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Fediverse @lemmy.ml Ada @lemmy.blahaj.zone

What do we call the Lemmy/Kbin Universe?

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

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  • Seeing some push back here on the idea of confusing things with more terms than just "fediverse". I get that. The problem is that that cat is very much out of the bag. Surely, for the vast majority of people that have any awareness of the fediverse, they think it's just Mastodon.

    Either way, "Mastodon" is a much larger "brand" than "fediverse" or anything else on the fediverse. So trying to get some conceptual branding going makes sense. It make things more clear, as the idea of the fediverse itself is kinda fuzzy and complex and probably best left out at the beginning. It's a little bit like the matrix, you have to see it with your own eyes, IMO.

    So, my lame contribution ...

    Threadiverse!: "Social media, but woven into threads, like Reddit or Forums, not like the chaos of Twitter, but all on the Fediverse so you can find anyone else doing anything else too."

    • Why should we just accept that some naïve twitter refugees have misassociated the Fediverse as being just Mastodon? This isn't branding, this is raising awareness of the interrelatedness of this federated network! Disassociating from the Fediverse just makes the problem worse, I'd say.

      • Why should we just accept that some naïve twitter refugees have misassociated the Fediverse as being just Mastodon?

        Because no amount of ideological objection will change the fact that this is exactly what has happened. People are using it this way, and what I was trying to raise here is a way to talk about this particular niche of the web without running in exactly the same problem with lemmy

        • Well, I honestly haven't come across anyone who uses it that way so I can't really advise.

          I just feel like it's not so widespread to just assume we should accept that the "cat is out of the bag". We can just focus on correcting people, like we do when they conflate Lemmy with lemmy.ml.

          • @comfy @ada

            I tend to agree. Now its forum-like apps where fedi integrations are made. Next it is more video apps, podcasting apps (via podcasting hub), coding apps (via the forge federation movement), and you-name-it different app domains.

            Are we going to invent new names for each new app type that becomes federated? Might as well give the term Splinterverse right now then. Nothing feels connected anymore, and a "unique selling point" (to stick with marketing-like brand terminology) is lost.

      • 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.

    • A name for forum- and aggregator-style fediverse software. and instances sounds like a good idea to me. I agree with the points you and @ada@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone make elsewhere in the thread about the problem that most people coming from Twitter currently equate Mastodon with the "fediverse" as equivalent to Mastodon (a problem in general because it leads to centralization and marginalizing other implementations, and an even bigger problem currently because of Mastodon's reputation for anti-blackness and reply-guyism), and not wanting to have similar dynamics with people coming from reddit.

      I'll have to think more about the specific term threadiverse. I see what you're getting at but Mastodon / Pleroma / CalcKey etc all have threads as well even from a microblogging perspective, and Kbin also has a microblog (as opposed to forum) view.

      • Yea I know. I guess the idea was that it's the part of the fediverse that starts with threads rather than adds them to a social network. I couldn't think of any better term for a "post + comments" structure ... ?

    • I really like how this addresses the format of the content, you get my vote ❤️

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