Sterile_Technique

I’ve been here for about a week now, and still feel like there are features I don’t understand or completely overlooked. The concept of the fediverse is simultaneously really simple (e.g. email analogy) and confusing (still not really clear on what makes kbin different from lemmy; and I have to subscribe to like 8 iterations of what is effectively r/worldnews… and there’s a fed youtube-like that I haven’t looked into yet, but haven’t run into here so far… I can see lemmy content on kbin, but I can’t log into Jerboa with a kbin account…)

It’s a lot to take in.

…and honestly, ^that makes it kinda fun. Reddit gave me the middle finger, so I gave it right back by building my own theme-park with blackjack and hookers. Thoroughly enjoying the blackjack and hookers; but the “building my own theme-park” bit is a challenge - one that I (probably most of us here) find engaging and gratifying, but very much a challenge, and that isn’t what everyone’s looking for.

When I can show my tech-handicapped boomer mother a 2-minute video explaining the the whats and hows of the fediverse, it’ll give the reddits and facebooks a run for their money; until then the fed will remain fairly niche. Which isn’t a bad thing - finding and engaging with a niche you enjoy will ALWAYS feel better than engaging with generic shit built for mass marketability.

Subjective bit, but imo our branding also kinda sucks. “Fediverse” sounds like some clunky .gov message board that the FBI uses to share crime statistics with the CIA and ATF. Anything “-iverse” comes off as hyperbolic. “Lemmy” sounds like “lemming”. “Beehaw” sounds like an apiary manufacturer based in Alabama. “kbin” evokes imagery of a trash can for…‘k’. I mean, it’s all nit-picky shit, but the connotation of our chosen labels lean negative. It wasn’t a barrier to entry for any of us here now; but you know there are potential users who take one glance at the word “fediverse”, conclude that it sounds stupid, and move on without a second thought. All that said, I’m cool with folks like that staying on reddit!

I did install the official app juuuust long enough to give it a one-star rating and a scathing review. Unsure if that actually helps or hurts them, but it was cathartic just the same.

Damn, wish I saw that before deleting mine.