as a former resident of the infopop forums, i liken the fediverse to bulletin boards in the 90s and early 2000s and it's nice - the kind that were super hyper localized by topic but everyone was friendly. :)
Depends on which old format you mean. The late 90s php-bbs is rare, but you can still find some of them around, I think the forums for the Commander X16 (a new retro computer) uses that style, or something closer to 2004-ish.
The golden days of IRC were the best. Every day I use the current internet, I miss the way of the old internet. Back when everything was just run by a bunch of nerds doing whatever they wanted, as opposed to everyone being shut out by the big names now, looking to control everything and maximise profit.
when I was young (but still way past the prime time of IRC, 2000's), I was invited to a few IRC servers for raids and etc. I didnt realize other kids werent doing the same...
Also I remembered @crul for comics and other arts post, @statmets and @The_Picard_Maneuver for memes, Heisenberg and Otter for comic and meme too, @kolanki and annoyed_(Dancing Crab), @sour for comment this "[._.]" with GD Icon and many more. Thanks to all of you making such a Good community.
Interesting! I wonder if the Eternity client doesn't show that? I have never noticed it at least. I am also in the habit of never looking at names though. Maybe it is good to be in the habit of remembering names because it humanizes the people on the other end or so?
Mostly only the very active users moved over from Reddit, so we have a lot of content for not as many people. But it's nice how active and invested most people here seem to be.
I would suggest there’s also a lot of lurkers and folks who just don’t post much. I’ve noticed The Fediverse has a good and healthy number of folks on the Autism spectrum, and it’s not surprising they don’t actively post a lot.
It’s a lesson I learned being a professional puppet builder (yes you read that right) and running a little community around the craft. There’s a lot of people on the spectrum in that field too. They may not post a whole lot, but they are definitely engaged.
The freedom to have a voice is also the freedom to remain quiet 😁
It'll largely be an echo chamber regardless of size. The fediverse tends to lean into tech, and is very left wing. If you don't fit the bill, you are either driven off, de-federated with, or realize the content posted here isn't what you're looking for, and you leave.
I don't mind the small knit community, as I agree with most stuff, but this simply isn't a place you can host competing ideas, or at least not feasibly. This isn't a place for open discussion. You get down voted for your opinion, even if it is a shitty one. This isn't the fediverse I want to see. I want to see people upvoted for their opinion, and enticed to engage with whatever discourse is present, regardless of views. Downvotes should be reserved for trolls, bots, and fascists. Everyone else should be welcome.
Is there somewhere online where you can have an "open discussion"? I've been struck a few times by how some ideas (even presented in a balanced way) just get downvoted hard.
Well the simple reason is you can get stuck in certain world views or ideas which are wrong and hurt others.
In most cases you're fine, like talking about your favourite TV shows or whatever. But it's also easy to get stuck in a view like visiting your country's instance and it turns out it's a bit radicalised against immigrants, or certain places where you end up blaming everything on women and the "woke movement".
In a lesser way it can get you stuck in toxic ideas (e.g., PC/Playstation/Windows/Xbox/Linux is better than the other one and you are dumb if you disagree!).
Just depends on the community at end of day, but the more echoey chamber it is, the more likely you'll end up with those sorts of us VS them world views that are a bit blind and horribly biased.
But it’s also easy to get stuck in a view like visiting your country’s instance and it turns out it’s a bit radicalised against immigrants, or certain places where you end up blaming everything on women and the “woke movement”.
Hopefully there would be another community for the same country with other perspectives, and visiting both would allow to avoid the echo chamber effect
It would be nice if lemmy.world mods followed that. I got my posted deleted for "supporting Imperialism" for arguing that focused attacks on Houthi terrorists is ok.
I saw many names frequently pop up on reddit, it was the reposter’s and karma whores.
I see many names frequently pop up on Lemmy and it’s people trying to fill the same spot.
Frankly this is exactly what I don’t want to happen. This small time celebrity like worshipping that comes with certain posters was extremely popular on BBboards and made it incredibly hard and uninviting for new people to join in these already established communities.
Also on Reddit being a poweruser meant that you could probably sell/loan your account to shady advertisers, which isn't as much of a problem here since the Fediverse isn't monetized by ads.
Additionally, I think power users are a problem if they're just blindly spamming posts without engaging with the community, not so much if they're just organically filling the void with posts.
I definitely recognize some of the mods, and some of the key players in the communities that I follow. There's good people here, and I believe it's going to keep getting better.
I wasn't paying attention to usernames as much when I first started. For whatever reason, I've started to pay attention to the names, as well as the instances. I like seeing where people are commenting from, and it even gives some insight into places or things I might be interested in as well.
Sometimes I'll check out a person's profile to see what things they're commenting on. This feels kind of creepy a little bit. I don't think anyone really cares though, so long as you're not being abusive or something.
I very much enjoy running into folks from the various crafting communities in other contexts, bumping into Mastodon friends on Lemmy and vice versa and then dropping into each others PeerTube comments.
Irl I live in a small town and absolutely despise not being able to leave the house without running into someone who knows us. But for whatever reason I find it adorable on Fedi 🤷♀️
Most names I don't even look at for longer than a few seconds. If there were a mode where usernames were hidden, it wouldn't make much of a difference to me.
Yes but the glorification of the authoritarian all stars is so sad.
The premise is "the west" is evil and anyone opposed to that is a hero and can do no wrong. No matter that these heroes and their actions usually conflict with all other ideals they claim to have.
Or you know... It could be that your impression is colored by ignorance on some of these issues, leading to false assumptions about what other people think.
Sure that is possible. There are definitely subjects on which others are more informed. But the moment someone shows up with a full blown CCCP banner (or similar) and a username to match... there is no good faith conversation to be had.
Just like people defending faiths that are radically anti-gay and at the same time professing to be an lgbti+ advocate....
I can sympathize with why you would think this. I am also not saying you are wrong per se, but I want you to know that many leftists with seemingly strange opinions have spent much time analyzing and considering the stuff they are vocal about. That does not mean they are automatically right, but it could mean that to understand their positions fully, in order to do things like evaluate bad or good faith discussions, more effort is required than usual. Hence I think you might be in danger of mischaracterizing those you think you disagree with. Ultimately, that might contribute to you having stances that could disagree with your values.
As a personal example, one thing that I had to spend a lot of time thinking about was the concepts of violence and authoritarianism. I have deep aversion for both, but also a clearer idea of what they actually are than I had before, with the consequence of some different stances on a range of issues.
Well and this is it, the civil discourse and healing a good talk. Thanks!
I hope I see you around on Lemmy more often as I'm open to new viewpoints and maybe I learn new thing. I will also enthousiastically block those who bring nothing but vitriol.