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Let me know if this is appropriate for this community.
I've been collecting links to post, blog, article, comment, etc that criticize the fediverse, whether it's about the specific apps or fediverse in general, whether it's about the technical aspect or about the social aspect.
If you also found one, feel free to share it here.
(date format is YYYY-MM-DD)
2024
- https://lemmy.world/post/11519703 - Lemmy is a bigger echo chamber than reddit, 2024-02-03
- https://lemmy.world/post/11720592 - Lemmy users lack nuace and it stops actual discussion., 2024-02-08
- https://lemmy.world/post/12352000 - Lemmy is not immune to trolls, bad fait actors or propaganda - in fact, despite how bad reddit is, a lot of Lemmy instances are worse, 2024-02-24
- https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/tear-down-walls-not-bridges/ - Tear Down Walls, and Build Bridges, 2024-02-13
- https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/contentnation-mastodons-toxicity/ - Content Nation Backlash Highlights Mastodon’s Toxicity, 2024-03-02
- https://reddit.com/r/fediverse/comments/1b76cbo/fediverse_is_not_so_good/ - Fediverse is not so good..., 2024-03-05
- https://kevquirk.com/blog/linux-elitism-again - Linux Elitism...Again, 2024-04-14
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/1g1g844/why_is_mastodon_struggling_to_survive - Why is Mastodon struggling to survive?, 2024-10-12
- https://lemmy.world/post/19004972 - Lemmy wouldn't really takeoff to replace Reddit until it's content is search indexable, 2024-08-24
- https://evergreenfiles.com/blogs/the-fediverse-desperately-needs-sustainable-file-hosting - The Fediverse Desperately Needs Sustainable File Hosting, 2024-11-04
- https://lemmy.world/post/22316287 - I really want to like Lemmy, 2024-11-22
- https://bsky.app/profile/techconnectify.bsky.social/post/3lbs4ihb2gs24 - Technology Connection's thread on Bluesky about Mastodon being a ghost town and more, 2024-11-26
- https://transfem.social/notes/a16rvjhkk34b00tf - [...] if you are explaining the fediverse to a non-tech person, "it's like email" is not a sufficient explanyation., 2024-11-30
2023
- https://pawb.social/post/42756 - "Tanky" and the perception of Lemmy., 2023-06-14
- https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt - Mastodon Is Easy and Fun Except When It Isn’t - Erin Kissane's small internet website, 2023-07
- https://lemm.ee/post/873456 - I miss reddit, 2023-07-09
- https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/16zq1dd/the_lemmyverse_aint_all_its_cracked_up_to_be/ - The Lemmyverse ain't all it's cracked up to be, 2023-10-04
Though, I think a lot has stayed the same. I regularly read the same complaints that have been brought up over and over again for a long time now. I'm not sure if the UI, or moderation woes, or the atmosphere, or the size, or amount of argumentative people have changed substantially.
That's a minority opinion. I've brought that up before and been pointed at the Changelog and told lots of things have changed. It just doesn't feel that way for me.
Which one? With the variety of front ends and mobile apps, experiences can be very different
Power tripper get regularly called out on [email protected] for a few months
Very community dependant
Unfortunately, this basically translates to "if you know the secret handshake, you can make it better". New users don't know the handshake, and more casual users aren't going to bother looking for instructions on how to do it. They already struggle with the idea of there being different URLs.
Which is a significant UI issue, as well. The most popular web servers leveraging ActivityPub continue to ape the visual form of centralized social media, which communicates to users that they work like centralized social media. But they don't. Form follows function, and therefore form implies function. This is a significant source of the friction new users experience.
Remember, most new users are neither broken glass rejectors of some other website, nor are they ideologues. They're just trying something new out, to see if it's better than what they already have.
And the fediverse, point blank, is not. Mastodon is not better at being Twitter than Xitter or Bluesky. Lemmy is not better at being Reddit than Reddit. But they both look like they're trying to be Twitters or Reddits. The result is that this place looks like the wish-dot-com version of the big players.
Power tripping occurs everywhere. The bigger issue is that because the fediverse is trying to pretend it's just like centralized social media, moderation issues can appear a lot different here. For one, they tend to play out much more publicly, because a lot of them occur at the site admin level. For another, the idea of defederation is alien to centralized social media users, and the idea that they could be cut off from the people or communities they follow due to no fault of their own feels incredibly unjust. Even if the reason for defederation is totally understandable, the admins have followed a robust procedure, and alternatives have been tried, it still feels arbitrary to someone who's not involved.
But that's again a concern of significance because everyone wants to make believe this space is just like centralized social media. That the differences are superficial, and not backed into the very core of the experience. It's also, in part, due to the limited range of moderation features currently explored. We mostly still have moderation suites that make the most sense in... wait for it... centralized settings.
Yeah, I (or we) have solved those issues for us. Or found workarounds. I'm not sure if that translates to the regular user, though. I guess most people are using some mobile apps anyways. So UI issues are an entirely different story.
And posting to the drama communities mostly adds drama here. It doesn't make it any better.
I agree, all of this is very community and instance dependant. I didn't address OP's links directly. But that's the reason why I'd dismiss a lot of them. For example if you're reading the "All" feed, and then go ahead to complain it's too much Linux news... That's just stupid. Or if you're on lemmy.world and complain about their moderation policies. We all know how the dynamics are. Or if you're on lemmy.ml doing anything...
It allowed to switch from [email protected] to [email protected]
Sure, nothing against a bit of shameless self promotion for communities we like, or foster... What's the issue with the midwest.social version? I couldn't find any drama post you might be referring to.
Thanks for the links, btw.
That's abysmal behaviour. I'd be happy if we had some more tools and technology to handle those kinds of things. I mean In my experience some people really get a big head from all the power they're wielding in their small world, moderating a community or even running a website... Plus we got some people who are just not suited for the job... It is how it is... 🙃
Indeed, that's why the best we have now is that community.
Sure, there is drama, but that's the only tool we have