Discussion
In better news I've finally figured out the perfect analogy for what the fediverse is in the larger social media verse.
We're the shire. We're in our nice little country village posting pictures of mushrooms, cats ,and trees. We also gossip about the people going on adventures outside the shire and complain about the evil places of the world over a pint of ale.
Bluesky is Gondor, X is Mordor and Truth Social is Barad-dûr.
Greetings fellow hobbits!
@mike so when is tea? Supper, dinner? I'm there, regardless. -- a fellow hobbit
@arisummerland I'm having second supper right now.
@mike BlueSky is Orthanc
@mike I think someone compared tech types to dwarves (living deep underground and meticulously forging awesome stuff for centuries). Fediverse feels more like elven woods though - more crafts, more magic, and more awesome weirdness
@umbraroze Going to be honest, we're not cool enough to be elves.
@mike @umbraroze the elves are ssb, sailing into the west, the ents are rss, and dwarves are irc.
@mike @umbraroze I've told this story before, but when my boys were younger, I said for some reason, " ... awesome dude". My oldest said, "mom you're not cool enough to say that". Learned long ago that I was not cool.
@mike
And every Mastodon instance is like another hobbit family, like the Bagginses, Tooks or Proudfoots…
”PROUDFEET!”
@neutronstar I think there's several little towns in the Shire
@mike so..Usenet is Numenor?
@brianvastag Usenet is Usenet...
I should also mention, when new people enter the fediverse (shire) we give them a squinting side eye as we sit on our porch puffing on the Old Toby.
@mike i know how, from other networks, the Fediverse is viewed as overprotective, a kind of island. I know the classical ironic speeches about "not being in the real fight" by staying here.
But.
Tolkien made the salvation of his whole world mysteriously rest in the humble hands of people of the Shire.
@mike and the cats (+ myriad of furries) watch them too 😁
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo Baggins
@mike
Over the past couple of years I have leaned very heavily into the hobbit lifestyle. Probably a little too heavily? But I'm short enough that nobody's questioned me yet... 🤷