• @[email protected]
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    423 minutes ago

    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.

    • @fuck_u_spez_in_particular
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      29 minutes ago

      My fear is that, if lemmy gets too successful, that regarding bots the same fate may occur.

      • @Manifish_Destiny
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        15 minutes ago

        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.

  • @[email protected]
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    323 hours ago

    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.

    • @fuck_u_spez_in_particular
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      27 minutes ago

      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…

    • @[email protected]
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      162 hours ago

      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

      • @[email protected]
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        541 minutes ago

        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.

  • @[email protected]
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    72 hours ago

    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

    • @[email protected]OP
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      11 hour ago

      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.
  • @[email protected]
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    73 hours ago

    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.

  • Spaniard
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    215 hours ago

    The selfhosting movement sets people free in general.

    • @aleq
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      23 hours ago

      Does selfhosting movement include using non-commercial instances of apps like mastodon/lemmy/matrix etc?

  • @scripthook
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    4710 hours ago

    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

    • @[email protected]
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      117 hours ago

      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.

    • @dwemthy
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      46 hours ago

      What’s your impression of loops so far?
      I’ve been underwhelmed, but I don’t know if that’s a platform issue or an adoption issue. Found a couple good accounts to follow, but I really want a block option to keep some accounts out of my “for you”

      • @scripthook
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        35 hours ago

        Content wise it’s underwhelming but it’s random videos. There’s more variety than Pixelfed which has an even smaller community. Eventually more trends will catch on to Lopps but I hope there’s more original content once it’s out of beta and public

      • @[email protected]B
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        -24 hours ago

        will be hard without some algorithm. tiktok is useful for finding content that align with my interests

    • @[email protected]
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      -59 hours ago

      If only we had more content not related to “look we’re free!”, “look Linux is freedom”, “free free free!”, “MAGA bad, but we’re independent and free!”, it would be even more awesome (not a pun to your side, just a piece of frustration)

      Also, for those saying “create it yourself” - I do

  • Gunpachi
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    5913 hours ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 hours ago

      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.

    • @ghostrider2112
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      107 hours ago

      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.

      • @shalafi
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        -95 hours ago

        And you will be the one deciding what constitutes hate, whose voice to cut off?

        • @[email protected]
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          24 hours ago

          As long as we have ways to give feedback and affect the system this is a good thing.

          The less recourse we have the more authoritarian it is though.

        • @Ellvix
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          35 hours ago

          Hopefully. ghostrider2112 seems like a decent dude.

          • @ghostrider2112
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            23 hours ago

            lol thanks from a white guy in Ohio, USA that loves all, even those who hate.

    • @danc4498
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      89 hours ago

      Also, more active users means more niche communities. I just realized there’s a Severance community that is medium active. One less thing I need Reddit for.

      • Gunpachi
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        27 hours ago

        Niche communities are awesome ! Sadly reddit is still the king in this aspect.

        Maybe in a few years lemmy will reach that level or even surpass it… One can dream.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 hour ago

          I used to spend tons of time on forums 20 or so years ago. Social media killed many of those off, but there’s no reason that something else can’t do the same thing - be it Lemmy communities or something else.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 hours ago

          It is interesting that forums had less people but felt very active and didn’t need the millions of people that places like modern day social media do.

          And I think big part of it is the presentation of material with threads that get bumped up when people comment and can keep going on for years.

          In reddit type social media a thread is considered dead after like a day or less, so needing a new one even if it is the same topic to start up conversation again. Even more the case for one off comment type social media like mastodon.

          • Gunpachi
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            11 hour ago

            Oh yeah forums are pretty cool. It’s like a massive treasure chest you can sort through. I still enjoy using a few forums like Gamerfaqs and XDA developers.

        • @danc4498
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          16 hours ago

          Another thing is google results. When I want a recommendation for anything I will add “Reddit” to my query. This is because I know it will return great recommendations and conversations that help me decide. Hopefully I will eventually be able to just use Lemmy for this.

          • Gunpachi
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            11 hour ago

            In case you didn’t know, You can get lemmy posts by adding the following to a search query -

            site:lemmy.world
            

            You can replace with the lemmy instance url of your choosing (or any url for that matter).

      • @[email protected]
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        49 hours ago

        What! My outie loves Severance.

        I can’t locate this community using search on the term ‘severance’.

        Do you mind sharing the instance and community name?

        Praise Kier!

    • @[email protected]
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      1210 hours ago

      prevent communities from becoming echo chambers

      I suspect this will still become a problem since we can subscribe to whichever communities we like and vice versa.

      • @[email protected]
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        1410 hours ago

        It is a feature, not a problem.

        I have, like, this whole rich life offline. My curated list of instances and communities (plus my user block list) is just my entertainment and a small portion of my day.

        You may not believe this but I have numerous thoughts, activities and interactions that never leave a trace online. I have no obligation to drink from the firehose that is being pumped from the septic tank of the human psyche.

      • Flic
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        410 hours ago

        @Flagstaff @gunpachi I’m not sure echo chambers are inherently a bad thing. My real life is a carefully crafted echo chamber of people I like to spend time with (which conveniently includes my family). The problem comes when we get *all* our information from that echo chamber.

        • Gunpachi
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          27 hours ago

          I agree with what you are saying. What I really meant is that every community should have some amount of people who think differently and see things from a different perspective. This can help widen the variety of posts, comments and even sources used for citations.

          For instance, here on lemmy I’ve noticed a tendency for people to see things from a political viewpoint and don’t hesitate to start a flame war in the comments. Maybe the average user will feel more welcome to express their opinions if they see that the existing users are open minded. Thankfully most communities I’m a part of are very nice, more so than their reddit counterparts.

          P.S: forgive me if there are any logical inconsistencies in my comment. I might be a little intoxicated.

    • @doodledup
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      -511 hours ago

      Why moderation? The old internet didn’t have moderation. Why does everyone feel the need for moderation?

      • @bassow
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        2310 hours ago

        The old internet was hidden behind dial-up modems and TCP-IP stacks and weird telnet and usenet protocols. This complexity worked as a filter and the people using it were mostly academics, students, techies and other nerds (me amongst them). The moment uncle Bob could poke his way through social media on his phone from the shitter, the whole thing cascaded into Eternal September and “the old internet” was lost forever.

      • @mostlikelyaperson
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        1110 hours ago

        What? The old internet absolutely had moderation, even back in the day of BBS.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 hours ago

        Trolls, bots, and scammers make them necessary at a minimum, and then the subliminal messaging from the cronies of politicians, etc. make them welcome. Bots are easier to make than ever before so you can’t compare the past with the present that easily. kbin.social died last year because of relentless spam bots posting garbage/malware links 100x/sec.

        • @doodledup
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          10 hours ago

          Computer bots always act a certain predictable way. You can filter out most bots easily based on time-based filters or other algorithms. The rest should not be moderated, except for illegal things like selling weapons, drugs, or hiring a hitman.

          Moderation is a skippery slope. Everyone wants to moderate something different. Rights want to moderates Lefts, Lefts want to moderate Rights. Moderators have the power to decide which side they are on. If we had clear laws that forbid most moderation, there would not be any discussion about it anymore. Just allow everything and deal with it.

          • @[email protected]
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            910 hours ago

            That hasn’t been true for a long time. Filtering bots has increasingly become more difficult, expensive, and sophisticated. Not to mention that there are still plenty of state sponsored bad actors using real people and hybrid approaches.

          • @joel_feila
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            010 hours ago

            And the extremism follow.

      • TimeSquirrel
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        79 hours ago

        I don’t know what old internet you used, but the IRC channels and forums I used to run around on definitely had moderation. This was about '97. Maybe you’re talking about the late 80s when barely anybody knew the Internet even existed and it was just academics and ubernerds?

  • @[email protected]
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    3613 hours ago

    I remember reading a book that talked about public spaces and how we often think of malls as public spaces, but they have so many restrictions and ulterior motives that it doesn’t really hold.

    They’re essentially the irl equivalent of centralised social media platforms. I hope once the fediverse really takes off, we can have ‘official’ platforms/instances that are run by governments that federate only to other ‘official’ ones. That seems like a better way to reach people, instead of Xitter.

    • @[email protected]
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      2513 hours ago

      It is incredibly frustrating to see for example Ursula Von der Leyen preaching “EU STRONG” stuff on fucking shitter. Really? This is your way of showing how strong the EU is and we shouldn’t or can’t rely on USA? By posting your I’m strong message on the precise platform the US chief nazification officer owns? FFS.

      If all EU governments together decide to ditch shitter and move to mastodon instances, media follows. It’s a pretty cheap measure to implement, too.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 hours ago

        EU really should ban Twitter. US social media has turned out to be incredibly dangerous with algorithm manipulation with the best evidence being the US and their election and people.

      • @[email protected]
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        14 hours ago

        It makes sense if you are helping Russia or are in on isolating the USA. These parties are being funded by these billionaires in Europe. So I mean, eu strong is likely just a front.

      • @[email protected]
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        89 hours ago

        Hard agree! I do think fediverse platforms are perfect for public entities to disseminate information.

        I’m US based so my example is say a county. They already have the IT infrastructure and staff. Make an instance for the county and a community for each department.

        The road department can post road closures and upcoming traffic diversions. The parks department can promote events, etc.

        These type of instances can just disable comments. They are read-only so moderation is not needed.

        It’s trivial from a resource perspective and even easier than updating a website.

  • @rottingleaf
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    -14 hours ago

    keeping you engaged on their terms. And their terms alone. There’s no freedom

    So keeping you engaged on seemingly your own terms is acceptable and possible?

    Such articles just make me think of Bluesky with boredom and suspicion.

    The real free web is the non-existent luddite web. It should solve problems platforms solve now, but with minimal engagement possible, ideally look for a second, push a button and leave for a walk. A platform is not interested in minimizing engagement, so it should be a system where paid work necessary for its operation doesn’t allow one to become a platform.

    I like talking about that, and even tried to push myself (executive dysfunction is a bitch) to try to start a little toy project of something like small web (meaning objects with basic hypertext pages with links to other objects ; with current state of an object being a result of many crud-like messages, and which are considered and which are not would be determined by signatures and chain of trust, meaning that two people with different political views could have very different versions of the same forum and both be happy ; such messages and not resulting objects would be what’s stored and replicated, like something between Usenet and a version control system). But then realized I don’t really want to do that, just to talk about that, and that’s more complex than it reads. Maybe eventually, when I’m twice older.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 hours ago

      I use fedilab, in part because it’s the best app for peertube that I’ve found. But it’s got great support for Mastodon and Pixelfed as well.

    • Darren
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      59 hours ago

      I’ve been using Moshidon. One day I’ll find an app as good as Ivory on iOS, but in the meantime Moshidon is fine.

      • riquisimo
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        36 hours ago

        I’ll second moshidon. It gets bonus points for letting you see your followed hashtags. Or something like that. There’s something with hashtags that you can’t do in the web browser that you can do with apps. Moshidon does that thing.