Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

Not entirely sure how this applies to the discussion, it just came to mind lol

I’m so sorry but you really need to reevaluate this because it categorizes like 80% of authentic internet content as ads. Is a graphic artist who works commission posting their art on social media an ad, if they’re doing it to hunt for commission? A streamer who posts their funniest clips on social media to get more paid subscribers? A game dev promo-ing features in their next game patch?

I’m not talking about ads. Let’s say I’m a video essayist and I publish my essays on PeerTube. The recommendation algorithms aren’t going to show the free content I make to nearly as many people as if I put them on YouTube or Tiktok. And overall, that translates to fewer Patreon subscribers, FAR fewer.

From a content creation standpoint, it does kind of suck. There’s no ego about it. The system doesn’t carry your content to nearly as many eyes, even accounting for the reduced audience. Discovery and suggestion algorithms are extremely effective, and if I’m trying to get my stuff to reach as much of my audience as possible, I wouldn’t only be on Mastodon. I’m not just talking about mediocre content either - even extremely motivating stuff in the niche doesn’t generate even a small fraction of engagement as regular social media sites.

For some people, this is a benefit - it’s a poorly commodified system. For small content creators trying to build an audience and generate paid subscribers, it’s not enough. Most creators on Fediverse are contributing as a free or non-profit hobby.

It’s hard for me to imagine any system as flexible as Lemmy communities NOT operating under centralized control, outside of notional attempts at democratic procedures held by the community owner themselves.

Same - I’m here more for the promise of a better experience rather than the better experience itself. Still waiting for the tipping point where niche topical communities have more than 1 post every 3 days.

Not trying to start shit, but some of the people in this thread need to realize that if they replied to people here like they replied on reddit, they’ll eventually get banned from instances too. And instance owners will exercise way more discretion than a website with a TOS.

I thought that was the Sims intended playstyle? You mean to tell me the developer didn’t intend for me to make a family of 8 of my friends, then trap them in a house until each of them dies one-by-one Hunger Games style? Then build a glorious mansion for the final one?

Completely right OP, and this is worth repeating as MUCH as possible. More than almost any UX or intake changes, Fediverse will only grow if their experience of the community is good.

Unfortunately, some people have never caught a vibe in their life and it shows lol. A single person with a bad attitude can completely tank your experience in a small community, versus a 20,000 person subreddit where usernames are basically indistinguishable.

Technically anyone can spin up an instance centered on whatever dark and inhumane topic. That’s the reality of an open network. That’s why defederation and whitelisting are such important tools as Fediverse grows. You don’t actually want access to every last bit of information on the network.