Theorist of the Fediverse. I run a chatroom focused on helping to build the foundations for the Fediverse to grow. Links are at the bottom of this doc.
I think going multimedia might help, as long as itās under the same brand. Iād say start with a central site similar to how WeDistribute was with articles, then begin linking to places like PeerTube or FunkWhale should we expand out (of course thatās very much a long-term consideration). But really itās a matter of getting a central place, content, and the rest can be figured out.
Iām going to be slower responding on here, we also have a Discord bridge if youāre good via Discord. I donāt get any notifications for Lemmy but Matrix/Discord I do so itās easier to communicate quicker.
WeDistribute is the one backed by Feneas, so I guess itās the closest to official so to speak. It looks like itās down though. If you do decide to make one, I have some archived issues of a newsletter I periodically run that I can contribute.
Join us on Matrix and we can discuss the specifics: https://matrix.to/#/#collaboration-commons:matrix.org
I think this mentality is far too narrow and can lead to problems down the road. And itās a dangerously common one among leftists. The bigger threat right now isnāt some sort of shadowy cabal of elites, itās market-based logic, which can manifest through the little guy just as much as the big guy.
For example, Iām already seeing discussions of āethical advertisingā or āpaying influencersā but this only raises more questions. How will we keep funding this model? What happens when weāre outcompeted by other sites like Twitter for ad revenue? After all why wouldnāt an advertiser pick the method which is more effective. Natural selection and administrative costs will slowly chip away at what distinguishes us.
The foundations you lay now play a role in determining your future. By refusing any form of commercialization, it forces us to innovate to cut costs. This could be cutting technological overhead as with PeerTubeās WebTorrent, it could be setting a foundation for promoting/getting content on the Fediverse which isnāt dependent on constantly having to pay people to switch over.
The blockchain-based and "free speech"platforms do exactly this and itās why they all die so quickly. They may be little guys but they lack the patience/imagination to approach the issue in an organic fashion, end up trying to ape the big players, and never build a foundation strong enough to last. The market doesnāt think in moralistic terms, it doesnāt care how big or little you are, the only way out isnāt to compete on revenue-based grounds.
This is why I think itās important that in these early discussions we continue to oppose all forms of monetization/strategies reliant on large and continuous spending. It sets up a vicious cycle thatās impossible to escape.
I think this is a good time to remind people: these sort of opportunities will often present themselves due to a combination of factors well beyond any fediverse userās control. Trying to force them to occur is like trying to build a house out of unpacked sand, itāll quickly fall apart.
What advocates need to do is to focus on building a solid foundation within the Fediverse so that these opportunities can be capitalized on more effectively each time. We donāt want it where people join then leave when the hype dies down, when they see a lack of content, or get annoyed with platform quirks. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of discourse tries to focus on marketing-first and assumes the rest will sort itself out. Itās the opposite actually.
Relating to the topic at hand though, I agree with Eugen. Direct people to other instances. Do not let mastodon.socialās downtime dissuade people. If anything, this might be a good opportunity to spread traffic across instances.
I think this is a good time to remind people: these sort of opportunities will often present themselves due to a combination of factors well beyond any fediverse userās control. Trying to force them to occur is like trying to build a house out of unpacked sand, itāll quickly fall apart.
What advocates need to do is to focus on building a solid foundation within the Fediverse so that these opportunities can be capitalized on more effectively each time. We donāt want it where people join then leave when the hype dies down, when they see a lack of content, or get annoyed with platform quirks. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of discourse tries to focus on marketing-first and assumes the rest will sort itself out. Itās the opposite actually.
Relating to the topic at hand though, I agree with Eugen. Direct people to other instances. Do not let mastodon.socialās downtime dissuade people. If anything, this might be a good opportunity to spread traffic across instances.
Completely agree. I went into more detail elsewhere in this thread but I think the whole question of democratization is just going to lead to feature creep and is better suited for a separate Fediverse project if done at all.
IMO people are overreacting to the effects of the interview; if thereās any lesson, I think its that putting your all your eggs into the Reddit basket for something like antiwork rather than IRL was a poor idea fundamentally.
IMO any such changes towards democratization would probably be best suited to a different Fediverse project entirely given how much it alters the structure of the genre of site Lemmy falls under.
I think the real lesson from the whole fiasco is that people shouldnāt place more political expectations on a subreddit than its capable of handling. Reddit/Lemmy has specific uses itās good for, and things itās not good at. Upvotes, subcommunities, and central moderation all contribute to the problems with Reddit but at the same time they stay because theyāve proven to be the most effective at doing what Reddit is built to do. Yet the unfortunate thing is that a lot of movements have begun using Reddit in ways it wasnāt meant to be used.
When it comes to making a sort of rallying point for things like what /r/antiwork was going after, IMO the whole structure of the site would have to be re-thought. And while I think we should begin with experimenting with platform design more, I donāt think itās a good idea to burden platforms which were designed to act as direct alternatives to mainstream platforms with unnecessary features which may or may not work out.
Yeah, this video is meant to answer the absence of the feature on the desktop site and the official client, explaining the history and the fact that the feature is on the way.