How do I explain what is the Fediverse to someone who I'm trying to invite over?

Who you’re trying to invite over?
You don’t. That’s established relationship shit (romantic or otherwise).

I think this does a good job https://fediverse.info/

“It’s an alternative to {insert service here}, but if a feature of the platform, an administration, its userbase, etc., are a problem, you can easily find alternatives without abandoning the whole network. Do keep backups of your communities though!”

Also would need to rewrite to not sound as technical, but features-wise, I’d recommend Mbin, Friendica or, once it matures more, PieFed, since all 3 are overarching, being able to access Reddit-like posts, Twitter-like posts, and those compatible with either.

Send them this link https://fediverse.info/

I dont want to sound too jaded, but people will sign up for anything without reading the TOS. It’ll be fine, just try to give them the best possible first impression so they stick around.

The practical thing that trips up most people is the wealth of possible servers to register with. Give your friends a leg up and give them a signup link to a reliable, friendly instance you think will fit them (probably one you’re already on).

Just give people a low-friction way in, let them get a feel of the fediverse/a specific, local feed. In my experience over-evangelising the nuts and bolts only turns them off the whole concept.

I think we often try to sell the fediverse too hard on the technical and idealist perspectives. Yes, federation is great and, yes, isn’t it lovely that there is no manipulative algorithm, or no billionaire can buy it out and build it into his failed space exploration empire?

But the majority of internet users don’t care about those things. Even for those that do, it’ll be way down their priority list.

A picture is worth a thousand words. The Fediverse :

It’s like reddit but without the numbers and without most of the hate. Who cares about the tech side?

Don’t.

Just say: “this is like Reddit(/Twitter/…), but independent."

They will figure the rest if they have or want to.

Based on how my conversations have gone, I’d just skip explaining the federation part entirely. Most people don’t care

I’d just say it’s like Reddit, but more friendly and less addictive. Sell that they’ll get all the important news and memes, but without the ads, bots, and garbage content shoved in their faces

I’d also pick a home server for them and help them set it up, lemmy.world is probably good as a default if they’re coming from mainstream socials

Truth is, most people really don’t care how it works. They just want it to work, and their first impression shouldn’t be choice overload or a data dump

As others have said, just don’t bring it up unless specifically asked.

Most users won’t care, and you might easily overwhelm them with data.

It is far better to introduce them to Lemmy/Piefed/mbin/kbin/Pixelfed/etc as a specific service, and answer further questions as they come up.

It’s like _____, but it sucks. But like, in a good way. Like the old Internet. It sucked, but that’s what made it so good.

Initially. It’s a link aggregator and discussion site, like reddit, but far more independent.

If they query it. It runs on a system a bit like how email works. Rather than 1 big monolithic system, it’s a bunch of small ones linked together. A federation of small services all acting as 1 whole. In practice it’s fairly transparent, just like you don’t care who’s hosting an email address, you can just email it.

It also makes it a lot more resistant to takeover and manipulation by big business. It can resist the Nazis bar problem better, like what happened to twitter. (Optional depending on the person involved).

The first gives them the basic idea. The second gives them a basic understanding of the structure, without overwhelming them, or panicking them with complexity.

Everyone now knows that email just works, but has lots of different companies involved. It makes a good comparison for how federation can work well online.

Overexplaining it might scare away non-technical users. Just compare it to well-known social media but say it 's independent and more like e-mail in the sense that everyone can choose a different server with different rules but they all talk to each other. No one company controls everything. And that the algorithms aren’t secret or manipulative. Basically, just tell them the main advantages in an easy to understand way.

“It’s like other social media, but it was made by communist nerds to be free, no ads, no spying, no government ID, no psychological manipulation. And it’s all open and connected, so you can see posts from other websites and upvote and comment on them.”

It’s baffling to me that everyone thinks it’s hard to explain.

Everyone has at least one most of the time two or more email addresses. From work, some from Gmail and / or Microsoft. everyone understands that sending email to other providers will work regardless.

Why is it so hard to apply the same concept to Lemmy?