It’s been difficult to broach the subject and explain the technical concepts to the average person. I did have some success in first sharing the email comparison, which lead into interoperability.

I’m just curious to hear people’s success stories, if you have any.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    5 months ago

    Don’t talk about the high concept of federation, talk about the community that the different services offer.

    The classic misstake is to oversell and miss the point that the other party is focusing on.

    Don’t: “Lemmy is so awesome, it can’t be shut down, it is federated, you can even run your own instance and have total control”

    What the other party hears: “Lemmy is awesome, and you have to do a lot of stuff to join.”

    Do: “Hey, have you heard about Lemmy? It is a Reddit clone with a much calmer community, I have had a lot of interesting conversations over there”

    This puts the focus on the community rather than the service, people join social networks for the interaction, not the tech.

  • Zarxrax@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Why would I tell them about “the fediverse”? Tell them that you use Lemmy or Mastodon or whatever. If they are interested then give them a link to a good instance. That’s it.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      I send a fiend of mine image macros and shitposts from here

      They’re like “WHERE DO YOU GET THESE MEMES”

      I say “Lemmy, it’s like Reddit minus so much corpo garb”

      They say “the fuck is a lemmy”

      I send the link to voyager and say “all you gotta do is sign up on one of these places I think you’d like”

      They’re still just on tiktok

      I have tried

    • Blaze@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      Definitely. People don’t care what’s behind. They just want an app or a website.

    • technomad@slrpnk.netOP
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      5 months ago

      Fair. I just find it interesting and want to share it. I should just let them decide on their own if it’s something they find interesting or not. I’ll try to remember to just give them an app recommend instead.

      • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        It really depends. I would only recommend lemmy if they’re a techy. If they’re highly integrated into mainstream social media then it would be a 7/10 recommend. If they want to find an alternative then 10/10 recommend.

  • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I like using a mall as a really basic analogy for the shared social space:

    There are multiple entrances to the mall through various shops, but once you’re inside, you can go visit wherever you want.

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I left Reddit because of their shenanigans. The Tiktok crowd deciding Reddit was cool was what guaranteed I would never go back. Now if anyone asks me if I use social media, I just say “No”.

  • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’m not a weirdo, so I don’t. My friends don’t have to buy into my version of wasting time

  • Blaze@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    “It’s like email. You can have an account on Gmail and still send emails to Outlook”.

    Edit: just saw that you mentioned email, so that’s usually the easiest analogy.

    About success stories, I don’t have many, people I know IRL weren’t interested in Reddit, so Lemmy is the same.

        • jet@hackertalks.com
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          5 months ago

          I was focused more on making them aware of it, rather than trying to get them to use it. Just socializing the idea. So it was a success! They are aware of it now, but they are not yet using it

  • TokyoMonsterTrucker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    Usually as loudly as possible while wildly gesticulating and showing huge quantities of bloodshot eyeball. Seems effective so far, will continue to report in.

    • Mr_Wobble@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      But have you tried frothing? Just a little at the corners of your mouth really helps get the point across.

      • TokyoMonsterTrucker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        I usually save the frothing for people who I can tell are really interested, but don’t want to join up for some absurd reason. I don’t know why they would lie about their feelings like that, but a bit of shouting and frothing in a corner really gets them agreeable fast. Great technique!

  • nycki@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I dont. Its honestly not great. I’d rather that effort went to preserving and repairing the existing tools of the free and open web – the old protocols are extensible. Imagine if we had an RSS client with a “reblog” feature!

    “Federation” adds overhead and honestly creates as many problems as it solves. It’s not a selling point, its a price tag.

  • Varven@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I just showed one of my friends the memes on it and they said tell me what this platform is

      • Today@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Will you share your name with them? Did you communicate with irl people on the other place?

        • technomad@slrpnk.netOP
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          5 months ago

          I’m not sure exactly what you meant here, but I probably wouldn’t tell most people who I am on here. That’s not to say I wouldn’t share in other places, it probably just depends on the platform really.

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            Hahaha there’s NO CHANCE I’d tell my friends I’m Rai here even if they already know I’ve got a grand in bad dragon dildos that I certainly don’t talk about here