Why isn’t the fediverse more popular? At futurology.today we have the benefit of also moderating r/futurology on reddit, which has 21.6 million subscribers. Out of the tens of thousands of people who’ve read our posts about the fediverse site, only a few hundred have signed up. Most of our subscribers are from elsewhere in the fediverse.

Just of top of your head, can you list three reasons they want to join the Fediverse for a “normal” Reddit user?

I agree, there is no reason for most of them to. Why leave a place full of conversation to join somewhere where there is hardly any?

That said, many people want to to abandon traditional social media sites like Twitter/X and Facebook - Bluesky has been a huge beneficiary.

If it did things differently, there is every reason to think the fediverse could benefit from that transition. This trend of turning against the old social media , especially as it has aligned itself with the far right, is only going to accelerate.

It’s still very early on, but a theme discussed in the video is worth repeating here: if the Fediverse is so great (ethical, devoid of advertising or toxic, addictive algorithms, with the goal of genuinely connecting people) why is it that the general public has not heard of it?

The futurology.today instance I’m an admin/mod of has the added benefit of being a direct sibling of r/futurology on Reddit which has 21 million users (I, and the other Mods also mod it).

Despite over a year promoting it on the subreddit, 3/4 of the instances users are from the fediverse, not Reddit.

Maybe the fediverse needs some breakthrough with usability, discovery and appeal?

Its bizarre that finding and subscribing to other instances is still so painful and backwards.

Why can’t we have new account types already subscribed to a ‘top 100 instances’ ? Instant improvement.

I don’t know if its what you are looking for but futurology.today is the fediverse sibling (same Mods) as r/futurology on Reddit.

(Disclaimer I’m a Mod on it & the subreddit)

Thanks, we’ll keep track of what they are doing.

I misphrased, they are an Admin/Op, and essential.

would it be enough to have those rules in place, and when reported actively remove the content as a mod?

We’re pretty good with daily moderating of content on futurology.today, so I’d be confident we could cover that aspect.

However I’m wondering about federation issues. Are we liable for UK users who use their futurology.today account to access other instances we don’t mod?

the problem is that the guidance is too large and overbearing.

This.

Who gets to decide what “self-harm” is? There’ll be some busybodies who’ll say that any remotely positive messaging for LGBTQ youth is ‘self-harm’ for them.

When might it integrate Lemmy?

I think fediverse people are wildly overestimating how much 99% of Reddit users care about this. The mod team on r/futurology (I’m one of them) set up a fediverse site just over a month ago (here you go - https://futurology.today/ ) It’s been modestly successful so far, but the vast majority of subscribers seem to be coming from elsewhere in the fediverse, not migrants from Reddit.

This is despite the fact we’ve permanently stickied a post to the top of the sub. r/futurology has over 19 million subscribers, and yet the fediverse is only attracting a tiny trickle of them. I doubt most people on Reddit even know what the word fediverse means.