What do you want (streams) for?Johannes Ernst asked a very broad question:
Silly (or maybe not) question:
So what exactly is social media for?
For some, it is a way to sell ads into an addicted audience. But we are trying to get away from that with the
#Fediverse. So if it's not that, what is it for, exactly?
And for you personally: if you didn't have social media, what exactly would you miss in your life? Which needs or wants do you have that would be unmet?
I'd love a broad variety of responses. Reshare?
This launched some interesting discussion, but I'd like to narrow it down to the streams repository.
So, what exactly is streams-based social media for? (Or what do you see as its most important or useful functions?)
And for you personally: if you didn't have (streams), what exactly would you miss in your life? Which needs or wants do you have that would be unmet?
I'll go first.
My online social networking used to be dialup BBSs and (much later) Internet forums. Nowadays it is all Fediverse and Facebook, and I'm using (streams) more and more, and Facebook less and less.
The main thing I like here (meaning streams-based Fediverse access) is that I can say what I want. I mean, there are limits, if I don't want everyone to disconnect or block me. But I do not have:
- Facebook's AI deleting my posts, because when it discovers "disinformation", it can't distinguish between criticism and promotion of it.
- Comments from hostile, idiotic bullies and trolls.
- A moderator (or an instance admin) threatening me for going off-topic or disagreeing with the acceptable groupthink.
- A corporation profiling me and sending me ads for every product or service that I mention.
I also enjoy the more positive attitude here. One of the things I liked about old-style Internet forums: Many of the members wanted the forum to work right, and to improve. They wanted a high signal-to-noise ratio. They
liked the place.
I see some of that in the Fediverse, and especially among (streams) and Hubzilla users.
I don't see much of it on Facebook. Maybe we'll lose that feeling in the Fediverse eventually, or it will only apply to specific communities, but for the moment we still have many enthusiastic people who really want this place to work right -- even if they disagree about how to accomplish that.
I still use Facebook, but only for two reasons:
- To communicate with old friends who absolutely will NOT try the Fediverse.
- To get local information from groups and government agencies.
And both of these are because Facebook has at least 1000 times as many users as the Fediverse. I can't get around that issue. But Facebook and the other commercial services will never be a substitute for what I've got here.