This might not be the right place for this, but it seemed appropriate to me.
I’m not sure about the fediverse in general. I’ve been interacting with it here and there for a while, and of course, since the strangeness on Reddit, I’ve been interacting with it more. But something seems… strange. What do I mean? Well, I’m not sure exactly, but let’s see if I can put it into words.
I think the idea of the fediverse is excellent and truly better than a centralized approach. But, to me, much of the content on the fediverse seems different than the content on other centralized networks. Maybe Reddit content is more relevant and engaging to me because there is just more to choose from. Maybe that’s just what you get when you have some algorithmic influence. I can hop on Reddit and find something interesting and enjoyable to engage with very quickly. But to me, it’s just not the same on the fediverse. My guess is that my experience would be better with a far larger user base–maybe some critical mass of users needs to be achieved or something.
I suppose the lack of users could be an appeal rather than a drawback–a community could form that’s tighter and more engaged. But what’s the point, then? Is it simply meaningful human connection? For some, might it be to have intellectual stimulation that we can’t get with the people around us? But this just shows what I mean: the experience in the fediverse, to me, is an altogether different one than on the centralized platforms we are running away from.
My purpose for going to Reddit wasn’t a sense of community or anything like that. Maybe it was for some of you! I just wanted to find and engage with interesting stuff, and that’s definitely more challenging for me in the fediverse. For now.
What are your thoughts? It could just be me!
I’m still dipping my toes into the fediverse so I’m not too familiar with how it works, but I do agree that at a glance it feels different from reddit user-experience-wise. That being said I believe one of the core goals of the fediverse is facilitating discovery of communities and interesting topics, just not in the same way that it’s done on reddit, so perhaps it’ll require some guidance…