Bluesky, the Fediverse, and the future of social media

submitted by Tywèle [she|her]

werd.io/2024/bluesky-the-fediverse-and-the-futu…

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26 Comments

Lvxferre , edited

It's all fun and games until venture capital kicks in, and exploits that central user data store to further centralise the rest of the network. Even then yes, I think that Mastodon has a lot to learn with Bluesky, on how to make user experience smoother.

shortwavesurfer

Or I think you know, users are going to have to get over themselves because they are currently going from centralized platform to centralized platform to supposedly decentralized platform. Eventually, maybe one day they will figure out that platforms do not work and protocols are what people should be using.

Lvxferre

I get what you say, and I agree; but when it comes to the average user I wonder if they'll even get it. They don't think on the grounds of a "protocol" or a "platform", it used to be "site" and now "app". They do it even with email, of all things, even if it's one of the oldest cross-platform protocols out there!

Kichae

The average user is hopping from phone app to phone app, following their favourite interner celebrity. They don't care about the rest.

Meanwhile, VC backed businesses can buy internet celebrities, and on the cheap.

shortwavesurfer

Humanity is doomed because that means that eventually we're going to have Kim Kardashian as president. We might as well evacuate the Titanic while there are still lifeboats around to do so.

electricprism

eg: G Mail

IsThisAnAI , edited

🤷‍♂️ there's got to be some place for the average person to go without being screamed at by some nerd calling them a boot licker.

I also think the "confusion" of fediverse is overblown. People aren't confused. First adopters who don't want to be screamed at by flying squid aren't telling friends and family to join.

The people here and their attitude towards people who don't agree with them are the problem.

Lvxferre

The people here and their attitude towards people who don’t agree with them are the problem.

And that's a structural problem. The ActivityPub was supposed to allow both the "average person" and the "nerd" to coexist in the same platform, without one getting too much in the way of the other; it doesn't.

I'm not sure on a good solution for that.

RichieAdler 🇦🇷

They don't coexist peacefully in life, why would they do it here?

IsThisAnAI

My nerd and techy friends, even the more progressive ones, do just fine in most places.

Lemmy has the extremist and most angry.

Lvxferre

They tolerate each other enough to get each into a corner and not interact much.

And yet that is not what we see in the Fediverse. Those "corners" don't exist here.

demesisx

Are you sure? In my experience, they defederate from each other.

Lvxferre

I'm *almost* sure.

Your typical instance only defeds another as a last case scenario, due to deep divergences or because of blatantly shitty admin or user behaviour. But, past that, they're still willing to let some shit to go through - because if you defederate too many other instances, with no good reason, you're only hurting yourself.

That's simply not enough to create those "corners". Specially when all this "nerds vs. normies*" thing is all about depth - for example the normie wants some privacy, but the nerd goes all in, but they still care about the same resources.

*I hate this word but it's convenient here.

Stovetop

But your normie friends and family would fit in a lot better if they simply read some *T H E O R Y*.

RichieAdler 🇦🇷

For many people, learning things and reading are anathema.

LucidBoi

i just learned that word a few hours ago!

zerozaku

Is Bluesky fediverse tho?

kbal

Bluesky: You are immediately and automatically welcomed into the warm embrace of an algorithm that entices you into a parasocial relationship with the synthetic community it has created.

Mastodon: If you're lucky you'll stumble across a warm welcome for new users explaining how posts are called toots here, likes are called florps, and our version of Grok is called Garfiald.

Tywèle [she|her] [OP]

But that's not true for Bluesky. The only feed that you see when newly registering is the Following feed which is chronological.

kbal , edited

That's not how it was as of yesterday when I signed up just to see what all the fuss was about. (I don't think I'll be participating.)

Tywèle [she|her] [OP]

Ok true, I think I forgot that you also see the Discover feed? But you can just remove that from your feeds and add any feed you like or just use the Following feed.

Drunemeton

Wow, you signed up yesterday and determined, “an algorithm that entices you into a parasocial relationship with the synthetic community” all on your own?

It’s not any of that…

But If what it truly is, isn’t for you, that’s fine too.

kbal

And then there's Lemmy, where you can always count on some helpful stranger who's completely missed the point chiming in to tell you why you're wrong.

ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝

No you are wrong about that.