@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Yeah, I’m trying to change Reddit by Lemmy, and I’m moving out of Instagram, since I made it just to connect with friends (so I still have to ask some friends for contact info outside Reddit and Instagram so I can quit for good)

  • maub@slrpnk.net
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    7 days ago

    There’s this thing called “Global Switch Day” that I’d like people to talk more about. It does not seem to be anything official, but I like to think that anything potentially bringing more people to the Fediverse deserves a bit of support. Also I’ve just done a small write-up on the things that might keep people from joining and/or staying with the Fediverse. I did the most 90s thing imaginable and posted it on my personal blog.

    • Elrecoal19_0@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The thing with Odysee is that I see A LOT of right-wing and religious nuts in my feed, even before login in, and in comment sections , and that alone basically drived me out

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    8 days ago

    I think 90% of my posts are deleted before sending because I just know that someone somewhere will find a way to be mad about it

    But OK - here is a post that I would usually have deleted :)

    • oleorun@real.lemmy.fan
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      8 days ago

      OMG really? How COULD you…

      Neglect to offer your valuable opinion. Hey, you’re a human and have valuable things to say. Haters gon hate. Fuck 'em.

    • VubDapple@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I’ve also been posting less after managing to upset someone. We can have a club. The shy posters club.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        You’re not shy, you’re just a normally adjusted human.

        It’s normal to want to avoid being abused and insulted for, say, having an opinion which is marginally different to the in-group consensus. But unfortunately that’s what happens when we post on text-based social media. Apparently the medium does something to people’s minds, turning them into nasty vindictive unpleasant versions of themselves.

        I’m a pretty self-confident person in real life and even I think twice about posting anything here that contradicts the prevailing groupthink. The inevitable insults and abuse and mockery are sometimes just not worth it.

        • Internetexplorer@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          There’s a lot more aggressive unpleasant people. Or bots. That’s the scary things these days, we don’t know what’s real anymore. People we talk to online or see. If it’s fake trumped up hysteria.

          Or even takes pictures of videos.

          And I don’t see it getting any better.

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            If we can ensure that all bots are always identifiable as such, i.e. that none of them are successfully passing themselves off as people, then this problem is mitigated quite a lot. In theory that’s feasible. We’re hardly even trying right now.

        • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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          8 days ago

          Personally, I have hope that if a larger variety of people are posting and commenting (typical lurkers and such) then hopefully the echo chamber aggression will weaken a little, and hopefully foster a positive and friendly community. I’m trying to lead by example :)

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Refreshing optimism!

            if a larger variety of people are posting and commenting (typical lurkers and such) then hopefully the echo chamber aggression will weaken a little

            Unfortunately I’m not sure the hope is warranted. Putting a lot of people with different views in front of each other, over text, does not, in general, by default, seem to go that well. At least not going by the experience of the first 30 years of the social internet. You tend to get the worst aspect of human group dynamics and speech-policing without the self-moderation that comes with in-person contact - i.e. the effect of audible voices, and visible faces and body language.

            I’m not a complete pessimist or I wouldn’t be here. But I think these issues can only be solved by activist moderation that enforces rules with a light touch while remaining tolerant and always assuming good faith. And, of course, that kind of moderation is time-consuming and very, very hard. It’s a skill that hardly any communities have access to. But it is at least a reasonable goal.

            • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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              8 days ago

              I see where you’re coming from, historically the internet and large communities tend to foster that kind of aggression. I, for one, will be striving to build a positive environment though, and just maybe, we’ll see those fruits lead into a brighter future :). I myself am applying for some moderator positions to help take up that effort!

        • OpenStars@piefed.social
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          7 days ago

          It’s normal to want to avoid being abused and insulted for, say, having an opinion which is marginally different to the in-group consensus.

          Sadly, I see that irl as well - perhaps text social media enhances the effect, maybe by virtue of being anonymous, but it’s definitely not an effect solely restricted to here.😢

          Source: me who it just happened to an hour ago.😑

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            Yep. Not letting abuse get to you is really hard. I’m constantly surprised by this, being a fairly resilient person and not very sociable (to put things politely). I can only imagine what it must be like for more gregarious people. Hardly surprising that people are scared to speak up. So good for you for saying what you wanted to say, there was value in that.

      • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        8 days ago

        I’ve only just managed to overcome my membership in the shy posters club haha! Hey, keep a seat warm for me while I’m away, okay?

    • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      8 days ago

      Thank you :), and I’ll just let you know, that this comment brought a smile to my face. I’m proud of you.

    • moodymellodrone@sopuli.xyz
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      8 days ago

      Over the years I’ve learned it’s ok to ignore if it seems like someone wants to pick a fight. Not everything has to be a debate, and no it doesn’t make you look weak. You just got better shit to do than argue with strangers on the internet. :)

    • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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      8 days ago

      I’ve taken on the mantra of “Participate, but be respectful.” That’s led me to post a few times where I normally wouldn’t.

      Realize that there is nothing wrong with pissing someone off because they disagree with you. It’s only wrong if you pissed them off because of how you said it, or if you are closed minded about being proven wrong.

      And in the real world, a down vote doesn’t matter.

    • SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      I get this. I used to use Threads and someone got very angry at me cause I said Labour, supposedly the left wing party in the UK, are “upsetting the right people”, I should have clarified that I don’t think that they are doing a good job, but never mind.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      That’s a horrible take and you should feel bad.

      But I’m a stranger on the Internet and probably a moron so it’s ok to not take me seriously or respond to me.

    • 3dmvr@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      thats reddit, ppl hate way less here, id prime myself to argue before I made a comment on reddit, made me a more argumentative person

      • OpenStars@piefed.social
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        7 days ago

        It strongly depends where you go here - e.g. [email protected] was too extreme even for Reddit, so yeah the average here is WAY more chill, but we also have even more extremes here than they did there, if that makes sense.

  • fxomt@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    2025 year of the fediverse???

    Jokes aside, i completely agree. Meta and Xitter completely shot themselves in the foot (lol) and pixelfed is gaining mainstream attention, and the new year just started!

    I predict we’ll gain a massive influx of new users next year, due to the kindness of Zucc and Muskrat 😊

    • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      8 days ago

      And who says they’ve never done anything good?

      But yeah, let’s ride that momentum all the way into the year of the fediverse!

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    8 days ago

    All I want to ask of you is to just comment a few more times, …

    I think I’m fully maxxed out.

  • oleorun@real.lemmy.fan
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    8 days ago

    Small instance owner here. All are welcome. We have one really busy community here, and a few others that are just getting going that you might find interesting. You like World of Warships? The Last of Us? St. Louis Battlehawks? Abandoned Buildings?

    You’ll notice some of these communities are a ghost town. Images are broken and there’s a rat eating pizza. So step up. Avoid the large, overwhelmed, weirdly-political instances and give us little guys a chance.

    I’ll begin by introducing myself. Hi! I am oleorun, named after the recently deceased Bob Uecker’s Baseball Hall of Fame speech. My instance, https://real.lemmy.fan/, is known for the [email protected] community, but we have more to offer. [email protected] , a college radio station, [email protected] , and more communities waiting to be joined, and built, and best of all there’s no ads, no donation requests, just pure love of a federated instance that thrives on niceness.

    I’d be real happy for you to join us.

    [email protected]

    Edit: Typos

    • rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      I cannot express how much respect I hold for instance owners, you’re doing something great! Maybe one day I’ll follow in your footsteps (when I step up from small game servers :P). Say, would those dead communities qualify for a post in c/abandonedarchitecture?