The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:

  • ~30 years old or older

  • tech enthusiasts/workers

  • linux users

There’s nothing wrong with that particular demographic or anything, but it doesn’t feel like a win to me if the entire fediverse is just one big monoculture.

I wonder what it is that is keeping more diverse users away? Is picking a server/federation too complicated? Or is it that they don’t see any content that they like?

Thoughts?

  • PoobEnglish
    181·
    1 year ago

    The simple existence of different instances will be enough to scare away casual users.

    I’m not entirely sad about this.

    • Elkaki123@vlemmy.netEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      I’m a bit sad when it comes to smaller communities that have been struggling with content, problem is that for some of those hobbies it took a lot of time to reach a user base in reddit where there were discussions and interesting posts every day, here while I see a lot of committed users trying their bests some communities are simply unable to reach that level yet.

      I am hopeful for the future, but in my case it’s about people just learning how to use it which is something I kind of saw in Mastodon this past year. The way for content to remain high quality is through moderation and setting the example, not simply by being difficult for casual users since in my eyes they are needed in this kind of forums.

      • PoobEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        Well the communities are pretty new and need time to grow. That said, it does make me a little sad that enthusiastic people might be scared off of the platform due to it being more complex. I’m just not completely sad because my racist uncle won’t jump on here.

        • Elkaki123@vlemmy.netEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Jaja I understand the need for time, we will see how things develop.

          Just as an aside note, the idea of “at least my racist uncle won’t join” is lowkey funny to me. It shouldn’t matter if he joins, we have tools for banning and most people should already shun that behavior. After all, it’s not like racism is safeguarded against because we keep normies out, at least two huge instances on the fediverse currently (or forks from it) are alt right cesspools. And I have seen a few andrew tate fans and also some racist pricks both over at madtodon and here, it’s not like only kind people join this kind of places, but as long as we moderate properly it shouldn’t be much of a problem.

          • PoobEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Oh I definitely expect racists to show up and get handled. I meant specifically my racist uncle. Fuck you, Roy.

      • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        My best advice on this is to pick one small community you want the most and contribute a little content each day. Kinda turns the sadness into a fun creative exercise.