this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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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).

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It's brief, around 25:15

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nf7XHR3EVHo


If you've been sitting on making a post about your favorite instance, this could be a good opportunity to do so.

Going by our registration applications, a lot of people are learning about the fediverse for the first time and they're excited about the idea. I've really enjoyed reading through them :)

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[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 296 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

I wish he had mentioned Lemmy, but it's understandable that he didn't. Also Bluesky isn't an alternative to big tech, it IS big tech. I wish it wasn't stealing so much of our publicity lately.

But beggars can't be choosers, and we have seen some nice growth over the past couple months. John Oliver fans are the perfect candidates to join the fediverse, hopefully some of them find their way to Lemmy.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 80 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I'm really not happy about bluesky their fragmentation of the fediverse protocols is only going to harm us in the long run.

[–] knova@infosec.pub 35 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)
[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 11 points 3 weeks ago

That's what I suspect

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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I’m really not happy about bluesky their fragmentation of the fediverse protocols

shrug, I wish they were with us, but they are also a big ole corporate entity, so I'm kind ok with us staying our our side of the fence. As they need to implement payment and corporate protections to their network, we're free to be free over here.

is only going to harm us in the long run.

We don't have to play ball. not with them anyway,

I think, If we have any credible threat, it's going to be from the Governmental gross anti-tampering laws, forced moderation, or backup regulations. They could make it legally difficulty for us to exist.

[–] kudra@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think, If we have any credible threat, it's going to be from the Governmental gross anti-tampering laws, forced moderation, or backup regulations. They could make it legally difficulty for us to exist

This. I have considerable concern that Fascists will straight up ban Fedi if enough people shift to it. They don't like not being able to control everything, Fedi is far too much actual freedom of communication.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The thing about fedi is how do u stop it. Ban every instances ip? make it illegal to use? They can try but they will have very little success.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

You make laws like the Online Safety Act in the UK. You then attach a multi-million dollar fine to anyone who doesn't adhere to the bonkers unenforceable stipulations in the text.

All of a sudden, no one but a corporation with a legal department can safely run an instance without putting their money and eventually freedom on the line.

They might not be able to just stop it, but you can force us into a pirate scenario where we have to do it in the dark.

We are likely starting to slowly head into 1984 territory. IF Fascim continues to rise, eventually, non-state-run media will be deemed unlawful and they'll do what they can to make it go away.

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[–] Dil@is.hardlywork.ing 7 points 3 weeks ago

Bluesky was always twitters goal, they were losing hella money, so they devloped blue sky.

[–] anachronology@fedia.io 46 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Agreed, but at least Bluesky is a public benefit corporation, so it supposed to take in the needs of society as well as profit in its decision-making. That may not be much, but it's a start.

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 42 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

I'm not familiar with the details of that, but it seems like more of a red herring to me. A form of controlled opposition to divert people away from truly revolutionary platforms.

Of course it has to seem like a plausible alternative, but is it actually decentralized or altruistic enough to make a meaningful difference? I think not.

[–] Evkob@lemmy.ca 42 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"Public benefit corporation" is such an oxymoron, I know it's cliché to say this but it reads like something out of 1984.

If your goal is truly to benefit the public, why wouldn't you start a non-profit? It's because they want profits, which will always be at odds with the interests of the public.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

If your goal is truly to benefit the public, why wouldn't you start a non-profit?

Because your non-profit isn't likely to go anywhere; Capitalists don't give significant money to non-profits, but they'll invest in a public benefit corporation because of the potential for profit. The corporation can then take their money and use it for whatever public benefit it intends to work towards. It's a workaround to try and scrape some benefit to society out of capital, that otherwise wouldn't exist.

Whether Bluesky is actually a good example of a public benefit corporation or not, I have no idea, I don't use it.

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Their protocol allows for federated relay servers, but I'm not aware of anyone having done the exercise of launching one.

[–] pixelscript@lemm.ee 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

That's because, to my understanding, the prerequisite to be able to launch one is "handle the raw, unfiltered firehose of all the traffic on the entire platform". A relay has to be a mirror of the entire company's hosting infastructure, and you'd have to essentially do it for free. It's no puzzle to me why no one's done it yet.

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Ah, yeah that makes sense then. They're over 30M active users now.

[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

You’re absolutely right, but as a UxD, until these platforms learn UxD, they’ll never work. They can’t.

It doesn’t matter how great they are, the vast majority of people won’t learn. And they shouldn’t have to. That’s why big commercial apps are better – good designers need to eat, and big companies can pay for their eggs.

It doesn’t matter how good your model is, without great UxD, you’re dead in the water.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 19 points 3 weeks ago

"Public benefit corporation" is a meaningless designation. All it means is they have the option of putting their mission over their shareholders, not that they are obligated to do so.

[–] Dil@is.hardlywork.ing 4 points 3 weeks ago

If I was losing money and wanted to mantain control over the public id become a public benefit corp too

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Chances are it's really just that, a start. See OpenAI.

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[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 39 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

John Oliver fans are the perfect candidates to join the fediverse, hopefully some of them find their way to Lemmy.

Too late - we are already here!:-P

img

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago

This was literally the photo that finally got me banned from Reddit years ago.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

How can anyone not love the guy?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I think he plays the awkward card to actual cringe levels at times but I'll also watch Cody's Showdy so that can't be it entirely.

Can't say I love him, but I do appreciate the work he does.

[–] Twista713@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Haha, yeah Cody has definitely made me cringe out of discomfort before. I haven't watched that guy in awhile! Appreciate the reminder. And Oliver can get close to that level too, for sure.

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[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 39 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Also Bluesky isn't an alternative to big tech, it IS big tech. I wish it wasn't stealing so much of our publicity lately.

This; I'm so sick of hearing it pop up when people mention alternatives.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 28 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not sure anyone mentions bluesky as an alternative to big tech.

Pretty sure they only mention it as an alternative to musk/X.

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 28 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

This right here, the everyday person doesn't know what federation is let alone believes that it's an alternative to federated platforms. They see it as a better Twitter that's not run by Musk and honestly that's all they need to know.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Holy shit! A sane rational Lemmy user in the /c/Fediverse community! Someone who sees the bigger picture, and isn't just reacting to this small niche area of the internet.

Look, I love Lemmy, but I can't sit by and act like just because something is a better service, and makes logical sense to use, that people will ever have even heard of it. That's not how PEOPLE work. Yes, Lemmy is better than reddit. But no, Lemmy will not overtake reddit in usercount maybe in my lifetime. Unless reddit gets sold, and then plummets into death like myspace did. Then Lemmy wins by default, but it's not the same thing.

And ~~everyone~~ (well, everyone but you I guess) most people on this community seems to miss all that.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I think the uphill battle here is that a good amount of the active users on lemmy are probably very tech savvy. The percentage of us who aren’t, are doing it wrong in their eyes.

[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

Dunno, I like the fact that people here are tech-savvy. My HS guidance counselor said I should always hang out with people that are smarter than I am. That's why I like it here, everypony seems so knowledgable.

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[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago

They haven't gone through the churn of corporate emshittification enough yet I'd have to guess.

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[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The thing that it really has going for itself is that it simply isn't twitter. And Muskler made sure that's a huge deal.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Using it myself, this is technically true but also it's literally Twitter pre-takeover-- like a fork all the tolerable people started using. You've got your George Takei and your Stephen King, etc, so it's what left of center normies can enjoy without being a little too far (like us, here).

If I'm being honest, I prefer to mix the two communities because a little too much Fediverse can make you go crazy, plus I spread Lemmy ideology there cause someone's gotta bring up class warfare and Linux, right?

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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 34 points 3 weeks ago

Indirectly, looking up "John Oliver Mastodon" brings up this post in the top few. "John Oliver Pixelfed" has this post as the first option

So we're not completely left out :)

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 28 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Exactly, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Someone using BlueSky over Twitter is a good thing.

[–] commander 8 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

We still shouldn't be doing the dirty work of rich people for them.

We should all be promoting Mastodon over the centralized and corporate-owned bluesky.

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[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

I agree, but I also think we should remember a loss for musk is a win for society

[–] balder1991@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Do you really think Lemmy could handle the amount of people that Reddit has?

As far as I know the existing instances are usually running on capacity and always in need of donations, and that’s when the owner isn’t handling the costs themselves. I’m not sure how well most instances have right now.

Maybe Lemmy would benefit of some way to get people to pay, such as purchasing the ability to give people awards etc. like Reddit. Despite being useless stuff, it might provide some fun that would make hardcore users want to pay. But for that to work out, all apps would also need to show the posts awarded in a different way, so I think that’s unlikely.

But the point is that without a business model, the Fediverse will only be able to handle a limited number of enthusiasts before it faces scaling problems.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Do you really think Lemmy could handle the amount of people that Reddit has?

yup. no question. Not one instance mind you, but Reddit is also a giant cluster. (and clusterfuck)

As far as I know the existing instances are usually running on capacity and always in need of donations,

We just need the big bois to stop stuffing themselves. There's 0 reason to have 2/3 of the totally traffic flooding into world because people are scared of Federation that they never even have to deal with.

Maybe Lemmy would benefit of some way to get people to pay, such as purchasing the ability to give people awards etc.

Maybe we make some premium pay servers with baller architecture, killer response time, user capacity limits and high speed storage?

But the point is that without a business model, the Fediverse will only be able to handle a limited number of enthusiasts before it faces scaling problems.

Eventually, it's going to be ads, donations or payments. It's all someone else's computer, someone has to foot the bill. But at great scale, you should be able to have an ad-free experience for something in the range a dollar or two a month.

[–] balder1991@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I wouldn’t mind having some ads, but I wonder how some more extremists users would react.

But I strongly believe that depending on donations is a very tough place to be, it places the burden of “begging” on the instance owners, which are already doing all the work and should definitely be compensated somehow.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago

which are already doing all the work and should definitely be compensated somehow.

That's why I donate monthly to my instance :)

A pretty decent sized instance managed will uses a few boxes and some CDN, runs a couple to a few hundred a month, it doesn't take that many people paying to cover it.

It's not as bad managing the smaller instances. The app works like it says on the tin until you get really big.

IMO lemmy.world let themselves get WAY bigger than they should have. They had to start doing a hell of a lot more work to keep the thing up.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 4 points 3 weeks ago

But I strongly believe that depending on donations is a very tough place to be

If you get a good deal on hosting then, on medium-sized instance donations easily cover costs. lemmy.world suggests this can scale up a lot even if you need more complex systems in place to deal with demand.

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[–] Novice_Idiot@lemmy.wtf 7 points 3 weeks ago

John Oliver being uploaded to YouTube is awesome! I should comment that Lemmy is a great Reddit alternative