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 _____, but it sucks. But like, in a good way. Like the old Internet. It sucked, but that’s what made it so good.
Don’t.
Just say: “this is like Reddit(/Twitter/…), but independent."
They will figure the rest if they have or want to.
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 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?
“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 a cool community without all the ads, nazis and psychos. It has 100% more real Humans.
It’s like running Linux, btw
I use Fedi btw
Why would you wanna scare them off so soon? Haha jokes aside, pretty easily.
It’s similar to most other social media or forums, but not owned by any one company. It’s split up and run by everyone and anyone.
There’s also additional privacy by default in the sense that most apps won’t have telemetry or metrics to track your every move within the app, but scrapers on the internet I would presume are still active.
Its a caffe bar
Everyone can join one
Everyone can make one
And you can send stuff to any other caffee bar, or receive.
I have not really looked into it to understand. From what I intuit, it’s basically an open protocol for users and messages? So platforms can pull in users and messages from other platforms — they’re interconnectable in that way. You can host a platform that implements the protocols, helping the network grow. Is that right?
I understand you can launch a platform, but what if you just want to supply a node to a running platform? Can you donate compute / storage / networking?
Donating hardware that you already own is probably possible, but can be tricky and has security connotations, depending on the arrangement. Unless you’re simply paying for hosting costs for that node and have no operational control at all.
There are simpler and better days.
If you want to donate, chip in to whatever server you’re on (e.g. lemmy.zip) - send them a few dollars a month, or a one time donation. Or find an instance or a software project (e.g. Lemmy or Gotosocial or Mastodon) and give them those few bucks.
Just making the effort is both not that hard, but it’s also great. Even people who don’t have money to spare can try it. I don’t know, find something like a book or a cupboard you’re not using, sell it for a small amount of money, and send it.
Of course, lots of people can’t afford to, and that’s why other people are running open servers. That part is super hard not just because of money, but moderation. Running an instance means you commit your time, every day, all the time, to moderate the users, to monitor the software, to fight off DDoS attacks and a million other things. So you can also offer to donate some of your time. Be it moderation or e.g. issue triage or something, it’s usually welcome. So you can look into it. But make sure you can commit - short term “I’ll try it” help is often taking more time to train the volunteer then they’re going to contribute back before giving up.
Finally, as someone says, it’s also easy to run your own server. Either buy hosting and operation - I know e.g. masto.host but I’m sure there are others - you pay and they monitor and maintain the software. You just moderate it l like an admin. Invite your buddy there.
Some people have the time and skills and operate their own servers, without spending the time for moderation. I’m running a single user instance of Gotosocial. I have control, but I don’t have to deal with moderation. That’s also feasible.
Anyway, for your buddy, educate them that it’s not the same as Twitter Reddit or Instagram, but the core ideas are similar. Send them a meme post or an interesting thread from time to time. They’ll want to engage eventually. Upvote or reply. They have to make the account. They’ll then get bored, give up, but that’s fine. Moderate yourself, don’t spam them. If they like it they’ll come back. Or they’ll get frustrated by another ad Block busting scheme by Reddit and come back again. Or not. Which is also fine.
Its not that hard to setup your own instance
What do they currently know about the Internet? Are they currently using a microblogging or discussion platform? Difficult to answer this without knowing that.
A decentralized collection of social websites federated with one another to give a cohesive social media experiance.
