Signs of the #RedditMigration in action: Three of the top 6 fastest growing #Fediverse servers are not only not Mastodon.social but they are not even microblogging servers - but rather are #Threadiverse servers.
That is only seriously good for the entire Fedi infrastructure. Diversity is strength.
Facinating to watch a potential #RedditMigration to the fediverse. The #Lemmy and #Kbin teams are dealing with all the same issues that Mastodon and other fedi microbloging sites did - but in even a faster timeframe as much of Reddit appears to be set to go dark on Monday. Questions of how to onboard, questions of centralized vs distributed onboarding, questions of how to explain servers and federation, and deep questions of how to scale if traffic is anyting like it could be Monday...
If you are an #Apple enthusiast and are a #Reddit refuge trying out #Lemmy or #Kbin, I moderate quite a few Apple communities over on #LemmyWorld. Come join in on the convos!
Pls BOOST for maximum exposure to the #Fediverse 🙏🏼
I've logged out of Reddit (possibly? probably? for the long term) after the whole "he likes Elon Musk" horseshit and have set up a kbin account to see whether I like it.
Recommended follow list for Ukraine war on Mastodon
Here are my recommendations for coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Only accounts active recently and you can easily import them from a file. They are split into two different lists by type.
Ukraine: OSINT & war updates
This list mostly has accounts posting quickly about daily events of the war and doing open source intelligence.
The import file relies on the List import feature recently added to Mastodon. I have noticed the list import results in a few accounts sometimes ending up in their separate list by the same name so you may have to fix that manually afterwards if this happens on your instance. If many people are on an older Mastodon version and want it I can also post a follows file that will work for those.
Import instructions:
Sign into your instance on the web
go to settings (Gear icon)
Choose Import and Export -> Import
For import type choose "Lists" (could also be "Translation missing: en.imports.types.lists" if there is an issue with the localization).
Select "merge" to only add to your current follows/lists so nothing you have gets deleted
CROSSPOST to a helpful beginners guide to Kbin (the link takes you to a different Kbin instance). Sorry if I did this wrong, I have no idea if there is a proper way to crosspost. Please let me know if there is.
What do you think happens when 200M FB users join? When Zuck can impulsively defederate, or add/change/remove features and rules, at will, and oh...10M non-FB users object?
"Reddit is discovering the same thing that Twitter is also discovering: when you build a service where the value is all the free content that users provide, you’re going to run into some problems when you suddenly start acting like you 'own' all that, and you feel the need to put up paywalls for access.... at some point those users are going to realize they have the power to go elsewhere."
Tech Press don’t understand the #Fediverse, so how can they understand its growth?
To hear them talk, most of them believe that #Mastodon and the Fediverse are one and the the same. Some of them go so far as to call the Fediverse the “Mastodon network”.
Which means that they don’t have a clue about what the Fediverse entails, nor how it has grown.
Case in point: between Jan-May 2023, #Misskey and its forks grew by 300,000 accounts. No one in the Tech Press reported this.
Okay, perhaps they didn’t know because the bulk of growth happened in Japan. But still, this is fairly important to know since Misskey is now responsible for generating the bulk of Fediverse content. Even so, Tech Press think the Fediverse is about Mastodon.
And now, #Lemmy and #Kbin are experiencing lots of growth, with both collectively gaining 100,000 users in a week. This is quite a noteworthy event since the #RedditMigration is part and parcel of dissension on #Reddit – a pretty major Big Social platform.
Does the Tech Media report on this? Nope. But again, that’s because they don’t understand the Fediverse nor what it entails.
Then Meta signal that a new project they’re making, #P92 (a.k.a., #Barcelona), will be joining the Fediverse. There’s even screenshots that show this app interacting with remote Fediverse servers.
But instead of reporting about how this will affect the existing Fediverse, press such as the #BBC say this is an altogether different social network than Mastodon.
That’s right! Tech Press don’t even realize P92 will be joining the Fediverse – a social network that already exists!
Is this all ridiculous? Yes.
But this is why we have to be forthright about what the Fediverse is, what it entails, and why it all matters.
So I left Twitter for Mastodon, and I’m happy with the switch.
Selecting a Mastodon instance seems to only make a small difference in the experience, unless you spend a lot of time on the “Local” timeline, which I typically don’t. Reliability and moderation rules seems to be the main deciding factors.
So, enter the #RedditMigration… lemmy vs. kbin seems to be which software you like better (I have not been able to tell much of a difference). But choosing an instance? Does it make ANY difference besides reliability? Can someone explain it like I’m five? Is moderation done at the magazine (or community) level, rather than the instance level, like Mastodon? kbin seems bigger at this point, but Lemmy seems a more blatant copy of Reddit (which I don’t mind). Can they see each other’s content? There has to be a web page explaining this, right?
Was going through a few #Mastodon servers and something surprised me.
The majority of Mastodon users have no idea that a #RedditMigration is currently happening. They don’t know how much the #Fediverse has grown this month. And to them, the Fediverse is still “Mastodon” even though the Fediverse is substantially less Mastodon than it was a month ago.
To me, this implies that they aren’t aware of how Mastodon interoperates with the rest of the Fediverse, and they certainly don’t know what the Fediverse looks like outside Mastodon.
Over the next year, this will likely change. But for so many people now, the Fediverse is still “Mastodon”.
Funny enough, last December, I predicted there would be another Big Social migration to the Fediverse. I even predicted it would happen in June.
I just didn’t think that Reddit, of all platforms, would be the one to cause the migration.
Big Social has a habit of creating shitty user experiences, and attempting to squeeze every bit of ARPU possible.
Until recently, if you didn’t like it, your only option was to kick rocks.
Reddit doesn’t give a damn. There have been plenty of Reddit alternatives in the past, and almost all of them have crashed and burned.
Except this time, when people join #Lemmy and #kbin, they are interacting with a network of 10 million Fediverse accounts – possibly more. No Reddit alternative has ever had 10 million accounts.
Understand this. Even if Lemmy and /kbin make up an insignificant chunk of the Fediverse right now, everyone who uses those services can talk to 10+ million Fediverse accounts.
Which means that this time Reddit detractors have serious options.
And believe me, more Big Social platforms will cause further migrations to the Fediverse. Each time this happens, that detraction will compound more and more.
Reddit probably doesn’t think this is a big deal. They probably think this is like the other times users expressed dissent.
But this time, these Redditors are discovering the Fediverse.
Like you, I'm a passionate user of K.Bin but lately, I'm noticing that things are getting kinda stale around here. The most recent thread in this, the top-level magazine on K.Bin, is 4 days old. Many other top 25 magazines are also suffering from a similar lack of fresh content. I run /m/scifi and it's been continuing to grow...
Between Twitter and Reddit imploding, and Meta soon launching their fediverse-compatible Project 92/Barcelona/Threads, there's a great need to make https://jointhefediverse.net available in more languages.
Would you join me and the rest of the volunteers and help out?
Mastodon instances admins are going through a very challenging time right now.
They have difficult, often heartbreaking, decisions to make 💔
They have a lot of changes to managed :blob_dizzy_face:
They have large influx in traffic to deal with :blobastonished:
And they have to deal with all of our comments and strong opinions about this :oh_no:
Be Kind with instance administrators and moderation teams. Even when you do not agree with their choices. You can state your opinion, but always remain polite and empathetic.
This is volunteer work!
They all deserve our kindness 💚
Here’s the article I’m pitching to the Atlantic about the #RedditMigration.
Title: "The Lemmy Stampede: A Grand Misstep for the Fediverse and a Siren Call for Journalists"
The Fediverse, that nascent realm of decentralized social networks, has been a tempting frontier for the tech-savvy and the web-woke. The lure of uncharted digital territory, uncorrupted by algorithms and corporate influence, has been irresistible for some. But recently, a million new faces, adopting a website called Lemmy, have stumbled into this Edenic expanse, and what was once a promising promise of digital democracy is swiftly deteriorating into a frothing Babel.
At first blush, Lemmy's explosive growth appears a testament to the Fediverse's potential. After all, surely the influx of such a vast user base indicates the technology's merit. But with a closer look, it is clear that this influx brings with it a disaster, both for the Fediverse and for the journalists who might have been tempted to investigate this new terrain.
What made the Fediverse attractive - its freedom from censorship, its decentralization, and its meritocratic conversation - has been diluted, if not entirely destroyed, by the Lemmy boom. As a million new voices ring out across the network, the Fediverse's original charm is being drowned in a cacophony of mindless noise and uninspired banter. To the erudite observer, the virtual tumbleweeds of substantive discourse are rolling across the Lemmy landscape.
The influx has also resulted in an environment filled predominantly with two types of newcomers: the technology-obsessed nerds who revel in the Fediverse's intricate complexities, and the rubes—late adopters blindly following the herd. This lack of diversity has turned what was once a rich, vibrant conversation into a monotone echo chamber, bereft of the balanced and nuanced discussions that are crucial for journalistic investigation.
Journalists, with their critical eyes and ears, ought to avoid the spectacle that is Lemmy. There is little to gain from attempting to navigate this latest addition to the Fediverse. Journalists need platforms where voices from all walks of life converge, where insightful discussions can be had, where the zeitgeist of the times can be accurately gauged. The starkly binary culture of Lemmy offers no such opportunities.
This is not to undermine the Fediverse's potential as a democratic digital space; it is merely to acknowledge the fallacy of the Lemmy surge. To view it as anything more than a transient tide of users, an unpredictable upshot in an otherwise promising technology, would be misguided.
It is time to recognize that the tried and true platforms - Twitter, Reddit, et al. - still hold the most value for journalists. Yes, they have their flaws. Their algorithms sometimes skew towards the sensational rather than the substantive. But they provide a pulse of public sentiment, a broad spectrum of voices, and a wealth of content that is essential for journalism.
Let the Lemmy rush be a cautionary tale, a lesson in unchecked expansion and an insight into how quickly a promising space can transform into a barren echo chamber. For now, journalists are better off keeping their focus on more established platforms, where meaningful conversation still thrives amidst the noise.
So, to all the wordsmiths out there, stay your curiosity. Let the Lemmy lemmings leap. There's nothing for us in the Fediverse's current state. Let's return to the familiar confines of Twitter and Reddit. After all, the bird still tweets, and the front page of the internet still turns.
Note: I’m not actually sending this article to The Atlantic, but if I did, they’d probably publish it.
I just want to say for my first post to the #Fediverse that I've already seen more #alttext in the last couple of days than I've literally seen in my entire life. I don't know what it is, but as a blind user it's making me emotional to be able to actually interact with content. Think I'll write an introduction soon. #accessibility#Mastodon#redditMigration
For a long while, platforms have been making tons of usually pointless, often harmful changes to their UI. Reddit & Discord provide tons of examples....
Thread on the two Lemmy developers at Lemmy.ml is removing content criticizing the chinese government for being 'orientalist', meaning racist (lemmy.world)
Link: https://lemmy.world/comment/43639...
r/Place 2023: The Good Ending (peertube.io)
"That's a bold move, Cotton" - Reddit to begin paying people for popular posts (www.bbc.com)
The social media site will split revenue with contributors who are awarded "gold" by other users.
CROSSPOST: A small FAQ to hopefully help new users to kbin (updated June 11 17:00 GMT) - kbinMeta - Kilioa Kbin (kilioa.org)
CROSSPOST to a helpful beginners guide to Kbin (the link takes you to a different Kbin instance). Sorry if I did this wrong, I have no idea if there is a proper way to crosspost. Please let me know if there is.
Traffic Visualization of visits to the top 5 #Kbin and #lemmy servers as of today. (indieweb.social)
Visits to the top 5 #Threadivese servers as of today. #RedditMigration
Latest stats on two largest #Kbin Servers - if I'm reading this correctly.... UPDATED
So, assuming I'm reading this data on this page correctly:...
"It's the content, stupid." - Quick Notes to Supercharge K.Bin
Like you, I'm a passionate user of K.Bin but lately, I'm noticing that things are getting kinda stale around here. The most recent thread in this, the top-level magazine on K.Bin, is 4 days old. Many other top 25 magazines are also suffering from a similar lack of fresh content. I run /m/scifi and it's been continuing to grow...
What's the point of all these UI changes?
For a long while, platforms have been making tons of usually pointless, often harmful changes to their UI. Reddit & Discord provide tons of examples....