Sounds crazy but... maybe you shouldn't delete Facebook just yet
Sounds crazy but... maybe you shouldn't delete Facebook just yet
Please, put the pitchforks and torches down. Hear me out.
You (yes, you!) are a front-runner. You are a first-mover. You came to the fediverse while most people don't even know it's a thing.
In the last couple of weeks/months, there's been an increasing sentiment to boycott the established social media (Facebook, Xitter, Reddit, etc.), due to their rollback of fact-checking and hate speech protection. This has resulted in a lot of new users for a lot of instances lately.
Feddit.dk has gotten over 50 new users in the past few weeks, which is about a +50% increase of the monthly active users, a big deal for a small instance like ours.
This is a great opportunity to teach others about the fediverse and get more people to move to a more democratic, sustainable internet. But all these potential users are still on the corporate social media - we can't reach them unless we are there!
You, the first-mover, is exactly the kind of person we need to stay on Facebook, just for a while, to guide people over to the fediverse. Feddit.dk was actually posted in a Facebook group a few weeks back and we got a few users that way! We've also gotten a lot of users via Reddit recently, as people on /r/Denmark have been mentioning Feddit.dk. Guiding people from corporate social media to the fediverse has been the most successful way to get more users so far.
We can't get second-movers if the first-movers leave everyone behind. So maybe, consider not deleting your Facebook or Reddit account just yet, and if you don't, try to look out for people that are looking for alternatives. You can be their guide.
(and if you want to delete Facebook regardless, I totally respect that choice btw)
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Here’s my problem: I don’t want the general user base of Facebook to move here.
First rational argument I’ve seen in this thread. I fully agree with you. I don’t know that we have to worry about that. The Facebook crowd still hasn’t had their introduction to Reddit probably. Maybe they can go over there
I may have used Facebook as a bit of a provocative example here... But even on Facebook, there are certain groups that could enjoy the fediverse.
The fediverse should be for everyone.
Even trolls, Nazis and other actively malicious people?
Unfortunately, I say yes. And hear me out first please.
The Fediverse in my eyes should be free. Free to have instances for everyone, including those we disagree with. Because in my opinion, the right to say and think what we want is very important (absolute free speech). And unfortunately, i think that means everyone should be allowed to say what they want. HOWEVER, free speech does not mean free of consequences. The option of federating with those groups or not is up to each community and fortunately I think many would not be okay with including them.
I'm always open to hearing input as these are personal thoughts so by all means add to or let me know the errors in my thinking. Thanks!
Current platforms like Lemmy are NOT ready for massive amounts of users. They have very poor moderation controls, no effective strategy to combat bots, and no money to pay people for it.
The only reason Lemmy is usable right now is because it has nerdy people using it in good faith. If it were to gain critical mass it would collapse under the deluge of trolls and bots.
It's a quaint little place, and I like it for being that.
"General" Facebook user base is not a thing.
Every social media has its own varied bubble on them.
Even Fediverse has its own bubble of malice people.
I still use Facebook because all local community on them (people never heard Reddit or even Lemmy), and people are generally nice to each other. Shares hobby and stuff just like Lemmy and the entire fediverse.
Still, I still regularly on Facebook to recommend people to join local Misskey and Mastodon instance.