Jürgen Hubert on Nostr: For the record, when I keep harping on my urgent wish that the #Fediverse becomes ...
For the record, when I keep harping on my urgent wish that the #Fediverse becomes more universally used as a social media platform, I do _not_ mean that everyone should federate with #Threads and the like - the very last thing we need are massive instances with lousy or no moderation who ruin everything for the rest of us. Instead I want:
- News media, NGOs, companies, governments, political parties, and all sorts of other organizations running their own #ActivityPub feeds should be as normalized as running a Twitter/X feed or a Facebook page is for them now. Again, this does _not_ mean that everyone has to federate with all or any of them - just that you can, and that they are making a real effort to be here.
- And I know I am repeating myself, but we absolutely must develop a more diverse user base. The Fediverse is still overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly based in Europe and North America (with the exception of Japan, which has a large user base of its own. #Mastodon _badly_ botched the #BlackTwitter migration, and we are still paying the price.
In too many countries, and in too many communities people still overwhelmingly use X or Facebook or TikTok because that's the only way of reaching others in the same community. If we want to change that, we need to step up our global outreach game and listen to their concerns - instead of scolding them for being Bad People because they remain on Bad Platforms (yes, that kind of scolding happens rather frequently around here).
And I consider this to be a matter of urgent necessity. Sure, we _could_ just stick with what we have, and remain a small, self-referential community that is largely ignored by the outside world. But it is clear to me that commercial social media is doing untold harm to the world day after day, and the sooner we get away from this, the better.
- News media, NGOs, companies, governments, political parties, and all sorts of other organizations running their own #ActivityPub feeds should be as normalized as running a Twitter/X feed or a Facebook page is for them now. Again, this does _not_ mean that everyone has to federate with all or any of them - just that you can, and that they are making a real effort to be here.
- And I know I am repeating myself, but we absolutely must develop a more diverse user base. The Fediverse is still overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly based in Europe and North America (with the exception of Japan, which has a large user base of its own. #Mastodon _badly_ botched the #BlackTwitter migration, and we are still paying the price.
In too many countries, and in too many communities people still overwhelmingly use X or Facebook or TikTok because that's the only way of reaching others in the same community. If we want to change that, we need to step up our global outreach game and listen to their concerns - instead of scolding them for being Bad People because they remain on Bad Platforms (yes, that kind of scolding happens rather frequently around here).
And I consider this to be a matter of urgent necessity. Sure, we _could_ just stick with what we have, and remain a small, self-referential community that is largely ignored by the outside world. But it is clear to me that commercial social media is doing untold harm to the world day after day, and the sooner we get away from this, the better.