Let me know if this is appropriate for this community.
I’ve been collecting links to post, blog, article, comment, etc that criticize the fediverse, whether it’s about the specific apps or fediverse in general, whether it’s about the technical aspect or about the social aspect.
If you also found one, feel free to share it here.
(date format is YYYY-MM-DD)
2024
- https://lemmy.world/post/11519703 - Lemmy is a bigger echo chamber than reddit, 2024-02-03
- https://lemmy.world/post/11720592 - Lemmy users lack nuace and it stops actual discussion., 2024-02-08
- https://lemmy.world/post/12352000 - Lemmy is not immune to trolls, bad fait actors or propaganda - in fact, despite how bad reddit is, a lot of Lemmy instances are worse, 2024-02-24
- https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/tear-down-walls-not-bridges/ - Tear Down Walls, and Build Bridges, 2024-02-13
- https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/contentnation-mastodons-toxicity/ - Content Nation Backlash Highlights Mastodon’s Toxicity, 2024-03-02
- https://reddit.com/r/fediverse/comments/1b76cbo/fediverse_is_not_so_good/ - Fediverse is not so good…, 2024-03-05
- https://kevquirk.com/blog/linux-elitism-again - Linux Elitism…Again, 2024-04-14
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/1g1g844/why_is_mastodon_struggling_to_survive - Why is Mastodon struggling to survive?, 2024-10-12
- https://lemmy.world/post/19004972 - Lemmy wouldn’t really takeoff to replace Reddit until it’s content is search indexable, 2024-08-24
- https://evergreenfiles.com/blogs/the-fediverse-desperately-needs-sustainable-file-hosting - The Fediverse Desperately Needs Sustainable File Hosting, 2024-11-04
- https://lemmy.world/post/22316287 - I really want to like Lemmy, 2024-11-22
- https://bsky.app/profile/techconnectify.bsky.social/post/3lbs4ihb2gs24 - Technology Connection’s thread on Bluesky about Mastodon being a ghost town and more, 2024-11-26
- https://transfem.social/notes/a16rvjhkk34b00tf - […] if you are explaining the fediverse to a non-tech person, “it’s like email” is not a sufficient explanyation., 2024-11-30
2023
- https://pawb.social/post/42756 - “Tanky” and the perception of Lemmy., 2023-06-14
- https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt - Mastodon Is Easy and Fun Except When It Isn’t - Erin Kissane’s small internet website, 2023-07
- https://lemm.ee/post/873456 - I miss reddit, 2023-07-09
- https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/16zq1dd/the_lemmyverse_aint_all_its_cracked_up_to_be/ - The Lemmyverse ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, 2023-10-04
Ain’t this the truth. Great work pulling the actual conversations on this.
Predicably if you say this in comments you are then sent 10 messages calling you a bootlicking schil asking you why you are even here.
Bluesky and threads understood to get people of interest with something to say rather than focus on the disenfranchised angry folks that came here. This place basically is an rss feed for doom scrollers.
Bluesky and threads understood to get people of interest with something to say rather than focus on the disenfranchised angry folks that came here. This place basically is an rss feed for doom scrollers.
I see Bluesky’s appeal, I’ve been there for a few weeks, it’s quite nice. Not sure about Threads though, I’ve heard the people are mostly Instagram’s influencers, is this correct?
Ehh, I follow zero influencers, only people I know in real life and Instagram spammed me with “[Elevator7009’s friend] and 23 others want you to join them on Threads!” or whatever the notif is for awhile. I never bothered getting one myself because ew Meta and I already use the Fediverse. And because I was pretty sure it was just marketing—if my friend actually personally wanted me on Threads they’d private message me or tell me in real life.
Although it still could be mostly influencers! I am a fun sample size of one with a single anecdote.
imho (50+ years old dude that is not much of a geek and understand not much either), the main issue and one that is shared by most if not all social media but is more annoying on Lemmy, is the fact that by default a new or a potential user is supposed to be reading the full flow of content. And then we’re surprised most run away screaming in disgust?
It’s a bit like entering a restaurant and being expected by the owner to take a bite or two of every single plate on the menu, and dessert, before being asked what it is we wanted to order.
Be it Reddit, or Twitter, or Lemmy if the default content is of extremely low value and often extremely low effort, qnd when it’s not it’s still content most people just won’t be interested in. So, why force it under everyone’s eyes?
The default/new user access to content could have been made opt-in, instead of op-out. Instantly muting most of the noise, trash, and low value content.
Imagine the home page empty of any content by default, save a selection of the most ‘popular’ tags or community names, say with a description, that the user is still expected to select from before the timeline starts showing them any related content, and then an option to search for more (more specific) communities.
I know a few people my age that have tried Lemmy but could not stand being asked to swallow the constant flow of politics, or memes, or anger, or whatever. Those are legit content to anyone interested in them, just having them the default experience for everybody may not the best idea?
Once again, it’s the same on reddit. But reddit had two advantages for people like me: we already had an account and we knew how it worked, so it was obvious how to escape the numerous type of content we did not want to see. It’s much less obvious on Lemmy, and even less so if one has not yet created an account… which is the most likely.
I solved this on PieFed by allowing admins to designate which communities can show up on the home page for logged-out users. See https://piefed.social for an example of how it turned out.
Would be nice if you could sort these by date.
Ye, but it’s good to know that some are opinions that are 1 year+ old. I Would personally separate the articles in 1+ years old, and the rest.
Noted, moved posts made in 2024 to the top
I still think that most of the posts from 2023 is applicable now
Should I cross post this to !fediverse@lemmy.world?
Kinda regret doing it, the post is very biased
What was I thinking making this post
It’s not too late to turn things around and pretend it was a joke
I’ve got an interest in the decentralized protocols and have written about them before, so I’ve got a bit of a disorganized treasure trove of articles, opinions, and blog posts I’ve gone through at some point. As a side note, shutout to the single file plugin for Gecko & Chromium based browsers, it’s a great way to grab an archive of anything you might want to reference later.
I went through my list of archives plus a few things that came to mind that I’ve read/watched, below are things that (at least in part) take a more critical look at Activity Pub as a protocol or community.
Blog Posts & Articles:
- How Decentralized is Bluesky really? - A post by Christina Webber who goes over pitfalls of both AT and Activity Pub
- ActivityPub - one protocol to rule them all? and ActivityPub - Final thoughts, one year later. - two posts by Dennis Schubert, the Diaspora dev, on why Activity Pub was not integrated.
- Mastodon is fun and easy, except for when it isn’t
- Mastodon is dead in the water
- Community is not enough - A post about funding issues
- Please Don’t Share Our Links on Mastodon: Here’s Why! - Mastodon starts DDoSing servers if your link goes viral
- Microblogging Protocols Compared v2 - My own post comparing the big three protocols. Be warned, it was supposed to be a smaller updated & corrected version of an older post, but it ballooned in size.
- Mastodon isn’t decentralized and won’t be the next big thing
- Something About The SWF Makes Me Feel Icky - The Social Web Foundation has taken on some big corporate donors and it’s leader has a very protectionist/anti-other-protocols position.
- Fringe Mastodev - A collection of thoughts regarding what Mastodon developed into
- Nostr is Identity for the Internet - A post discussing the values of Nostr’s identities (and decentralized identities in general) as beneficial over other alternatives (such as Activity Pub’s server controlled identities)
- Scaling Mastodon is Impossible
- Twitter rival Mastodon rife with child-abuse material, study finds
- Linux Elitism…Again - Guy is nearly bullied off the fediverse for saying it should be tolerant of Windows users
- Op-ed: Why the great #TwitterMigration didn’t quite pan out
Lemmy Threads:
- What made everyone move to Bluesky or Threads instead of Mastodon?
- Why is Mastodon struggling to survive?
- Why are people preferring BlueSky over Mastodon?
- Lemmy.ml tankie censorship problem
- Do you think the mostly limited range of political views is a strength or a weakness of Lemmy? - Post discussing Lemmy’s echo chambery-ness
- Off-topic flamewar about US domestic politics - There were a bunch of low effort political bots discovered on Lemmy (key word: discovered; meaning high effort bots are probably flying under the radar). I was unable to find the original thread, it may have been nuked but most likely I just couldn’t find it.
Vids, Social Media Posts, & Misc:
- Cristina Webber thinks Activity Pub as it is now may collapse
- Technology Connections left Mastodon - the comments are particularly not nice to Activity Pub
- Child Safety on Federated Social - A study on child abuse materials permeating the fediverse
- Chris Titus leaves Mastodon for BlueSky
- Activity Pub doesn’t handle usernames or migrations well
