Guys, when you talk about the Fediverse to friends, family, or colleagues, how do you explain it?

Do you call it a “decentralized social network,” an “alternative to big tech,” or “a collection of open-source networks”? And how do you convince someone to create an account on Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, etc., without them getting scared by technical terms like instance, federated, or peer-to-peer?

I’m asking because my so-called friends don’t believe me and even call me crazy when I talk about this “nonsense.”

The future is open source, decentralized, and federated!

  • EtherWhack@lemmy.world
    30·
    23 days ago

    I normally just say, “I read [x] on Lemmy.”

    If they ask and are genuinely curious what that is, I tell them it’s like a reddit offshoot, but the users control the network and servers with a high level of transparency in administration/moderation and run off software that can have tens of thousands of crowdsourced eyes helping to find and fix any bug or security issue.

    • fajre@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      23 days ago

      I normally just say, “I read [x] on Lemmy.”

      If they ask and are genuinely curious what that is, I tell them it’s like a reddit offshoot, but the users control the network and servers with a high level of transparency in administration/moderation and run off software that can have tens of thousands of crowdsourced eyes helping to find and fix any bug or security issue.

      interesting!

    • njordomir@lemmy.world
      1·
      22 days ago

      Yup, I just namedrop Lemmy and don’t explain unless people ask. Usually then the explanation is simple and about how I’ve chosen not to use Reddit for ethical reasons.

  • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    23 days ago

    “The memes and news site I use.”

    That’s it. No infodumping, no explaining the technicalities, just tell them “just pick one, it’s basically like a username” and worry about it only if they want to learn about the underside of it.

    We don’t “explain” email to people - they just pick a site, sign up, and move on.

    Working in tech I learned to only explain the workings of something if they ask since most users are perfectly fine on a surface level and can intuit more than we credit them for once they know the basic gist.

  • teslasaur@lemmy.world
    9·
    22 days ago

    I don’t. It’s bad enough that people spend too much time on social media. Why the fuck would i introduce another one?

    I’m practically only here because rif died. Its not because it’s enjoyable. I open the app to maybe see one good post among the thousands and thousands of “same”-posts.

    • fajre@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      22 days ago

      I don’t. It’s bad enough that people spend too much time on social media. Why the fuck would i introduce another one?

      I’m practically only here because rif died. Its not because it’s enjoyable. I open the app to maybe see one good post among the thousands and thousands of “same”-posts.

      You made me think.

  • Perspectivist@feddit.uk
    101·
    23 days ago

    I don’t. Even I don’t like it here. I’m just a man of principle so I’m not going back to Reddit so this’ll have to do.

  • First_Thunder@lemmy.zip
    9·
    23 days ago

    It’s (insert platform here) for furries, communists and nerds. If I want to explain the basic concept, I talk in terms of phone carriers

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
    6·
    23 days ago

    I don’t really bother until they’re looking for an alternative.

    When I’ve put people on Linux, to make an analogy, it’s basically been because they entrust me with their choice of new computer, not because I won an argument about the relative merits of different software licences.

    Most people IRL aren’t even on Reddit, so Lemmy wouldn’t make any sense for them. People might be on Twitter, but for whatever reason it hasn’t come up, so no Mastodon either. Mostly I hear about Tiktok and Instagram for the young, and Facebook for the old. Pixelfed is Instagram-ish IIRC, but I’m not sure how active it is.

    Edit: And if people want whichever platform they have the most friends on, well, they’re obviously in the last 50% of the population you can recruit.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    23 days ago

    I don’t. I say oh yeah I read that on Lemmy. They don’t ask, I don’t offer.

    If for some reason they say what is Lemmy? I say just a community version of Reddit not run by companies.

    They never ask further, so I don’t need to start explaining parallels to email.

  • mrdown@lemmy.world
    5·
    23 days ago

    I gives concrete advantages like the choice of client to browse those platform, features not getting removed for profits etc. I think the decentralization as a selling point is a failed strategy

  • JASN_DE@feddit.org
    4·
    23 days ago

    when you talk about the Fediverse to friends, family, or colleagues

    Sorry, why would I do that? There might be 1-3 people who’d be “suitable” for something like Reddit before it became crap, and 0 for the Fediverse.