Post #288957
2026-02-14 00:05 UTC
Replies (21)
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@ignova@mstdn.ca 2026-02-14 00:48
@aj salesmanship is rightly viewed with a lot of suspicion here, but fedizens could take a few lessons from it. most people are not swayed by technical information. they neither understand nor care about it, and it even intimidates them out of considering your solution. instead they want to know 'how will this make me feel?' and 'how will this change my life?' a refuge from ads and unwanted content—that's what fedi is to me. fedi is a feed that i control—i decide what i see, and not some evil rightwing CEO. i also experience way less harassment here, though that experience is not universal. fedi is as close to a rage-free internet as i have found.
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@IzzyChambers@social.vivaldi.net 2026-02-14 00:54
@aj @taylorlorenz billionaire-free too
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@rimu@mastodon.nzoss.nz 2026-02-14 01:40
@aj I like this: "a place to have conversations online without algorithms, AI, and ads getting in the way." Can I use it as a tagline on piefed.social?
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@knutson_brain@sfba.social 2026-02-14 03:08
@aj ye olde webbe
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@wjmaggos@liberal.city 2026-02-14 03:27
@aj @taylorlorenz it's purely human so there's no involvement from corporate algos, ads or AI. I agree with that. but social media, as opposed to social networking, is less about conversation than it is about the boost and virality. we the people deciding what info, ideas and art goes viral. conversations can be had without interruption via SMS. that's networking but not media.
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@BrahmaBelarusian@regenerate.social 2026-02-14 03:58
@aj @taylorlorenz I think it's better to describe it more as a matter of a contrast, as the centralized big tech platforms like Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram are like city & town hall meetings, with a huge number of rules, official & unofficial that keep them extremely hierarchical & very loud, but the fediverse is like a set of mostly rather small coffee shops, which makes it much quieter and more meaningful, without much of a hierarchy, but nonetheless very much with rules. They each have a very real purpose in our society but they're not even close to identical in said purpose.
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@admin@mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com 2026-02-14 04:21
@aj I'm less sure that would work on its own. All of the corporate enshittified networks they already use started out that way too. To make those points I think you have to focus on the community side. Shit like @FediPact -- I've got the stats somewhere but off the top of my head I think it was something like 30% of servers had Meta blocked before they'd really even *tried* to join, just from the announcement that they might. The fact that, unlike corporate networks where they do what they want and users whine about it until they get bored, around here it feels like debating the future of the network *actually shapes it*. Everything is built by consensus, not cash. By donations and volunteers and passion. Any VC startup can be slop free for a few years but that stuff is what *keeps* Fedi slop free.
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@controlfreak@todon.eu 2026-02-14 05:41
@aj maybe not leave it to the vapid influencer self-proclaimed vip oxygen thieving clout class who have professionally quadrupled down on platforming nazis and racists to do said explaining? just do it in our own circles if you can manage, best you can. Keep some space for organic, weird, empathetic, and importantly, interactive, not firehose push from the number goes up talking heads.
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@Libby@theforkiverse.com 2026-02-14 05:50
@aj @taylorlorenz It’s where I go to unwind instead of ramp up
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@morfil@climatejustice.social 2026-02-14 06:44
@aj @taylorlorenz it's like going to a neighbourhood pub where YOU choose who you talk with, versus being forced to speed date based on who you talked to last times you were there or based on who others like you liked.
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@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai 2026-02-14 08:06
@aj @taylorlorenz Social media where people are the algorithm and nothing else
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@Pterry@fnordon.de 2026-02-14 08:54
@aj @taylorlorenz I usually say it's like a tiny desk concert (or living room concert) 😬
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@leighms@mastodonapp.uk 2026-02-14 11:38
@aj @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social And tracking free!
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@paneerakbari@mas.to 2026-02-14 14:18
@aj @taylorlorenz Yes! Talk about features, not requirements
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@malte@radikal.social 2026-02-14 23:03
@aj Great reflections. You've influenced me and I think you're right. I'll start describing the fediverse in that way as a start - a rare place on the net where you can talk and surf around withiut ads, algorithms and AI slop.
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@bakachu@infosec.exchange 2026-02-14 00:09
@aj @taylorlorenz i, and many others, have described it as the internet we were promised before everything turned to ****
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@EVDHmn@ecoevo.social 2026-02-14 00:27
@aj @taylorlorenz How do you explain being a human to another human. Its perplexing. You don’t know for sure what kind of architecture a person has in their schema so you have to throw radar word harpoons to get a grasp of their schema so you can kind of speak to their world view. It’s merely a party trick. Radar/communication/TOM
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@Alsy@theforkiverse.com 2026-02-14 00:46
@aj @taylorlorenz Yes absolutely. This plus the portability aspect if your chosen platform goes evil!
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@cwicseolfor@zeroes.ca 2026-02-14 02:00
@aj @taylorlorenz Yeah. "It's social media without ads or manipulative algorithms, and you get to pick who you go through the same way you get to pick who holds your email."
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@datum@zeroes.ca 2026-02-14 02:46
@aj Someone shared some media with me about "poisoning the algorithm" by not clicking on ragebait for days or weeks until the systems stop supplying it and shift to healthier fare and I just had to laugh, because the description of the goal was a description of the corner of the fediverse that I'm exposed to. People are out there spending days "poisoning the algorithm" just go get what we get on Mastodon on day 1!
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@mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org 2026-02-14 14:29
@aj @taylorlorenz "it’s like a conversation on market square, where you chat with friends, and nearby people can occasionally listen in a little and comment, and you can do the same to other visitors’ discussions, but it won’t be printed in the newspaper the next day, even though people who stumble upon it later can often still comment afterwards or share with their friends, and this is how you find interesting people"