On big commercial social media, people think the websites they are on are a big deal: opinions you share there, people you interact with, engagement you receive. It must matter SO MUCH to them - especially to influencers who earn some money from it.
Well, commercial Web is an obvious fodder to the Fedi but what about other alternative social spaces? These small, timy websites with barely any activity on them… there’s no place for such delusions. They aren’t changing the world and they know it.
Fediverse, in comparison… oof. You see, it is the Future. If We succeed, the Evil will be defeated. The whole world depends on the few people who ended up on here. It is a quiet place now but it will inevitably become the most popular thing. The Year of Linux Fediverse is any day now!
This feel of self-importance and superiority leads to the level of drama almost on-par with the corporate socials which is highly unusual in such small online spaces, at least in my experience.
Hehe. I think we inherited a lot of that from social media. I always like to believe we could be an old-school Linux forum, or one of the places where we discussed hobbies like bicycles, knitting… whatever. For some reason, those used to be way more constructive and positive. And while we had drama, it used to be way more toned down. I don’t really know why it’s sometimes different here. We have elements of that. But maybe we lack a clear goal? Other than negative goals and growth or non-growth? Maybe it’s in part the userbase. The platform layout, psychology… Or we’re just doing way too much politics and memes here. Back in ye “good old days”(?) politics used to contained in specific corners. And since social media that’s 80% of what everything is about…
But it kinda all depends on what people expect the network to be like.
I follow very few groups or profiles for memes, news and politics, and I find the experience with what’s left pretty enriching overall.