This is a post I originally made on my #calckey account, but I think it belongs here too.

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The more I use different #fediverse apps, the more I feel that we are on the edge of a different future, in the early stages of something that we haven’t seen before.

In the last few months, I’ve used #Mastodon, #Misskey, #Calckey, #Funkwhale, #lemmy, #Peertube, #Bookwyrm and #Pixelfed. Soon, I’m going to try an install of #kbin. In the not too distant future, we will see #GreatApe bringing more options for video chat to the Fediverse. There are countless more platforms that I haven’t had a chance to try.

The network formed by the interconnections between those apps is the Fediverse; a Federated Universe. Federated, because everything out there is connected with everything else, in one giant network. What I am truly beginning to appreciate is just how real that vision is, and just how disruptive to our future it’s going to be. More than a truism, these the fediverse platforms really will allow us to see and interact with nearly anything else out there.

The platform we use no longer determines the information we can access; it doesn’t build walls around us. Instead, what out choice of platform determines, is how we interact with information, rather than determining what information we are able interact with in the first place. The walls in the walled garden haven’t so much been torn down, as simply never built.

I can write a blog post, and someone on Mastodon can reply to it. I can make a group post on lemmy, and someone from Calckey can reply to it. I can see an awesome photo on Pixelfed, bring it in to #Akkoma and boost it for everyone else to see. And then anyone who sees it can interact with it.

The cross platform interactions are still imperfect. Standards are still being developed, code is still being written and features are still being defined, but the future is right here, we are on the cusp of something new and amazing.

Of course, this is all old news to someone who has been part of the fediverse for years now, but it feels different now. The momentum is here, we are seeing a shift and I think once we cross that precipice, once we have normalised the cross channel interactions we are starting to develop, it’s going to be very hard to go back.

Honestly, I can’t wait.

  • ttmrichter@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    It depends.

    If it’s being used by the techbrodude community, let’s just call it what it is: sociopathic.

    If it’s being used by actual human beings, perhaps “new and interesting”.

    • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      2 years ago

      But what about when it’s the former reshaping a status quo established by the former? That’s more than “new and interesting”

      • ttmrichter@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        Sociopaths disrupting sociopaths? Where I come from that’s called two things:

        1. Poetic justice.
        2. A shit-show best kept faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from.

        How’s about this as a notion, though: stop worshipping techbrodudes and other sociopaths and instead start getting the kindling built up under the stakes for them?

        • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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          2 years ago

          I am so confused by your comment. What I’m saying is that the fediverse is currently being used by “actual human beings” and they are reshaping a status quo established by tech dudes.

          That’s the disruption I’m referring to. What I’m asking you is what do you call it when the small instance admins, the indie developers, etc, reshape the environment from underneath the techbros? If you wouldn’t call that disruption, what is it? 'cause it’s not just “new and interesting”. It’s more than tat

          • ttmrichter@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            No. It really isn’t. This desire to use the language of sociopaths is itself dangerous. Call it what it is: new. And interesting.

            • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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              2 years ago

              I’m not sure how a word is the language of sociopaths…

              And new and interesting doesn’t do it justice in my opinion. It’s more than that