As others have said, just don’t bring it up unless specifically asked.
Most users won’t care, and you might easily overwhelm them with data.
It is far better to introduce them to Lemmy/Piefed/mbin/kbin/Pixelfed/etc as a specific service, and answer further questions as they come up.
I’ve mentioned to a group of folks in a conversation about where we go online nowadays that I really only comment on Lemmy anymore and have been asked about it with much interest! I’ve got two people to join, as well! I’ve just said “Oh it’s like if Reddit kinda sucked to get started with but it’s very small and there’s like .05% of the LLM/fake engagement bait posts”
When they asked how to join, I just had them check out the join lemmy site and said I chose dbzer0 cuz yarrr, and they said “oh that’s cool” and later told me they joined.
I don’t know their usernames and they don’t know mine tho, I keep all online stuff completely separate from other online stuff and also real life.
Based on how my conversations have gone, I’d just skip explaining the federation part entirely. Most people don’t care
I’d just say it’s like Reddit, but more friendly and less addictive. Sell that they’ll get all the important news and memes, but without the ads, bots, and garbage content shoved in their faces
I’d also pick a home server for them and help them set it up, lemmy.world is probably good as a default if they’re coming from mainstream socials
Truth is, most people really don’t care how it works. They just want it to work, and their first impression shouldn’t be choice overload or a data dump
it’s like Reddit
Yeah, that’s only a small corner of the fediverse, though 🙂
Mastodon is like Twitter, friendica is like Facebook, loops is like tik tok, etc etc
In theory they could all federate, but again that’s not something new users need to know about (and there’s only a few such links anyways)
I dont want to sound too jaded, but people will sign up for anything without reading the TOS. It’ll be fine, just try to give them the best possible first impression so they stick around.
The practical thing that trips up most people is the wealth of possible servers to register with. Give your friends a leg up and give them a signup link to a reliable, friendly instance you think will fit them (probably one you’re already on).
Just give people a low-friction way in, let them get a feel of the fediverse/a specific, local feed. In my experience over-evangelising the nuts and bolts only turns them off the whole concept.
I think we often try to sell the fediverse too hard on the technical and idealist perspectives. Yes, federation is great and, yes, isn’t it lovely that there is no manipulative algorithm, or no billionaire can buy it out and build it into his failed space exploration empire?
But the majority of internet users don’t care about those things. Even for those that do, it’ll be way down their priority list.
Ugh, posted before reading the other comments. Loads of people put it shorter and better already. This is just a +1 to all of the above 👍
Heh, I’m upvoting you anyway for taking the time…and for good attitude in this reply
Sometimes you need to own that you went ahead and replied before bothering to read others’ comments. Thanks 🙂
It’s like _____, but it sucks. But like, in a good way. Like the old Internet. It sucked, but that’s what made it so good.
“It’s like other social media, but it was made by communist nerds to be free, no ads, no spying, no government ID, no psychological manipulation. And it’s all open and connected, so you can see posts from other websites and upvote and comment on them.”
I would rather take the “communist nerds” part off. But your explanation is good!
A picture is worth a thousand words. The Fediverse :
Overexplaining it might scare away non-technical users. Just compare it to well-known social media but say it 's independent and more like e-mail in the sense that everyone can choose a different server with different rules but they all talk to each other. No one company controls everything. And that the algorithms aren’t secret or manipulative. Basically, just tell them the main advantages in an easy to understand way.
It’s like running Linux, btw
I use Fedi btw
This will become our new catchphrase:-)
Much better than: “Do you even Fedi, braugh?”
Send them this link https://fediverse.info/
Thanks! This sums it up perfectly!
Fediverse is social media for nerds.
It’s baffling to me that everyone thinks it’s hard to explain.
Everyone has at least one most of the time two or more email addresses. From work, some from Gmail and / or Microsoft. everyone understands that sending email to other providers will work regardless.
Why is it so hard to apply the same concept to Lemmy?
The email analogy is just bad, may as well say it’s like toast because any type of bread will fit any toaster
Any type of bread following the same standard will fit into a standard toaster.
Why do you think it’s bad? What analogy would you use instead?
Comparing it to email highlights the decentralized nature vs things like Facebook or Twitter where the whole service is one website. It’s not a perfect analogy, but …that’s why it’s just an analogy.
Tell them it’s like Twitter, reddit, Instagram, and YouTube all in one. You can sign up for whatever type of content you want, just like you would sign up for any of those aforementioned sites, but the difference is that the sites can all communicate with each, and are independently run by non-profits, community groups, and different organizations and individuals, rather than a single centralized entity. You can select an instance of the software that suits various interests or niches, or just join a large instance for a bigger pool of content to start with locally. No wrong choice, as even small instances can communicate with large ones, just pick one you like and suits your values or convenience.
Most social media are commercial, privately owned, proprietary, centralised, and hence prone to enshittification. If a company will start to make anti-consumer moves to increase profit, most people will be too locked-in and invested to care to switch. Fediverse is a collection of independent instances in one decentralised network, constantly competing with each other with no full monopoly possible, and working under an open and forkable protocol.
It’s a cool community without all the ads, nazis and psychos. It has 100% more real Humans.
And 100% less AI!
“It’s an alternative to {insert service here}, but if a feature of the platform, an administration, its userbase, etc., are a problem, you can easily find alternatives without abandoning the whole network. Do keep backups of your communities though!”
Also would need to rewrite to not sound as technical, but features-wise, I’d recommend Mbin, Friendica or, once it matures more, PieFed, since all 3 are overarching, being able to access Reddit-like posts, Twitter-like posts, and those compatible with either.
