Having spent a lot of time on Mastodon… There are tons of people there talking about federated and self-hosted services, software freedom, censorship, encryption, tech regulation… A very narrow range of topics directly surrounding the fediverse get a lot of attention.

But nobody talks about anything else. Nobody goes to Instagram to talk about Instagram, nobody goes to Tiktok to talk about Tiktok, nobody goes to Facebook (at all). People use social media to either talk to their friends or talk about their hobbies and interests.

And if your hobby is tech, that’s fine, enjoy. I like tech too. But please, if you have anything else to say, say it. The fediverse will never appeal to the masses if we don’t embrace a wide variety of hobbies and interests.

We need people here talking about cooking. We need people here talking about fashion. We need people here talking about immigration policy. We need people here talking about everything people enjoy!

Yes, if you go to /m/fashion right now, it’s… barely there. You’re not going to get a ton of conversation when you post there. But that’s not the point. The point is to build out the community, so that, a year from now, as more and more people attempt to post and engage, there is a conversation. There’s a reason to be on the fediverse besides the meta circlejerk over how great the fediverse could be in theory.

This is the “content” people are craving. Find or start a magazine for your city, or your town, or your country. Write a post. Share posts from your favorite blogs. Comment on something, if you have anything to say at all. Share a youtube video—yes, a youtube video, I know, youtube sucks, but at least it gives us a path to a community here.

  • danhakimi@kbin.socialOP
    1·
    1 year ago

    except this one is a hell of a lot more complicated for signing up. “Now I gotta chech my email for a confirmation link, great 😒… shit, can’t remember my password 🤦… aaah, fuck this shit.” See how easy it is for normies to give up. Make the sign up process with a phone number and sign ups will skyrocket, I guarantee you that. But… wait, that’s info that I would rather not share with a social network. Yes, for people like you and me, yes, for normies, it’s just easier 🤷.

    I have no idea what you’re talking about. Plenty of services offer both options because they might as well. Yeah, SMS is less secure. Who cares? This is not a bank account, nobody’s account is gonna get hacked. And email really isn’t secure in the first place. But also, there are plenty of services that only offer email signup, and plenty of people use them, and I’ve never really heard of anybody having an issue signing up with email, my mom manages, my sisters manage, my technophobic cousins manage.

    But they would never come to the fediverse in the first place, because the fediverse never really had a selling point that mattered to any of them. They want to see their friends, and their friends don’t use it, or see their hobbies, and nobody talks about their hobbies, or see anything that they could possibly care about, and there’s none of that here. If I paid people to check it out, they wouldn’t stay. I know plenty of people who signed up for accounts and never posted because there’s nothing to talk about, nobody to engage with.

    • PCChipsM922U@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      1 year ago

      Plenty of services offer both options because they might as well.

      The fediverse will never offer phone numbers as a regustartion option. Why? One, it’s invasion of privacy (something the fediverse is strictly against), and two, it’s a service that costs money, while email is free.

      And email really isn’t secure in the first place.

      Nobody said it is, it can easily be spoofed. In fact, phone number registration/sign in is far more reliable… but that is invasion of privacy.

      But also, there are plenty of services that only offer email signup, and plenty of people use them, and I’ve never really heard of anybody having an issue signing up with email, my mom manages, my sisters manage, my technophobic cousins manage.

      Yes, if the services offer “sign in with Google/FB/Twitter”, yes, most people will use that. Ask them if they usually use the last “sign in with email” option and you have your answer… because the other methods I mentioned requires just one click/tap, but not the email option.

      But they would never come to the fediverse in the first place, because the fediverse never really had a selling point that mattered to any of them.

      It’s best that they don’t in that case.

      They want to see their friends, and their friends don’t use it, or see their hobbies, and nobody talks about their hobbies, or see anything that they could possibly care about, and there’s none of that here.

      Great, it’s not for them 🤷. Agree to disagree and move on 🤷.

      I know plenty of people who signed up for accounts and never posted because there’s nothing to talk about, nobody to engage with.

      I beg to differ. There are plenty of subjects that appeal to my interests. It’s just that there are non for most non-tech oriented people. And that’s fine, they have the rest of the social medias for that. Hey, I got a few subs on reddit that will never move here and all of them are tech related. And that’s fine as well, I’ll just visit them from time to time on reddit, don’t get what the big deal is 🤷.

      • danhakimi@kbin.socialOP
        1·
        1 year ago

        The fediverse will never offer phone numbers as a regustartion option. Why? One, it’s invasion of privacy (something the fediverse is strictly against), and two, it’s a service that costs money, while email is free.

        Do you know what an option is? Are you confused about how options work? How is it an invasion of privacy to let me choose between the thing we’re already able to do and a new thing that some other people might choose if they want to?

        Yes, if the services offer “sign in with Google/FB/Twitter”, yes, most people will use that. Ask them if they usually use the last “sign in with email” option and you have your answer… because the other methods I mentioned requires just one click/tap, but not the email option.

        No, I’m talking about services that only offer email signup. Actually, there is also eBay, which I guess offers a facebook sign in option, but my mom and sister both signed up by email, they found it easier, because they both occasionally use one of the same computers, and they didn’t want to log in and out of facebook to switch ebay accounts.

        It’s best that they don’t in that case.

        It’s best that you stop sucking your own dick about how fucking high your consciousness is and how much better you are than everybody else.

        I beg to differ. There are plenty of subjects that appeal to my interests.

        Okay, are you going to disagree with my point?

        I still know plenty of people who signed up for accounts and never posted because there’s nothing to talk about, nobody to engage with.

        You found people here talking about what you like talking about. Why shouldn’t anybody else have that?