Jan
blaineAnyone that tells you that federated social networks will be chaos compared to Twitter/Facebook would be happy for the United States or Russia to just take over governing the whole world because the administration would be simpler and more efficient.
Jan 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🇨🇦@blaine Yeah, I can't quite understand where they're coming from. Other federated systems work just fine (like email), yet people act like they've never seen or used one before.
Mike Taylor 🦕@jan It's very much like the kind of Learned Helplessness that makes some (not all) older people refuse to learn how to use even very simple tech. But it seems to have spread down the age-range.
@mike Indeed -- it doesn't help that so many tech companies want to treat the people using their products like infants. Rather than get offended, some people just seem to accept that. I'm hoping this event will help widen peoples' comfort zones and lead to them understanding more, not less.
@jan
"Hey, you should try out the Web, you'll love it."
"But it's so confusing. There are all these different web sites. How should I choose which one to use?"
"Oh. well, it's a federated system. You can start anywhere, and just folllow links till you arrive somewhere you like."
"No thanks, Poindexter!"
"Hey, you should try out the Web, you'll love it."
"But it's so confusing. There are all these different web sites. How should I choose which one to use?"
"Oh. well, it's a federated system. You can start anywhere, and just folllow links till you arrive somewhere you like."
"No thanks, Poindexter!"
robigan@jan @blaine Many internet users that I have don’t even know that email is federated, I have noticed that many people treat email addresses as usernames. Totally ignoring the domain part. I think that users find it difficult to understand because they’ve never really had to think much of the federated part. But everyone is talking about Mastodon and mentioning the federated part. At this point (in my exp.) many users see decentralization and federation as the same.
@robigan True enough, with regards to the perceptions of many 'net users! I think there's lots of room for gently educating folks in various ways. We're all learning *something* at this point.
Maia Duerr@maiaduerr It could well be!
the last heron@blaine I get what you’re going for but… the *United* States or the Russian *Federation* 🙂 Seems like we’d still be federated under that new world government!
@jc right? It's such a pathology to think that centralization ever works. 😅
Jeroen
Comfortably Numb@blaine Someone should ask them how they think email works. Or cell phones for that matter.
ZZ Bottom@blaine Right on the spot👍
Schroedinger@blaine The thing is, it i federated, not competitive. That makes all the difference.
Elon Musk's Holiday Home@blaine The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.