I’m a fairly new users, but I feel that navigating around the fediverse is a bit cumbersome, maybe the wrong word for it. But there is a lack of overview in a way. I enjoy being on this server, but I also like to follow other communities. Lots of different topics, everything from cars to Linux to architecture.
Right now there are 10 (that I could find on browse.feddit.de) instances named Linux on different server. So the small number of Linux users using some fediverse instance is spread around over many servers. Coming from reddit, things were far from perfect over there, but there is only r/Linux. It’s a shame users are spread so thin all over the place.
I used Linux as an example, I’ve seen the same “problem” for other topics as well. Anyways, just my perspective as a new users. Hope this wasn’t too much of a rant, maybe we can look at this as an issue where the fediverse can improve.
I don’t see this as a problem at all. The internet has always been this way. If there was one singular Linux community in the Fediverse and you had to go there to discuss the topic, you’d just have Reddit. And Reddit already exists.
the centralization of people also was a more recent thing. I remember specialized smaller forums and websites used to be more popular when I was younger. hell even earlier with GeoCities people had their homepage and blogs.
and even with discord and twitter people had their own small groups that may seem “redundant”.
It is a matter of perspective. The internet has many Linux communities. Reddit has many too. One always chooses. You never get it all.
What is true though is change is hard. I built up my Reddit community list over 5 years. Doing this again in a day is not easy.
There are a couple of open issues in the Lemmy repo discussing this sort of thing:
So far it doesn’t look like a priority for the core developers, but you know, open source etc etc-
This isn’t a problem with decentralization but more a UI/UX issue with current Fediverse clients. We all need to remember all of them are in early stages of development. I full suspect new features and tools will start popping up in the coming months to assist in the overall usability.
Right now there are 10 (that I could find on browse.feddit.de) instances named Linux on different server
Over time one of them will have more activity than the other and attract more and more users, it will then be THE linux community on lemmy. Just give it time.
Easy solution to this would be introducing a feature similar to multireddit where you can group smaller communities together as one. It could be on a global basis where everyone gets the same communities or on a local basis where users can add or remove communities as they see fit. I really don’t think it’s ultimately going to be as much of an issue as Reddit users think. The alternative is doing it the way Reddit does and then you just have…Reddit again. I keep seeing people who left Reddit because they don’t like the way things are being done complaining because Lemmy doesn’t do things the way Reddit does. That’s bizarre to me. You don’t solve the problem of a few people holding all the power over a platform by moving to a new platform but keeping the same architecture that caused the problem in the first place.
Yes, I don’t wont it exactly like reddit. We are over 12k people here on this server so there are plenty of people so talk to to have a general discussion. The small issue is the more niche a hobbie/community is there more of a problem it. Instead of 100 Linux users on one server there is 10 people on 10 servers (just imaginary numbers to get my point across).
The point is to connect with people with similar interests. If one “sub” does go bad, we can just make a new one on a different instance.
I do agree that no one wants power-hungry mods ruining a sub.
In my experience I find niche community are very well “centralized”, like there is only one gnome community.
However larger community are speard between servers like tech etc. That really is not a problem for me, as any of these larger community can give me the news I need. Also sub to all 3 of them is not a big deal either.
Like everyone on reddit sub to at least 3 art communities, 5 dank meme communities, and 10 music communities.
