Technology

The fediverse is ready, if you build it they will come!

I think there needs to be a sensible way to crowdfund the server costs, but I can’t see any other reason why it shouldn’t succeed

It doesn't matter so much exactly where we go, as long as it's a place that won't do the same thing and make us go somewhere else yet again. If I move (like I did from Reddit), it's enough of a pain that I'm going to make sure I won't have to move again. As best as I can, I'll use this chance to choose a social media that is as stable as possible.

I considered squabbles.io as one of my options when choosing a new site, and it is easier and better to use than Lemmy and Kbin right now. But it is still centralized, so there's no way to ensure it won't be like Reddit 15 years from now. That alone swung my decision in favor of the Fediverse, and once I decided on that Beehaw looked like the server with the best quality discussions. I'm happy to wait for a network to get more user-friendly; I won't put effort into a site that can enshittify and make me leave all my posts there again.

My only issue with Lemmy is that it's not a true Reddit replacement, especially when places keep defederating from one another. Like I spend far less time here on Beehaw because it's defederated from some of the major instances - I understand the administrators' concerns about moderation but over time a lot of the activity will center itself around the most active instances (i.e., users may come from a diversity of instances) but only interact with content on Lemmy.world.

Huh what? The only thing missing is the content. AFAIK, everything is read to post on here. Apps are in prototype and won’t take long.

I’m even using Wefwef right now which is fantastic. I barely notice it’s not a native app on my iPhone.

I feel the pain, even if I'm here on Lemmy quite happily.

Every time we do this switch, we burn down a new library of Alexandria. There is so much content that will be lost to time. I am not concerned about someone's MySpace, but every era the new library gets a little larger, and then poof, it's all gone.

It will never be 'ready' in part because of the nature of self hosted federated services allowing unqualified people to run services. The ever popular make it idiot proof and somebody will build a better idiot problem.

But, that still allows for people to learn, some will set up viable instances of whatever software, and those with problems will find more and more documentation and help as the population increases and continues to give feedback and assistance based on their own experiences.

Ready ... for what? "Take over" is hopelessly vague, and it's not like even Facebook opened with millions of users.

I'll grant it's not ready to be a Reddit replacement, but that's only relevant if I'm looking for what Reddit is today, and I'm not. Presuming that everyone is and using that starting point to declare Lemmy not up for the task is little more than question begging.