this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/23704984

So I wrote a blog post on how I feel we can encourage more people to fedi, and it starts with DON'T TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THE FEDIVERSE, because I'm very clever, or something. Would be happy to get your thoughts on that!

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[–] artifex@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I actually think this is the biggest argument for using something like piefed over lemmy. The ability to aggregate multiple similar communities into a single channel lets you see/interact with a fuller content feed for even more niche areas while not having said niche be reliant on a particular instance.

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Can you elaborate on this?

[–] artifex@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

From this recent blog post, Recently PieFed added a way to group communities into collections of related communities, which we called a “Feed”. Unlike Topics, Feeds are federated, can be created by anyone and can be public or private. There are now hundreds of feeds at https://piefed.social/feeds.

This lets niche topic communities continue to spawn across instances (thus avoiding all-eggs-in-one-basket issues) but makes it more convenient for users to see all similar content in a single place.

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 days ago

That is absolutely amazing, and a step in good direction, I hope it gets wider adoption and that the PieFed creator's pillow is always cool, and that he finds an unexpected fiver in his pocket every week for the rest of his life 🙏

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Also about the comments fragmentation: https://piefed.zip/post/100161

All comments from 5 crossposts in a single view

A few options

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's so nice on everyday posting thank the maker.

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

@Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com does this have all the comments from cross-posts in various communities? That is amazing!

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Yes, it does. Quite life changing.

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Hello,

Thank you for sharing this.

I agree with you that thematic instances are better than generalist one, but what do you do when someone on /r/RedditAlternatives asks you about an alternative to Reddit?

We agreed on a one-line comment a while ago, happy to hear your thougths: https://slrpnk.net/post/18168206

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Honestly? It is not a problem I have, and I'm really happy about that :P But yes, I think it's very handy to have a quick reply like that, but as you probably already suspect, I avoid general meta topics like that, simply because I don't really have much interest in Reddit itself :)

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

I'm not the biggest Reddit fan, but the Reddit userbase is probably the place where we can find the most of people who could be interested in Lemmy. Text-based forums aren't that popular nowadays, and Reddit is by fart the largest.

About a specific approach, there was also this post: https://old.reddit.com/r/BoycottUnitedStates/comments/1jrcrh6/lemmy_as_an_nonus_alternative_to_red_dit_using/

Had both a one-liner and a bunch of countries instances.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I agree with the core argument - we need to focus more on communities (as "groups of people sharing something").

Not talking about the Fediverse

This will become increasingly more viable over time, as we [people already in the Fediverse] establish and nurture more communities. For now, however, I think a lot of recs still need to be about the Fediverse itself - because it's how you show people "you don't need to subject yourself to the whims of a Nazi billionaire or the greedy pigboy aping him".

Not talking about apps

I think it's important to be aware of a few options, and be able to answer questions about apps, but I fully agree we shouldn't advertise the Fediverse based on apps. Specially since you can always check the content without one, even from a phone.

Smaller and focused instances

Yup, I agree. It's better for two reasons: more attractive to newbies + it keeps the Fediverse decentralised.

General purpose instances have some reason to exist, as not everything "fits" into neat boxes. But I think this will change as the Fediverse gets more mature, too; people eventually migrate from the general purpose instances to more specific ones, as they find their own homes here.

A manga panel from Junji Ito's The Enigma of Amigara Fault. In it a person enters a human-shaped crevice, while saying "this is my hole! it was made for me!". Both the face of the person entering the crevice and the crevice itself have been edited to show the Lemmy logo instead.

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Hi!

because it’s how you show people “you don’t need to subject yourself to the whims of a Nazi billionaire or the greedy pigboy aping him”.

I still think it's better done on the case-by-case, and instance basis, as mentioned, Don't talk about fediverse was realy meant as a provocation (and it's working :P), I just think we would do better shifting the topic of conversation from technicals and infrastructure and apis to communities and content, because to be honest I believe it is already here.

I think it’s important to be aware of a few options, and be able to answer questions about apps, but I fully agree we shouldn’t advertise the Fediverse based on apps. Specially since you can always check the content without one, even from a phone.

💯 Absolutely. Apps are amazing, but people don't want the app because it is shiny, but because of what it can give them. Community, topics, 'content'.

people eventually migrate from the general purpose instances to more specific ones, as they find their own homes here.

I believe it is already happening, honestly, and I love it!

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

I believe it is already happening, honestly, and I love it!

If you at the top 10, most of the instances are still generalist: https://lemmyverse.net/?order=active_day

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Very good picture, it may deserve it's own post on !fedimemes@feddit.uk

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think point someone to the web rather than clients. Let people start seeing content and they can get a client once they’re bought-in.

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most of the people use apps nowadays. I'm a Web user myself, but showing people that apps exist is also important

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes, apps are awesome way of interacting with the community! But I agree with @some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org that we would do better showing people what's up before asking them to download an app and make an account :)

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

https://vger.app/ allows to see the content in a mobile friendly way in a browser without having to create an account, and makes it easy to jump to an app if the person is interested