I think his heart’s in the right place. I don’t think a tech-centered host should have any reservations or prejudices about trying out new stuff, but he’s also someone that covers 20+ tech stories each week. I don’t blame him for thinking the fediverse is just another R1 Rabbit. Nevertheless, he’s surely not oblivious to how he came across in this podcast and might be more open next time. Just in case, here’s the perfect 1-minute intro: What is the Fediverse?

Jakob, on the other hand, is a real Lemmineer. Or…Lemming…Lemur? Whatever 🤝

The solution: Something something, be the change you want to see in the world.

Personally, I think it doesn’t matter if he joins the fediverse now or in 10 years or ever. It doesn’t matter if the fediverse grows, dies or stays like this. He has the choice, now, to be part of a better internet, regardless of whether it will completely change the internet landscape as we know it or not. There’s always going to be moments where a decision has no material benefit over the other and can sometimes even be more inconvenient. The only reason is: “That’s what I believe in”. What happens in the future is out of his control. He can simply pick his side.

This way, regardless of whether the culture on these closed-off platforms forever stays on there, he knows that his contributions to culture, may that be an upvote, a comment (yay!), a podcast or a post, is a contribution to all and therefore truly becomes part of culture.

🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️LEMMY MENTIONED🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

No but seriously, such an interesting episode.

On one end there’s Riley, wanting to turn back the clock to an age where there were forums and communities freely searchable on the internet, and lamenting centralization.

• “I don’t want to do that [joining the fediverse]. I really just want the internet to be fixed”.

On the other end there’s Jakob, making a case that the clock can’t simply be rewinded back, and that the solution for a modern internet without centralization is…a modern internet without centralization.

• “You’re like: ‘Hm, my issue is all of these different places are closing off themselves and there’s all this information and stuff on the internet that’s becoming centralized, gated’ - decentralization is what the fediverse is!”

As for Riley’s point about “If I join the fediverse, and no-one’s there, I’m cutting myself off from culture”: This is exactly why these platforms are closing themselves off. They’re seeing that even if people want something different (and Riley has expressed this desire throughout the entire podcast), the fear of not being able to keep our things can be a strong incentive to never improve one’s situation. And there’s no better proof than his own statement. It works.