this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to [email protected]!

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Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration), Search Lemmy

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[–] [email protected] 289 points 1 year ago (3 children)

i think people underestimate the impact having access to wikipedia has had on the world. really an amazingly important part of the internet and the sharing of knowledge

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole is worse than going down a Street View rabbit hole. Ahh I can spend an entire day doing it!

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good old wiki walking, you never realize what you're doing until a few hours in, and even then you can't stop.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Or the high speed car chase equivalent of it, find hitler

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You're right, although if you ever get the chance to browse a real physical encyclopedia, it's a unique experience.

Not practical, but it's a bit like playing a record or playing a game on a real NES. It's a unique experience.

I have a full 2007 set of Encyclopedia Brittanica in the same room as my vintage computer collection. I browse it occasionally.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oof, felt this right in the geriatric millennials.

Mfer I was doing assignments where I had to scroll through index cards to find the encyclopaedia, then hand write out the essay.

It’s weird when you go from being the disruptor demographic to realising that when your 5 yo kid jokes about the 80s it’s as far away in time to him as the 1940s we’re to me - for him it’s a 2d, pre-Alexa, analog dystopia.

And I’m only 42.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I bought several physical encyclopedias as a a result of my Wikipedia addiction. Having physical encyclopedias to fall back on is a plus, as their information can't be taken down by deletionists. I also got the Encarta isos off archive.org running in 86box.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I got suckered by an encyclopedia salesman when I was younger. It was one of the biggest wastes of money of my young life. I had no need for it at that time and later, when I could have used it, I had the internet (or Internet with a capital I back then) and college libraries.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just love the fact that Jimmy Wales started Wikipedia using the money he made in softcore internet porn.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jimmy Wales does sound like a porn name.

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[–] [email protected] 151 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I really enjoy Mastodon so much more than twitter

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The quality of the discussion is miles away from Twitter. People are nice and a lot less of toxicity. Mastodon is amazing as Lemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Unpopular opinion? Mastodon is a better Twitter than Lemmy is a better Reddit.

So many duplicated communities in Lemmy makes managing subscription impossible.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago

Reddits quality main appeal also is its past threads whereas on Twitter is rarely about what was tweeted but rather what’s the latest thing that’s happening.

Lemmy will need time and it might never replace reddit. But I look forward to the quality interactions with everyone here!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Unpopular opinion? Mastodon is a better Twitter than Lemmy is a better Reddit.

That's not unpopular, that's just fact. I enjoy Lemmy but it's fairly new. Mastodon has been around for a while longer and is a much more mature platform with more QOL features because of that. Comparing them on that basis doesn't really prove or mean anything at this point. Of course the teenager is more developed than the toddler, that's how it works. Lemmy will get to the same place with time.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

From a product perspective, I really disagree.

Twitter’s value is/was that it was ubiquitous. Everyone (important) was there and it was the only Twitter-like thing that there was. Even the Pope tweets. I guarantee you the Pope will never be on Mastodon. Not that any of us necessarily care about updates from the Pope or Lebron James or whoever, but your favorite journalist was, and the developers of all your favorite indie iOS apps were, and if you live in a city, your local public transit authority was likely there as well. Twitter was really the only place for microblogging type of content.

On the other hand, Reddit is, by nature, just a centralized collection of forums, which I think is far more easily recreated in a decentralized way. You already have posts organized into communities, now with Lemmy we’re just adding another layer of organization on top of that. As another commenter said, much of Reddit’s value is that it was the place where someone asked the same question you now have and so you can read those answers, but Twitter’s value really is for real time communications.

The issue I see with both frankly is search. It can be kinda hard with either to find the community/discussions that are interesting and relevant to you, but hopefully that will improve.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I guarantee you the Pope will never be on Mastodon

Doubt that. Vatican uses Linux, if it gets popular enough they're for sure going to have their own Mastodon instance. When you're a big org like them, control matters more than dollar amounts. A recruiting and comms tool that they own end-to-end, except for the protocol (that they can block or mod anytime)? They'd love it. Having a Vatican.va Mastodon handle if you work for them would probably carry cachet with Catholics.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What server would you recommend starting? I joined mastodon.world and I have trouble looking for things I'm interested in to follow.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not the server on Mastodon but the hashtags. Put in an area of interest and you can follow that entire hash tag. For instance, put in #cars and see what comes up.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

How do you find good people to follow? There aren’t all too many meme or comedy accounts and that really all I’m looking for. It seems pretty serious on there unless I’m just being dumb. I’m on mastadon.social

I’m also seeing a bunch of posts not in English, sometimes nearly half so that gets annoying

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

You need to follow hashtags and groups related to your interest. Groups will boost the toots and make them visible. When you follow a group, it's like following hundreds of people at once.

When tooting, you have to mention groups and not only hashtags. The groups will boost the toot for visibility.

It's a vit of practice with groups and hashtags.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It requires a bit of work, since there isn't an algorithm to do that for you.

I've been following hashtags for things I enjoy. #gaming, #videogames, #steamdeck, #android, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 119 points 1 year ago

This is great to see. I love when big players make moves into the fediverse, because it educates the masses. I'm a nobody on the internet advocating for privacy, security, and ethical social media... and I can advocate til my fingers bleed.

But when companies, publications, celebrities, and others of influence do this, it creates awareness and opens their mind up a bit into the platforms, why they're important, etc. And even if they don't understand federation at first, at least it's a touchpoint. A bit of exposure into how we can have a better, open, and private web.

[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm just going to take the opportunity to talk about that Wikipedia is free, it doesn't have advertisement, all the data is freely accesible and your privacy is respected, is just maintained by donations and the community. Just looking around other platforms I think they do an amazing job, so consider to donate today to keep it that way.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

they have more than enough money to keep the server running for decades. not to say you don't need to donate, but you don't need to impulse donate every time the big header appears.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

To be fully transparent I donate 1 dollar a day, I just appreciate what they do, and I would like to have more services that are able to keep it that way, sadly that is not the case.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I donate about 100 USD a year, give or take. I figured it's worth it for as much as I use Wikipedia

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

As someone who can't afford to donate, I appreciate you.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When I get their email every year asking me to repeat my donation it seems like they are a bit in trouble. They are not?

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago

This adds a lot of legitimacy to the fediverse

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think all big orgs, NGOs, news agencies should do this.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes! Also Governmemt agencies.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The Dutch government had created a mastodon server

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

that's excellent! I wonder if they'll keep their WT Social network going. Does anyone use it?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't really use it, but I noticed that they just launched a new version. https://wts2.wt.socia

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I was wondering if they might port it to an ActivityPub instance

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Great news!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Ooooh!! This is exciting!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just realized it’s fediverse, I’ve been reading it as frediverse.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There should be an instance of just Freds that's called the Frediverse. You have to send them ID to prove your name is actually Fred and only Freds are allowed on the instance. I'd follow those communities as a non-Fred.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=RvabroJUBV4

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I have a Mastodon account since May 2022 but didn't really use it.

I recently tried to see if I find interesting accounts to follow but didn't find much that fit my interests.

Any advice on how to find good accounts to follow?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Search for hashtags first, like #TopicOfInterestToMe. Follow those. Then, look for people who post interesting stuff in the hashtags you follow. Follow them. The trick to Mastodon is to follow, follow, follow. This may also be a good starting point to find interesting people to follow: https://fedi.directory/

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Curating your follows does take a minute in the beginning. This is a good starting point: https://discover.fedified.com/

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Beautiful to see Wikipedia throwing their weight into it! Just beautiful to see this spiraling.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hope custom algorithms become an option. I like chronological feeds but would love to have chronological feeds that show me a post based on my likes after 3 posts or so. It would make it much easier to discover new blender artists like is possible on twitter

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