Just a reminder we are the future of social media.

Public opinion seems to be souring on all the big corporate social media sites, and I truly think if we're able to get the word out about federated social media platforms, people will jump ship.
Also, it's hard to dislike a platform that isn't showing ads, selling user data, or generally making decisions for the enrichment of shareholders.
- It’s so weird, I don’t even notice the lack of ads most of the time (pihole, never leave home, so it’s roughly the same experience I'm used to)
  But when I go out? Oh man fediverse is the only site I’ll use because I know it’s safe from ads. The other privacy/user-focus stuff is just a bonus.
  (I don’t have any friends around here, so just sort of go out to be out, and usually for food)
  
  Inevitably there will be a fediverse instance with ads, but whether or not people want to use it will be up to the individual.
  
  What you can do is install wireguard server at home and then set your phone to use that wireguard connection always. That's what I do and then my pihole at home filters all my mobile traffic as well.
- I honestly don't think we're there yet.
  Remember, something like more than half of all people still don't use an ad-blocker - some people want ads, or at least want that they provide money to keep the service going, and similarly with selling user data (to the extent that people bother to think about it at all).
  Never underestimate the level of entitlement thinking on behalf of new users - like, "Which instance do I join? Wait, I have to choose!? Nvm, I'm out already." (and for Mastodon, this has much greater implications than for Lemmy)
  Also, one single reply to a comment in chapotraphouse on hexbear.net, followed by a second reply somewhere on Lemmy.ml, almost made me turn away from social media entirely, thinking that this place was fast becoming not really all that different than Reddit after all - I mean, these are leftists, aka liberals, these are/must be my people, right, R-R-RIGHT!?
  The Fediverse is not for the uninitiated, and requires significant setup work to even be pleasant much less enjoyable, depending on where you go and the users' innate level of insensitivity.
  Though you and many others are working tirelessly to make it better by offering great content - thanks!:-)
  
  As someone who is much more centrist/liberal, I had to block a whole bunch of leftist communities recently just so that I could keep enjoying the Fediverse. I would have greatly prefered not to, but so much of leftist content on here is far too cynical to any other position.
  
  ”Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
  In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. " - Karl Popper
  The only reason u see them constantly dunking on everyone is because all the truthfull factual backed up with evidence replies they get get censored if it has a single thing to do the hexbear or .ml. Idk how they do it but a replete to .ml on a .world community can be censored by .ml but replete to that censored comment still work fine. .ml selectively federates the modlog as well to hide admin abuse. They will ban u from every .ml community for 1 comment disagreeing politically especially if u have evidance proving them wrong.
  We have tried countering them by rational argument and public opinion but that is failing. We canot tolerate the intolerance of tankies ob lemmy.
- For the lowest common denominator social media user, the bar is even lower. As long as everyone else they follow and care about is on the platform, they will happily move. They won’t even care that they will be free from ads and tracking because they never cared in the first place.
- Fediverse is the future of the internet
- You might inspire some of us to create a Facebook, Instagram, X account just to spread the word of the Fediverse.

Doin' muh best to shitpost.
You're all welcome, citizens!
Heroic Trumpet Music
Farting sounds
- I’m doing my part too!
  
  I'm doing my ~~part~~ fart too!
- I have many, many sovereign citizens to keep us alive.
  
  Okay, now I am imagining that you are imprisoning sovcits in your basement and farming them for insanepeoplewhatever content.
- And I'm doing my best to keep it spam-free and ad-free.

Gonna be honest, a lot of times I feel like I don't belong here, I'm still figuring things out. I'm not a "techy" type person (that seems to be some kind of prerequisite) and I barely know how to explain the fediverse to the layman, but I left reddit when they fucked over Joey (my preferred reddit app) and read enough to give reddit the middle finger and never look back. It's been nice, really. I spend more time outside of the internet now. But I believe in the fediverse, I think it's the right thing to do. I still check up on lemmy daily, but I get much more value and human connection and only spend the time that is appropriate on lemmy instead of endlessly scrolling. Most days I end up in some Wikipedia rabbit hole. Just like the good ol' days. Learning new things, meeting new people. That's what I love about the internet.
- It's what we all loved about the internet I think, before the web become... "that" (looking at the pile of shit the web has become).
  But actually it's not the web, not really. It's the big tech platforms that most people seem to think is the internet now. It's sad to watch how people log on to "Facebook" and not the general web anymore. And then Google in front of everything, like a big cancer growth.
  Lemmy is not the new internet either I believe. But it's here to show people that something else can exist. As soon as we let advertising in here though, it's over.
  
  The beautiful thing about decentralisation is that if an instance tries to as ads, then you can go to a different instance and see the same content.
  If an instance creates as posts, your instance admin can block the whole instance.
  Interestingly, the big instances seem to easily get enough donations to cover costs. I think that's the great thing about this model, people are willing to donate when they know it's not some big corporate making profit for shareholders.
  
  adding to the old internet thing, using mojeek reminds me of the old search results! searched for something mildly obscure, actually got good results and also a porn site lmfao.
  
  I think the answer is not to gatekeep against advertising actively, but to have a platform that is resilient to that kind of thing. Like, if there were advertising on an instance people would fucking BOUNCE I think. And if it got somehow baked into the platform itself there would be a new fork with the advertising excised before the sun went down.
- Honestly this is great, non-techy people making the transition is a good sign and something the system needs to gain mainstream appeal.
  Also, people who aren't techy are less likely to accept hacky workaround BS and complain until it's fixed on a system-wide level, and that's needed to mature the platform to something anyone can use. It's getting there but it's still got a lot of rough edges.
- I enjoyed reading this. I came over from reddit when they started banning people for protesting. That showed me that reddit was not what I thought it is.
  I‘m a techy person. I run servers for friends and customers, partly with fediverse services on them. Lemmy being one of them. I donate both time and money to lemmy and other services I enjoy and use.
  The fediverse is a great thing imo. I hope it succeeds.
- Gonna be honest, a lot of times I feel like I don't belong here, I'm still figuring things out.
  I left reddit when they fucked over Joey (my preferred reddit app)
  Are you me? I thought I was relatively tech-savvy, and then I moved to Lemmy. Also, Joey was the best.
- It's easy to feel that way even if you are a techy. It seems like being minimally neurodivergent is the abnormal here.
  That being said, I've been introduced to many different ways of thinking that I wouldn't have gained otherwise. Think of it like you're different, but that's ok because everyone here is different - and that makes them (and you) all the more beautiful for it (especially in the context of idea exchange). In fact, being the different one here will give you the perspective that many of the people who use Lemmy experience simply by existing which, in and of itself, is a valuable thing.
  
  Everyone being nd would explain a lot of why this place feels way better than Reddit for me lol
- A way I have found to explain federated social media to people, that seems to work is this: Imagine reddit, but instead of one company, with one administration, owning the whole site, it is a bunch of different reddits, that are independently run, that choose which other reddits they wish to associate themselves with. When you log into one instance, you automatically can see, and interact with, all the other ones that one chooses to associate with. You can have accounts on as many instances as you would like, even having accounts on instances that do no associate with each other.
  
  I just say: "It's like email. There are different email servers, but they can all talk to one another. If there are things you really like, you can subscribe to them, and if there are things you don't like, you can block them."
  Or replace "email" with "instant messages".
- Hey, I also was a Joey user. I am pretty tech savvy (I'm a software dev and a former sys admin). I'm not a Linux daily user though, so I still understand that out of place feeling. Like I have used Linux for things, but after working on my computer all day for work, I don't exactly want to deal with roadblocks or tinkering on my computer in the evening.
  I have also noticed that I spend less time scrolling on here than I did on Reddit, which is a good thing for me. It's a place where I can satisfy that itch without getting lost in scrolling of posts or comment sections for hours.
- left when i saw too many reposts and way too many story-comments i was sure i'd seen before
  which led me to realise reddit has been completely astroturfed
  
  Oh yes, good point. That's a big part of my problem when it came to my reddit experience in the end. I mean shit, I was a redditor since 2009. It was hard to leave but also not.

Admins. Thank you. Users. Thank you.
Mods?
- Too busy abusing their mod powers to enforce their political views in most communities.
  
  That sounds like me in World News exactly. Excellent assessment.
  (I'm even more draconian in Lemmy Shitpost.)

im taking a shit
- This is what Lemmy is all about, right here. Just a good, honest nutsack taking a simple shit.
- Same
  
  nice
  
  Add me to the shit list

Ehh. What's the average age around here? I'm guessing it wasn't the youth that migrated from Reddit.
- I'm in my 20s, is that considered youth?
  
  @Wilzax @Underwaterbob yeah 😁
- I'm OP and I'm 50 and female.
  
  Old fucker. Your lot taught me an absurd amount of shit on IRC.
  I'm 41.
- 18 here
- I’m 33. Joined up during the APIcalypse and ensuing exodus from Reddit.
  
  Look at the baby over here. I remember 33... Actually not really.
- Some sorta survey/census for the fediverse might be cool
  
  We've had lots of them. It's depends on the community but we're generally older than r/, more female then you think, and slightly to very 'techie'.
- I am 17 lol
- I am in my mid 20s the kids call me old and the adults call me a kid.
- Im interested in this as well
- I think it'll be skewed based on reasons people are here.

I'm doing my best to look at memes 💪
- Teamwork makes the dream work.
- As would say this wise person (@peachymist@sakurajima.moe): you are not procrastinating, you are fighting for a free and open Internet
  
  @PenguinRocket @Noodle07 hahaha i'm honored but i was not the one to say it first :neocatlaughsweat: i saw this on a meme that was going around fedi at the time and i tend to just post silly stuff that goes through my mind without context and i was thinking of the meme

I still haven’t been able to give up reddit but I have always been a lurker there. Here I’m trying to make a conscious effort to participate in conversations. I’m trying to be positive, kind, and thoughtful because that’s what I want lemmy to be.
- I started to think of Reddit as just an occasional Google search result necessary evil and have successfully ignored it ever since. Log off DKC, there's a better world out there.
  In all seriousness I think eventually conventional social media will start to feel very siloed like AOL did as more people join the fediverse. I can't imagine using a site that I couldn't look at everything from anymore, save for stupid ass Facebook which I do solely for sovcit material. Why would I want to look at crap ads and AI when I can be here?
  
  I started to think of Reddit as just an occasional Google search result necessary evil and have successfully ignored it ever since.
  This is my experience. I try to search elsewhere, but consistently still find good info there. Only when I exhaust other options I go crawling back.
- Thank you!
- Similar here. Reddit has become, for better or worse, just another Facebook. I include in my search queries when I need. I get in for specific communities and get out immediately afterwards.

The thing that I love most about Lemmy and the wider Fediverse is the sense of actual community. Many of the users feel like actual people I could meet in real life. It's essentially a digital cafe. Sure as hell not going back to Reddit or those other shit Big Tech sites.
- Every day I am thankful for the work that has been done. It is life changing.
- That's it! I post a lot (you're welcome all) and I feel like I have friends I talk to in the comments every day.
- Yeah, Reddit was like that about a decade or more ago.
  The current level of bot activity there is actually insane.

What I like about the fedi is I don't care if it's a "success" in the same sense that the closed social media sites have to be. It's not like this project has quarterly profit targets to hit or else it'll have to enshittify or else the investors pull out and we're all screwed because there's no more app.fediverse.com monolith or whatever.
Nah it's just us doing our thing and enjoying ourselves. The activity around here already reached a critical mass a while ago, to the point that there's more content than I could hope to enjoy, so anything from here is vegan gravy.

Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost per month to run a Lemmy instance? Not that I'd want to do that myself, I'm just grateful for our admins that keep Lemmy up and running.
- feddit.uk clocks in at under £40/month. That's hosting, and backups. lemmy.zip is similar.
  Plus our time, but we're obviously doing it as a labour of love.
- You can rent an instance for like 10 dollars per month and grow from there. Then expand if you get users and things get slow. Lemmy runs ok on 4 GB of memory but it's better with 8 GB. Postgres use the most.
- It depends. I run an instance with a whole two users and it costs me about $25 a month.
  But if I let 200 users join, I would need beefier hardware and a higher bandwidth limit.
  However running an instance like Beehaw is probably on the order of hundreds, not thousands of dollars a month.
- I'd certainly be interested to know for the sake of donations. I would gladly donate to keep the fediverse alive.
  
  It varies greatly depending on your setup.
  Lemmy.world's monthly expenses are around €1,200. Though that includes hosting more services that just Lemmy.
  https://blog.mastodon.world/
  For comparison, it looks like £30 per month for lemmy.zip:
  https://lemmy.zip/post/7766703
  And lemmy.ca is around CAD$30 per month:
  https://sh.itjust.works/post/39134
  At one point Reddthat.com was considering moving to a bigger server that would cost A$150-200 per month:
  https://reddthat.com/post/8840079
- I'm curious as well. I want to selfhost a personal instance, but CGNAT is getting on the way. I can always pay for VPS, but then the recent shenanigans involving CSAM images potentially being synced from rogue instances scared me.

Everyone one of my shitposts is making history
- Hey, shitposts are like manure that helps other posts grow.

Just trying to take it easy for all those sinners.
- Im just here for the memes
- I know that you will

I lurk!! But, thanks y'all.
- Not anymore!

Every minute you use lemmy, spez's penis becomes 1 millimeter smaller

I'm here to argue! It's my passtime 😎
- Someone's gotta make toxic sludge!
- I'm here to argue!
  No you aren't! :)
  It's my passtime
  Also, it's spelled "pastime".
  
  First of all, let me make one thing perfectly clear: the only reason we’re even having this conversation is because of the mindless adherence to so-called "standard" spelling rules. This notion that "pastime" is the only correct spelling is not just pedantic, it's intellectually lazy. It's a testament to how rigid and unimaginative people can be when it comes to the evolution of language.
  Let's break this down, shall we? "Passtime" makes perfect sense if you actually think about it. The word is derived from the concept of "passing time." When you say "passtime," you're capturing the very essence of what you're doing: engaging in an activity to pass the time. It's straightforward, logical, and intuitive. Meanwhile, "pastime" reeks of historical baggage, a relic from an era when spelling was inconsistent and chaotic. Why should we be bound by outdated conventions that don’t even reflect the way we speak or think today?
  Moreover, English is a living, breathing language. It's constantly evolving, incorporating new words, and adapting to the needs of its speakers. The insistence on "pastime" over "passtime" is a perfect example of how resistant people are to change. It’s this kind of rigid thinking that stifles creativity and hinders progress. If everyone thought like you, we'd still be saying "fridge" as "refrigerator" and "pram" as "parambulator" Oh wait, some people still do—another clear sign of the arbitrary nature of these so-called rules.
  And let’s talk about the sheer arrogance of your correction. Do you honestly believe that enforcing archaic spelling rules somehow makes you superior? That by pointing out a minor spelling variation, you’re contributing to the betterment of society? Newsflash: language is meant to communicate ideas and emotions, not to be a tool for condescending gatekeepers to wield as a weapon against those who don't adhere to their narrow-minded views.
  If anything, "passtime" is a much-needed innovation. It reflects a more modern, practical approach to spelling. It's high time we embrace such changes instead of clinging to antiquated norms. So, before you jump in to correct someone's spelling next time, maybe take a moment to consider the possibility that the language is evolving—and that it's okay for it to do so. Your desperate need to enforce obsolete rules only showcases a fear of change and a lack of understanding of the dynamic nature of English.
  In conclusion, your correction of "passtime" to "pastime" is not just unnecessary; it’s a glaring display of linguistic conservatism. We don’t need your permission to innovate and improve our language. So kindly take your pedantry elsewhere, and let the rest of us enjoy the richness and flexibility of English without being bogged down by outdated and arbitrary rules.

Thank You, BotM! I migrated here from the corporate social medias as soon as I was aware. I'm still transferring my OC over from IG (not an easy task) to Pixelfed. And I use similar talking points to inform people, often about the very existence of a non-comercial social media. Very few people, maybe 2, since July '23 have even heard of the Fediverse. We shall persist!
- I'm just learning about Pixelfed from your comment. Any suggestions on where to start or instances to subscribe to?
  
  I signed on to https://social.photo/. And I'm sure I had darned good reasons for doing so at the time. LoL With federation, I'm not really sure it matters which instance one signs onto, as long as it's not some tankie/nazi crap, of course. And of course one could self host one's own instance.
  It appears to me that, because of the absence of advertising, it is incumbent upon individuals to 'evangelize' and spread the fedi-gospel. :-D
- I truly believe the fediverse is the future. People will tire of the AI and all that nonsense and fade away from all the big sites.

For Lemmy.world a donation would help keep it alive without all the crap. Servers are cheaper then they were, but still not cheap.
- OMG! Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️
  It's not easy keeping things up sometimes, but we're always looking for ways to deliver more for less, while still keeping things snappy.
  It's hard, but without the community, we would just be some nerds with too much time on our hands 😅
  Much love for y'all!!!
- Yeah but on the other hand Lemmy world sucks and it would be good for the overall health of the Fediverse if they ran out of money and had to shut down. Give that donation to a smaller instance who actually needs it. World is already the biggest and they don't need to get bigger.
  
  I don't think we should be wishing for the demise of the largest Lemmy instance. However, I definitely agree that focusing resources towards growing small and medium sized instances is good for the fediverse.

considering that this is a bsd user, yeah makes sense.
Coming from a self hoster, shits up when it's up. Otherwise it's down.
I charge nothing and you expect no guarantees of service :)

- Yeah, but we've been on this stressful ride before, and we know where it ends.
  There were lots of attempts at a closed source proprietary Internet protocol. They have all resoundly failed, after looking unbeatable. Some folks still fondly remember the closed Internet protocols like OLE COM, ActiveX, Flash, Cold Fusion, and SilverLight, but few of us miss them. Okay, I do miss Flash games.
  Good touchscreen phone operating systems were a "will this ever be matched?" trade secret at Blackberry and Apple. Now the vast majority of phones run open source Android.
  Much earlier, most good-enough C compilers were expensive proprietary closed source products. Now I see very little being compiled on anything other than the free and open source GCC. Even most other programming languages and tools are now FOSS, as well. I can't think of much for development that cracks the top 20 that isn't FOSS. JetBrains IDEs stand out as a lone closed source hold-out.
  Open standards always win, in the end.
  The desktop computing default is honestly way overdue to switch to FOSS. That's why it's the year of the Linux desktop.
  The Fediverse is here to stay, and is all that'll be left in a couple decades. But in the meantime, it's cozy!
  
  Now the vast majority of phones run open source Android.
  to be fair, this was almost certainly a reaction to the iphone. Still open, so there's that.
  Seems like the cycle is either:
  someone has a good idea, it's open source.
  someone has a good idea, it's closed source, someone else makes something similar, but open source.
- From experience, Lemmy/Mastadon is a lot easier to pitch to potential users than Linux lol
- Hard to tell imo. Big tech has a lot of big advantages and disadvantages over us.
  Being centralized and heavily funded, it's a lot easier for them to rapidly create/change new things, for better or for worse. It also means they do a lot of the testing for us. Mastodon/Lemmy formats are figured out from what we liked from proprietary platforms, then we kept the core that made it good. We also don't need to make a worse user experience by worrying about monetization.
  We also have a lot less development, and I won't even pretend that Mastodon or Lemmy are anywhere near well developed as Reddit/Twitter backends and other software. We simply don't have the attention and funding to be anywhere near that level.
  I don't think we'll ever replace big tech, but I just hope we stay on a healthy trajectory where we are alongside them in popularity.
  
  Thank you, u/cum, for your thoughtful insight.

That means everything I am doing is becoming trendy, which makes no sense.

Not yet.
- The janky network penetrates the enshittification
- Using the same client and everything works flawlessly, do your updates buddy
- Be the change

I don’t know. Sounds like communism 🙃
- No you smell like communism.

Well, that reminds me that Mastodon has huge, unresolved problems, such as tags being part of the post's body like Twitter rather than being a separate field like Tumblr.
Reading tweets with a hundred hashtags at the bottom seem really thirsty for attention, which is bad because Mastodon wants to fundamentally work with these, yet doesn't have good in-post integration for them. It makes interactions less genuine, more performative.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and Mastodon won't be good tomorrow either. In the meantime, you can vote to make it better on https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/10743.
- Try Catodon instead. It's a much better UI and federated.

o7

Now my username is not completely meaningless.

Doing my part O7

It's true, we are za warudo.

Your presence and attention are the most precious thing on the internet.

And yet it skews (awkwardly?) further from Reddit. Nobody understands that all the important movements of history reached across political lines and focused on a mission. Still missing a both sides vibe from here where everything is equally discussed to succeed.

Am I the only one who has Firefish crash for them?
- The Firefish instance I was on moved to Sharkey instead. As far as I know Firefish is no longer being developed.
- Firefish is gone, but Catodon has taken Its place.

<3

If you're reading this, just know that I will probably butt heads with you at some point. I can be abrasive, and I typically don't censor what I think.
That being said, I wouldn't choose any other social media. Lemmy makes me think of what the United States should be, disparate communities coming together to form a larger and stronger whole. I can be an asshole, spit my shit and have people discuss things with me in a rational manner - for the most part coming to a common understanding.
I've learned a lot about who I want to be from talking to and reading what Lemmians have to say. I will always appreciate this place.

Every morning /kbin is working on some issues.

*Random mods on some instances, however...

Almost all of you hate me. I'm like second or third against the wall.

Oh boy...

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

- Do you not know how this site works
  It is decentralized.

That's the most delusional shit i've ever heard
- There's always one in the comment section. And today, it's you!
  Thanks for doing your part.
  
  One of what? Quite sure I had contributed to the Lemmyverse more than most people here, I have nothing left to prove. Thx