The lemmyverse sounds perfect, but it ignores alternatives like kbin etc. It would be better if we didn’t end up with the situation we have with Mastodon where people assume Mastodon is the fediverse.

So, what do we call this little niche in the fediverse?

Communiverse? FediGroups?

#lemmy #kbin #fediverse #communiverse #FediGroups

  • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I get you. In the end, for me, and I settled on this a while ago, “Fediverse” is a bad name. It’s confusing, seems like a Marvel thing, sounds weird and even unappealing frankly. Mastodon works because it’s a cool appealing word. It’s not just twitter refugees and their ignorance. The “fediverse” has a marketing/branding problem. And if you want “refugees” or “migrants” (which I acknowledge are problematic terms for actual IRL refugees, sorry), you’ve got meet them where they are.

    Additionally, platforms are actually products. In fact, relatively vertical products with often sub-par interoperability for something that claims to be the “next internet protocol”. So, whether you create some branding or not, “you”, as a platform, are putting branding out there even if it’s the absence of an attempt.

    So my recommended approach would be to happily “brand” a platform, but always be pushing and clarifying that it’s on the fediverse and what that actually means. Also, I’d start talking about “the social web” rather than just the fediverse, because that’s what it is and it’s a better term IMO.

    • Kichae@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I don’t know that I agree that just being heavy with product branding and trying to list interoperability as a feature really addresses the issue, but I 100% agree that “Fediverse” is an awful name.

      But then, so is “world wide web”. Or “Internet”, for they matter. We get stuck with so many awful, awful names that sound like they were the idea of villains from a low budget 90s sci-fi tv show.

      • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I’d guess that for early to mid 90s, World Wide Web was fine and Internet was actually good (remember the film “The Net”?). I was too young then to know though.