"There is no Fediverse, only Mastodon" is a take that infuriates me because it just isn't true.
What is true is that a lot of the non-Mastodon Fediverse has had to support Mastodon conventions that weren't defined by ActivityPub, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist. If Mastodon died tomorrow, all those other parts of the Fediverse still exist, function and get used by people.
People get hung up on the "GNU/Linux" comparison, but it's not as apt as they think it is.
@musicproduction
Myself, I was involved with piano lessons a long time ago, so most of the knowledge was lost, but I could read sheet music as a result of it.
At some point I learned of MIDI and how it can allow you to turn patterns on a piano roll into music, and was hooked. The problem was, I had no money to pay for the program, but I eventually heard of Soundtrap (freemium online DAW) and eventually Cakewalk by Bandlab, before I threw money at Image Line for FL Studio.
*scrolls through my instance’s # Trending timeline, noting the various hot topics of the moment.
Human Rights for refugees.
Rise of fascism.
Holiday driven capitalism.
Human rights for trans/queer people.
Pandemic
Human rights for humans.
Unemployment.
Poor healthcare.
War.
…. And sitting up the top of the list, trending at # 1, is my stupid joke about not being bitten by a werewolf.
It’s a stupid joke, and holds zero real importance. I didn’t write it. I found it on the internet somewhere. I have no idea who the original author is. It’s copypasta like almost all the jokes and memes I toot. But when I arrived on Mastodon over a year ago, silly jokes seemed to be rare, so that’s what I’ve endeavoured to provide. Silly jokes and dumb memes. Good ones though. Usually tasteful. Always with AltText. And with the aim of lightening the mood and lifting the spirits of this incredible community. Usually. Mostly.
I still sometimes get a little uncomfortable that they out-trend all that serious important stuff though.