I don't think many people understand that if they use Lemmy or kbin, they are posting to the fediverse. There are other platforms and will be more to come. Referring to a post on "Lemmy" or "kbin" is like saying you saw a post on your Windows or Mac computer.
We should be referring to it as...
I saw it on the fediverse.
Hey fediverse users ...
A thread on the fediverse...
New terms may emerge but referring to the platform seems weird, almost ignorant.
edit: A better example is email. You wouldn't assume everyone is on Hotmail because that is the email provider you use. You say I'm sendingan eamail, not I'm sending a Hotmail.
While you're correct, it's just a clunky term. I think some other way to refer to the whole thing will probably come along soon, and in a few years, people will regard saying fediverse the same way we look back on people talking about "surfing the information superhighway" or whatever.
I think it's more like saying, "I saw this on my phone," or, "I was on the computer and read," which are both entirely reasonable.
It's just stating what format you were using when you saw it. Like, "I was scrolling through Google News and read..." What you actually read was an article hosted on a different website, but you were using the platform of Google News to read it. It's the same kind of thing as saying, "I read on Lemmy," because you were browsing Lemmy when you read something.
It's not wrong to say that these things are on this site. I often specify Lemmy.World because that's the instance that I use and other Fediverse sites function slightly differently. That's one of the both great and annoying things about the Fediverse is how every instance is slightly different. I'll say, "I was on Lemmy.World and..." I don't know, saw a post, made a post, had trouble because mod controls are minimal over here, whatever. Saying, "On the Fediverse," is more generic. It's usually considered best convention to go with more SPECIFIC terms than generic. I consider using my Mastadon account and using my Lemmy account to be different, but they're both on the Fediverse. I would feel really weird talking about my Mastadon account in the same terms as my Lemmy.World one since I use the two platforms completely differently.
The thing is just because something is posted to the fediverse doesn't mean everyone can see it. For example, we don't see most Mastodon posts on Lemmy.
Dude, fediverse is the whole system linking everything together and lemmy/kbin/mastodon is the platform within it. So refer it as fediverse IS saying you saw a post from the internet.
I personally like to call it "Fedi". I was reading a post / thread on Fedi and it said...
If someone asked where exactly it was I would mention the platform.
And in my opinion, everyone should be mentioning the name of the platform they are on. Because when you mention what software or server you used, it promotes it to non Fediverse people. And it also tells current Fediverse users about other Fedi platforms that they may like, and didn't know about.
That's how I found Misskey, and it's quite cool.
So many options to explore, and try out interfaces that may work better for you.
We are all on the Fediverse, we all should be promoting that in any way we can.
Share, educate and take pride in our diverse community.
Ok but telling others of the specific platform I use is still useful, like if somebody doesn‘t know what a computer is it helps them to hear in Windows or Mac cause then they know what computers there are.
Referring to a post on "Lemmy" or "kbin" is like saying you saw a post on your Windows or Mac computer.
That's not how language works. Language evolves naturally and in this scenario people would instantly know that the user had seen something on a fediverse platform without having to use another awful '-verse' word.
Likewise you can't police how people use language. People use whatever makes understanding for both sides easiest on both sides
If someone logs into a website called Kbin and sees something interesting, it's fair to say 'I saw something interesting on Kbin' without having to give unnecessary explanations about what the fediverse is.
And once again, no one likes the word fediverse...
If I was browsing Reddit and saw an interesting video, I might tell someone "I saw an interesting video on Reddit the other day" even if the video itself was hosted on YouTube. The technical detail of exactly where and how the video is hosted is not relevant to the conversation. The listener wants to know how I found it, not where it is stored.
The same is true for posts on the fediverse. The various instances are the websites that we browse. The technical detail of how they share content and how it can be accessed from various different routes just isn't important most of the time. If you're a Lemmy user, you're reading the posts on Lemmy and there is nothing wrong with talking about it that way.
If I tell someone I bought a game on Steam or borrowed a book from the library, the fact that they are also available elsewhere doesn't matter. If I tell someone I read something on kbin, does it matter that the same post also exists on different websites? 99% of the time, the answer is 'no'.
New terms may emerge but referring to the platform seems weird, almost ignorant.
I agree, but you've got it upsidedown. The fediverse is the platform that the instances operate on, not vice-versa.
I like how the Memmy app introduces new users to what the fediverse is and what a server means. I had found that out beforehand but it was still helpful when I downloaded the app today.
I’m new to it all, but it’s so interesting. Now I want to know what else I don’t know about that’s on the web. 👀
Personally I agree, but we all know what someone means when they say "posting on Lemmy" etc. I simply make it a point to refer to it as "the fediverse" in my own posts. Eventually people will catch onto the right terminology, especially as more software platform options become available for the Fediverse ... like Threads (though those ppl will probably always call it Threads because that will be all they know and understand of it).
"fediverse" isn't correct either - it's too broad. Kbin and Lemmy post to a part of the fediverse - the "threadiverse". Meanwhile job in can also post to the microblogverse connecting with Mastodon. And there is not one fediverse - ir is both separated by different algorithms for different bits and also within areas some bits federate with others.
If you want a good term for the threadiverse, then Feddit seems like a good catch all name?
People are used to consuming content from an isolated products - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc. even if the content is a link to another website or social network - the place they saw it and interacted with it, will feel like the source. The fediverse is a new and confusing system for most people. It’ll take a while for even mildly tech savvy people to wrap their head around this.
I don't think many people understand that if they use Lemmy or kbin, they are posting to the fediverse
Does it matter? I saw this post on the Fediverse, but I also saw it on Lemmy, I also saw it on lemmy.world, I also saw it on LiftOff, I also saw it on my phone, I saw it on the internet, and I saw it while taking a shit. All those are correct and it's only an issue using any of those if it confuses the conversation and in most cases your requested level of pedantry will not add anything useful to a discussion (unless maybe the discussion is about how the Fediverse works).
How does the federation work from a high level? On Reddit, data is stored and managed by Reddit.
How about the fediverse? If the data isn’t centrally located, what is stopping some data from just being lost at any time? Who owns the servers?
If the servers are owned by anyone who wants to own a server, I assume there will still be popular servers that get the most traffic. And if those servers have high traffic, how will they sustain that model? How do they “keep the lights on” without ads?
Allow people to enjoy their experience here. When you start going down this path, you are confusing the user base that’s still learning a whole new platform. When I first got here, I said a lot of the same stuff, that I was a Lemmy world member, etc.
I like the name fediverse, but I think it's too broad. I think we need a collective name for platforms like Lemmy and KBin (which are more like each other than they are like Mastodon).