enshittification. Reddit , mozilla and tiktok has recently joined the ranks/. they saw the money right wing content brings in, and they went with it, of course they need equal number of arguments against this content, otherwise thier investment fails.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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I agree with the sentiment of this post. In fact, I was trapped (and extremely discontent) on Facebook for the first half of my digital-life; before finding open-source - and the rest is history.
I am afraid that we are not doing nearly enough however. This (like most things in this world) is a multilayered issue with no quick-fix, but the core of it is that many (and I mean MANY) of us are tech illiterate. Worse so, even more of us are math illiterate.
This generally means that most cannot cope with the current world we live in, and are experiencing extreme levels of inertia. I was here at one point, so I know how difficult this transition is.
An open web existing (on its own) won't do much - its the culture that needs to change. We need to be equipped to think, fight, and adapt - or our spaces won't survive. We are in a constant arms race with bad actors and ALL OF US need to be capable to win this fight. When the bots come to Lemmy (and they will), are most of us prepared to handle filter-lists, run servers, and potentially create a web-of-trust? I doubt this.
I would really like to see a return to real-life communication for most things (as humans are, from birth, well adapted to this) and the open-web only be used for automation and coordination. I think the most freedom comes from stability and the internet (in general) just does not offer that.
The major platforms are convenient.
But the open web offers something better: genuine ownership, community governance, and independence.
This has a kind of underlying connotation that the open web can't be convenient. This is not true.
It is true that lots of platforms on the fediverse (Lemmy included) don't have the best user experience and user journey flow. But that's not how it has to be. We don't have to accept that as a given.
It's the same problem that Linux faces, where UX issues aren't prioritised because the user base is technical enough to deal with the bullshit. We can't let the same thing occur to the fediverse.
But that's the problem though, devs are notoriously bad at UX, and people good at UX don't seem to care as much about FOSS and the open web. At least that's my experience.
So we need people to speak out so devs can fix these little paper cuts in UX
There's plenty of good, open source UX in FOSS. Have you seen the Gnome family of apps? They look great and are easy to understand.
Agreed, this has always been a major disconnect.
I'll also say that devs are notoriously bad at "being a noob". A lot of software just takes too much investment to get working - those that do not tend to be extremely predatory (i.e Facebook).
Devs need to create dead-simple software that has UX which caters to common actions humans would do.
I’m not a fan of mastodon because it really does feel a lot like other social media sites, I don’t really like any form of advertising, whether it’s intentional or unintentional. People post too much bullshit trying to gain followers. I never cared much for twitter/facebook/instagram anyway.
Lemmy however is a better replacement for Reddit, so far. I remember when Reddit was the replacement and now look at it, a big steaming pile of ads and bots, power tripping admin and moderators, killed 3rd party apps that made the site useable. Hopefully lemmy can remain the same as it is now.
My fear is that, if lemmy gets too successful, that regarding bots the same fate may occur.
Typically if you're gonna deploy a bunch of bots on lemmy, it's easiest to do via your own instance, which is fairly easy to filter out.
Luckily the federated aspect will help with this a little bit.
its nice it wont spread like cancer, like with reddit, wheres its mostly political botting by RU.
Right, but you can also create accounts on different instances, so not really protected. Actually I think it's very difficult to really filter bots when they're done right, especially in times where LLMs start to be increasingly more popular.
Totally agree. These platforms have no discussion culture. They are only designed to gain followers. This means only polarizing content of a very small group of users gets attention and all the rest is not even visible to other people. Reddit or Lemmy is very different in that sense. Even a new user can start a rich discussion because of subs/communities and without the need of followers. Thus the quality of the whole network is overall better.
reddit was different, now its extremely hard to even comment, let alone mod or start a sub . apparently with that whole sub banning debacle in jan, its even harder to start a sub or even posting in general.
Just being here has felt freeing in and of itself. No ads omg. It's beautiful. I like the slower pace here too, it doesn't bother me to see the same post on the main page from a few days ago. I think it's a nice break for my senses actually.
Less bots, more genuine conversations, it’s also not as fast-paced as other social medias.
It’s great. It feels like a forum from back in late 2000s / early 2010 and I like it
And even when it gets heated, people still seem to listen and not just performatively push agendas. Seen more "fair enough"s than in years of Reddit.
Absolutely. People treat eachother like they treat others irl.
I wouldn't mind a little faster paced fwiw, the conversation can stagnate a bit sometimes, but it is what it is.
Yeah though I think it's a little bit too political at times. I get it, Trump and Musk is destroying the USA from within, but I don't need to read about it in every second post...
thats what reddit has become, even worst they allow the con sub to be on the front page all the time.
anyone got tips for finding quality memes on mastodon? i love the philosophy of the service, but i have 0 interest in reading political takes from strangers all day, and right now it feels like all i see on the “trending” page is people complaining about politics. i just want to escape the bad news and laugh a little, not get mad at my phone anytime i open the app
Mastodon seems to be in a weird middle that a lot of community platforms fall into. There are a lot of memes (way too many honestly) but they are political memes. I would imagine this is because a lot of people are genuinely worried about their future, but do not want to risk their life nor come off as "cringe".
This is not surprising, given that we are living in extraordinary times, but it is frustrating. I would like for intelligent and practical people to come together and talk about solutions - but we've generally been reactionary. You want good and spicy meem - but we've generally be reactionary. Like I said, its frustrating.
For real, I love mastodon and its philosophy but sometimes I need some brainrot or something fun, and that site its only politics, tech, and memes made by old people
You gotta make them.
Tell me when you found some :‘D
maybe have a extra mastodon account where you just follow positive things and radically filter out negative stuff (even with word based filters)
and then i can just recommend:
- be patient. The awesome people will be found over time.
- lemmy communities are also great, but i dont remeber the names. But different instances have some funny meme communities.
- search hashtags
- in general explore stuff.
The selfhosting movement sets people free in general.
Does selfhosting movement include using non-commercial instances of apps like mastodon/lemmy/matrix etc?
Sure? If you help fund it, definitely. You're not self hosting, but you're still involved with those who do.
Self hosting movement is hosting stuff yourself, so kinda, assuming you're not putting some kind of advertising on your own services, but most commonly I'd see things like jellyfin, nextcloud, navidrome, immich and then a bunch of other stuff, there's foss alternatives to most commercial offerings.
Is a great place to start.
I should probably have put quotes around "selfhosting movement", because I meant the term itself. Reason for asking is that if it doesn't include shared instances, then it's not a very big movement and most people will not really be able to join it.
That said I'm not trying to start a discussion on whether it's good or bad, IMO it's good and I self-host a lot of things for personal use myself. Just a thought I guess.
I've gone all-in on (properly) federated social media and I've got to say it's been a great experience. After what's happened to Twitter, with Zuck's recently stated plans for Meta, and TikTok's immediate Trump cocksucking, I realized that all privately-owned platforms are as good as compromised, no matter the utility they otherwise provide.
Instagram was more difficult as it was how I found out about a lot of local events, and was my primary connection to a lot of old friends, but it was worth it. I actually reach out and talk to those friends who I previously just followed. It's restored some actually connection that social media had stripped away, and I find myself avoiding the endless scroll I used to get caught in.
I'm still working on evacuating YouTube, but using RSS feeds to be more deliberate about whose uploads I'm notified about has helped a ton.
I tried Bluesky for while but honestly I like Mastadon and Lemmy better. I'm also testing LOOPS (tiktok replacement) which is from the same creator as Pixelfed. There's something comforting using decentralized platforms that are safe from Government and Corporate intervention
I like that it feels more like the web when I was younger, smaller communities usually with a more specific topic, run by a person or small group.
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John Mastodon.
I hope more active users move to the fediverse. That way we will have a lot of variety in content and can also potentially prevent communities from becoming echo chambers. I suppose moderation will also have to be taken up a notch for these changes to actually have a positive effect.
I hear echo chamber brought up a lot but never really have seen examples of a place that doesn't have an echo chamber.
I think that's just the natural result of people forming communities as opposed seeking out battle grounds for adversaries.
Only thing that can be done is offering people the tools to freely form as many communities as they want with the main barrier being who feels compelled to join the new echo chamber community.
Echo chambers are not bad when the echo is due to the majority opinions being in favor of basic human rights and equality. Giving voice to those that spew hate is not conducive to going anywhere except a circle.
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