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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

I'm not an expert but this makes me think that it might time to turn off the screens and stop letting half-trillionaires decide what we look at.

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Use Fediverse/ActivityPub, XMPP (maybe matrix), IRC. Use protocols, not "apps"/"platforms". Stop using corporate-owned centralized services. Well, unless you like being the subject of exploitation and manipulation of course.

The nuance of protocols vs apps though is lost on the masses. Most people just want to stare at reels or be stared at in reels.

This means that the only people you will encounter in protocols will be privacy freak type nerds and “normal” people you might actually feel better interacting with or watching are on popular apps.

This is Hacker News, none of us are normal :p

I think it's really that highly motivated individuals will power through garbage UX that regular users won't. Upsides like decentralization are abstract, UX is concrete. You need to get the UX right to give your real benefits a chance to shine.

Word. Leaving the made-to-be-accessible/engaging hyper-capitalistic walled gardens requires some initiative and/or agency, which unfortunately only the minority of people are willing to bother with. Either way, I like to make it more broadly known: there are, in fact, alternatives. Ask a geek near you to try out some neato stuff that isn't trying to make you spend all your money and/or isn't trying to manipulate your beliefs etc.

But yeah if the normal people are where all the ads and spam and nazis are, I'm fine being a weirdo :)

No mention of atproto. Obviously Bluesky is nothing to write home about, but do you see some reason why the atproto couldn't be the foundation for something more interesting?

Protocols are good- but respectfully at this point fediverse is basically a transgender support group.

What are you saying? Fediverse is bad because scary transgenders?

They aren’t saying that - and you know they aren’t. They’re also correct.

Fediverse, in my actual experience, is overwhelmingly filled with hyper left leaning echo chamber content that I’m not interested in.

I know they aren't? The person hinted at something but didn't say anything concrete, so I don't actually know what they're saying, which is why I asked them to clarify.

I've been using mastodon for nearly 10 years. Fediverse, in my actual experience, is overwhelmingly a really good place to meet and chat with interesting, friendly people. Follow and engage with cool people and you'll have a good time. If you go looking for what you don't like, you'll find it, because it's there just like anywhere on the net. The difference is you don't have to see stuff you don't want to see, because the software and protocol have features that allow this. I'm on a pretty small server and we all are pretty much on the same page about what we expect our social interactions to be like. You know you can just filter out content, right? Your server can totally block or defederate from servers that have objectionable content, too (by whatever your collective definition of "objectionable" is). It works pretty well if you use it the way it's designed to be used.

It's known that reality has a strong left-wing bias. Can you specify further?

I'm saying it's unlikely to take off because it's pretty taken over by a group fringe enough to push away the average person. I'm not being entirely fair honestly. It's the internet we're in though- the "middle ground" of yesterday that helped sites take off in the past is getting harder to find.

Oh, it already has taken off sufficiently. There are some 10-20 million users[0]. Like I just said in an adjacent comment I've been using it nearly-exclusively for almost 10 years now, myself. It's not built for "growth" or to "compete" with big corporate social media so it's all good. Whoever is interested can try it out for themselves. BTW I've been on the net since 1992 and can say with certainty, every new social technology is dominated by the fringes of culture at first because we're the ones who want to make our own place that isn't full of jerks. Like, fediverse wasn't taken over by any fringe group, it started on the fringes. We're happy to have anyone who isn't a jerk though, it's generally that simple.

[0] https://federated.works/page/collaboration/statistics

Definitely pretty valid points- I'm surprised by how long it's been around I always considered it a covid thing. Society could definitely benefit from the right sort of fringe ideas and people at the moment.

If you have kids, get them off the internet asap. No access. These people thrive because they have illegal contracts with kids. They control the hearts & minds of so many households. Reject the whole system. Cut the cord from all bots, propaganda farms, intelligence agencies that runs a direct line into your child's mind. They are teaching your children to think a specific way. Its gross.

It's time to go take the half-trillion from them.

Without screens, how do you get the scale needed to organise and influence the direction of your country?

I don't and I'm ok with that. Let's go out and organize and influence the direction of our _communities_ first. No screen needed. That's the level you can impact as an ordinary person.

It makes me immediately suspicious when someone wants to reach _everbody_, that's never good and we shouldn't let them. Ideas will grow if they're good, if you have to spend money to make people listen, they're not.

My point is that the less decent but more aggressive ideas will dominate when their organisers and the masses use screens around you. The half-trillionaires will ultimately continue to dictate terms of your broader community, environment and atmosphere.

Ideas don't grow because they're good but because they push instinctive buttons, or save money, or give people what they want with minimal effort.

It goes without saying that anyone can opt out and ignore anyone beyond their personal circle.

I think there's another option, which is using screens in a more positive way.

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