Discussion
If someone asks you why they should join the Fediverse..
If any local politician, library, park, or museum asks you why they should be on the Fediverse..
The big platforms have their places, but we can’t depend on them to link us when it matters most.
I don’t have answers, but I think we find them by trying lots of stuff, comparing notes, and iterating on the ideas that work best.
For in-person events, I’d love to try handing out 5x8 cardstock flyers with a QR code, text and the Fediverse symbol. It’s too late to print those for tonight, but I’d be happy to help design and print some as a test.
For tonight, maybe talk to some central people about the Fediverse ability to dampen misinformation.
@benpate their datacenters are flood makers. Their cooling waters go up in one state and come down in another. The big Datacenters put as much as 20,000 tons of water in the sky every day. Where it comes down, only they know. Our houses aren't even safe any more. Their water can wash whole houses down the creek.
Yeah, they’re pretty bad right now. But I’m not as concerned about them long term.
Data centers are to the 2020’s what mainframes are to the 1970’s - necessary because of the limits of our tech.
Investors are already worried about a collapse.
On our current trajectory, those big data centers will be obsolete in 5-10 years. Everyone will have enough intelligence on their phone or laptop.
Then we can convert all those huge buildings into housing. Or pickleball courts.
If any local politician, library, park, or museum asked me why they should be on the Fediverse, I would stare at them in amazement and wonder, asking them, how is it possible that you have even heard of the Fediverse?
@brianstorms Exactly.
But then fedizens sit on their couches and judge institutions for not joining the niche Internet experiment nobody’s ever heard of.
We need outreach. Ambassadors who can get the Fediverse in front of decision-makers. Without that, we’ll never be more than one or two percent of the population, and never make a real difference in society.
Normal people don’t care about and never will care about what’s basically FidoNet 2.0. It’s too niche, too techie, too nerdy.
Today, yes. Unfortunately.
But there is a growing sentiment among artists, writers, musicians against the big platforms.
“Regular people” are seeing and understanding the effects of toxic algorithms, disinformation, privacy invasion and the rest.
The Fediverse is far too techie (and hard to use) for them right now, but many people are looking for something better than what they have. Now is our time to act!
Nationalize them all. NOW. Enough billionaires and fascists making their decisions behind closed doors, and then following up with lies and BS excuses. They are destabilizing democracies around the world intentionally so that they can build more data centers. They want us all to die. More for them. Enough is enough.
That sounds good, until you ask: “which nation?”
Right now, there aren’t many that I’d trust with that kind of power. I’m not sure I’d even want Brussels dictating social media policy for the rest of the world.
I think this needs to be bottom up.
as these billionaire corporations are multinational, nationalization can also be multinational. Each country can determine for themselves how they want to do it.
Everything needs to be grass roots. Everything. That's democracy. But let's not pause and hesitate around nationalizing scumbag parasite billionaire assets. We have a Congress and a Senate. But we won't for long enough unless we take billionaire assets away from them.
Do I trust Trump? No. I'm not a fool. But I trust the squad. I trust Ilhan Omar. And I want oversight before Starlink destroys Ukraine, and Facebook destroys democracy. Don't you?
@benpate Federation is literally the only reason I have an account here. I'd never had, nor wanted to be on social media. After twatter shit the bed, I followed the few accounts I lurked to Mastodon. Although not one of those posters lasted more than a couple months, it gave me time to learn how this works. I signed up in order to add support, because I see this as the last bastion of free communication when TSHTF. There's a whole lot of ugly coming, and we need clear info to deal with it.
@DukeDuke I agree with so much of this. So what do we *do* about it? Beyond making a safe space for ourselves and close friends, what do we *do* to build a real, free community that’s not bound to the clockwork orange device that is our corporate media?
Because 10 million people scattered around the world isn’t going to cut it. Not to make real change. Not by a long shot.
We’d need 5-10x that just to affect American elections.
@benpate
The revolution will not be on the corporate internet.
@benpate The modern equivalent of 'The revolution will not be televised.'
Who didn't see it coming?!
@benpate
their bullshit excuses will not help them from dem hammer with their fat wallet names on them. fuck you zuckerberg and the rest
@benpate if only they asked me.
Yup. I’m working on how we can reach out more proactively. I think that’s what we must do to turn the tide on big tech.
I’ll let you know when I’ve proven the concept.
@benpate My favorite aspect of this type of reporting is that these publications almost universally have Facebook, X, and (now) Bluesky logos alongside their stories.
@rwg Yup.
BlueSky is a step in the right direction. I’m concerned how they’re going to show a profit on the $100m investment from Bain Crypto.. but it’s still a step in the right direction.
Positive reinforcement works. So whether we’re training dogs or multinational corporations, let’s reward them for the small steps forward, then offer biscuits when they do the right thing 🐶
@benpate Hmm... it's hard for me to congratualate them when a) they are still on X and b) there has been a bigger step in the right direction for 8 years prior to the existence of Bluesky. It's also hard for me to get excited about organizations with professional staff who run multiple social media accounts and yet can't be bothered to get an account on something like Mastodon.social.
Yup. It’s super hard.
Which is why our community needs something like ambassadors and educators to help bring them along.
It means holding our noses and reaching out to often-imperfect people who aren’t doing their best to make things better.
Super duper hard.
But big tech does it every day, and reaches ~80% of the population.
We don’t.. which is why - 10 years in - the Fediverse still doesn’t even reach 1%
It’s what we need to do to win.
Install Fedizen
Get the full app experience
@benpate
I just found out this event is taking place near me tonight and wondering if anyone has thoughts on the best way to promote fedi at it. I'll probably go and just mumble through it.
https://mastox.eu/@mehdirhasan/117473534208662617