This place is very new still. It will probably take reddit doing some other anti-user policy before you get the numbers. The best thing you can do is share OC and let it build organically.
All the niche communities exist it’s just that nobody comments or posts anything for months on end. I actually think that the existence of many of the same communities on different instances is the main hurdle here. Drawback of the concept of the fediverse I suppose but it does make the experience on Lemmy much poorer in that regard.
This is a double edged sword. If we had enough people that the smaller communities filled out the main communities would be overridden with people instead of the small community feel we have now everywhere you go.
What’s the draw of having such a small community though? And why do you think that main communities would be overriden? Honest questions here I don’t quite understand what you are concerned about. I personally think that it’s the main problem with the fediverse right now, it’s only flavorless general posts and nothing from small niche interest that drew me to reddit in the first place.
Same here. It's content about a thing that I want to see. Even if I get little to no engagement, hopefully whoever stumbles upon it will be somewhat entertained.
True, but I was still about what communities get mentioned here. And also, without communities catering to different users' interests, there will be no engagement.
Kbin has settings to block entire instances. Unless threads is implemented as a ton of different instances it should be easy to just block threads.meta or whatever their instance is called.
I have a few instances like lemmy.ml on my block list already.
Nobody is "inviting" Meta in, ActivityPub is an open protocol. They can come in without any invitation. Being closed is what I left Reddit over. Closing the Fediverse to Meta would be more like the bullshit I left Reddit over.
If kbin.social can't handle the bandwidth of federating with Meta then it will defederate. But I don't run kbin.social, that's up to the people who run it. The question is "how do we feel about federating?" As in we the users.
And that's who I'm responding to here. A user who was concerned about the content that they posted being seen on Meta's servers. They're not worried about bandwidth costs, they're just worried about some kind of bad magic happening when Meta users see their posts in the context of Meta's instance.
I would be... Anything I put on here, I know kbin.social will be sending out to thousands of other instances, and what those instances do with my content and how it's displayed is completely out of my control. That's just the nature of ActivityPub, and by posting here I think I have to be okay with that. There are already ActivityPub services that run ads, so it's not unique to Threads either.
Because Threads presents an opportunity to grow the community on ActivityPub services, and because the Fediverse presents the opportunity to extend the community I'm involved in that's on Threads right now. My hope is that if that group respects what the Fediverse offers, they will also start sharing the podcast on PeerTube
My main concern is that this is just Facebook Meta utilizing the “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” strategy that Microsoft used against Netscape in the 90s.
I feel like our small communities here - which are just getting started - are going to be flooded by Threads users who don’t even know what federation is and then all the content, power & control will realistically be in Meta’s hands.
My gut says that is probably Meta’s goal, but what do I know? I’m just some internet person.
Decentralized networks are a threat to Meta’s entire business model which runs on advertisements. That doesn’t work very well when your users can just jump to another instance without ads.
Meta wants to nip the fediverse in the bud now before it’s too late for them to get a foothold. I think they’re gonna do it by (trying) to port their massive userbase to Threads, make other instances dependent on their content and users, and then pull the plug so they can go back to selling everyone’s information to advertisers.
Edit: https://i.imgur.com/4U0g4Bk.png
I saw this image floating around a few days ago that I think helps illustrate that even if a fraction of Meta's userbase migrates to Threads it will be enough to dominate the fediverse. Instagram has two billion users, and the entire fediverse only has around 1.5 million.
Threads, despite its name, is not a threaded discussion forum like the Threadiverse. It's more like Mastodon, a microblogging protocol. I don't think we'll be seeing Threads users flooding here because the format of these communities isn't really compatible with that.
How would power be handed to Meta just because Threads has more users? The communities are under the control of the instances where they were created, and Threads users couldn't create larger communities to replace them either since it's only a microblogging platform.
The concept is that overtime, communities and connections will organically grow. If Threads has a disproportionally large ubserbase, then overtime they will create a similarly larger number of communities. This then would give them a lot more influence over the fediverse and anyone federated with them.
For smaller instances that become accustomed to seeing those communities and content, the danger is that Meta can just “pull the plug,” defederate, and extinguish the competition, or at the very least hurt their competitor's users experiences when interacting with content from Threads. The reason they might do this is purely because it fits into their business model which is selling user data to advertisers; it is in Meta’s interest to have as much data on their users as possible, and to have those users be based on Meta’s platform.
As I said in another comment, I could be totally wrong and this could benefit the fediverse. I just think the opposite is more likely because I do not trust Meta. I think they will play nice in the beginning, but then start to flex their muscles once they feel they’ve got enough influence.
Also, there is nothing stopping them from expanding Thread’s capabilities to include the threadiverse. Kbin has already demonstrated both are possible in one app.
If they pull the plug on ActivityPub and take their users back, things would just be exactly how they are now. Since they can't create communities or magazines like we can (and it's very unlikely Meta is going to try to implement this), if they want to participate in discussion here, they'll be posting in our communities. Kbin's magazines are uniquely suited to this as well because content gets sorted into them based on hashtags, so they wouldn't even need to know that they're posting to a magazine to do it.
We're already in a situation like you describe though with lemmy.world's near monopoly on large communities, which seems concerning to me as is.
And I agree, lemmy.world does have a near-monopoly on large communities. I attribute that to lemmy being more developed and having apps ready and kbin simply not being completely ready in June (no shade thrown at ernest - he’s great and I like kbin better.) I hope overtime kbin grows some of its own large communities so it’s not so skewed towards a single instance.
Just to clarify what I mean, lemmy.world's position is bad for the threadiverse as a whole. It's where most of our users and largest communities we all post to are. If .world goes down, it'd be a major blow to our current, mostly stable, position and we'd be significantly worse off than if Meta were to come and go. Things are improving though and communities are slowly spreading to other instances! I also deeply appreciate that we have kbin as an alternative to Lemmy - thank you Ernest
No bullshit, not a joke. Try masturbating with your off hand.
It is a simple enough task, it gives an (eventual) reward for the work, and it helps build coordination between the muscle groups involved. It’s also enough effort that the muscles involved strengthen, and the brain has a chance to build up connections to manage that.
Seriously. It works. I had multiple patients over the years that gained benefits in learning to use their off hand after strokes (heh) or amputation. Same with friends and acquaintances in disability support groups. They’d be struggling, doing their physical and occupational therapy, but eventually run into the horny wall. Things would be difficult with masturbation at first, but it drove improvement in other areas way more than any other task.
Works for men and women (though sitting with a support group slowly working their way around to talking about it was hilarious. The blushing and euphemisms were numerous).
Truth is, anything you’ll do often enough that engages all those muscles and the brain will do the same thing. But what tasks are more enjoyable than masturbation? You gonna be chopping onions left handed regularly? Maybe whisking a nice lemon curd daily? Repetition is what builds the kind of dexterity your main hand gets.
A few months of spanking it off handed, and you can try writing, or relearning an instrument. You probably won’t ever be as good as with your primary at anything, but you can get good enough to handle daily tasks.
Merchants don’t have to pay processing fees for checks, which is why they may not accept credit cards, or require a minimum for a card, and/or may pass along the processing fee to the customer.
Like cash, there’s still costs associated with them. Someone has to record the checks and take them to the bank. But more importantly, checks have an even worse risk of fraud than credit cards. A business doesn’t know that the account has sufficient funds, is even an active account, or that the check writer is even the account holder (can check ID, but what about business checks?). They can call the bank and verify funds, which obviously is awkward and time consuming, or there are 3rd party check verification services, which have to be paid for monthly. And then if someone bounces a check, often banks charge a fee to the depositor for that.
As a business owner, who accepts checks and charges fees for credit cards, I’ll take a check from a trusted party any day over credit cards when they want to avoid the processing fee, but I still have their credit card on file in case the check bounces.
edit: Further, it is a royal pain in the ass to accept a credit card payment, then have someone dispute the charge as if their card was stolen. The amount of energy spent taking checks to the bank is nothing compared to the energy, effort, and documentation needed to prove to a credit card company that the charge was legitimate, so you actually get paid and not take a total loss.
Checks work for situations where you know and trust the customer, and can do things like have their CC on file. Less so for situations like casual retail or trade shows.
I thought credit card processing agreements tend to forbid charging an extra fee for using a credit card. Maybe that’s changed, idk.
See my edit, and you are very far behind. Years ago VISA and MC (at least) specifically made it legal to pass along fees. A short internet search should confirm this for you.
Sorry you take offense. I just didn’t provide a fully comprehensive reply, and don’t need someone who just learned about this to educate me on the subject.
It’s more for the benefit of anyone else reading who may be interested. I’m sure you know what you’re doing. I haven’t used traditional credit card services in a while (I ran a retail store and art business 2000-2012 or so).
I prefer Kbin. It has the latest features (magazine collections, an aggregate view that combines threads and microblog posts, more options, etc.) , and I really like the developer @ernest. Aside from just being cool, he posts frequent updates over on @kbinDevlog.
Something worth noting is that Kbin doesn't have many instances. Kbin.social is the main one, and the only other decently up-to-date one I know of is kbin.earth, run by the creator of the Interstellar app for Kbin. On the other hand, Mbin has more instances, as most established Kbin instances switched to it at the time it was created (during which Kbin development had been inactive for about a month). Also, Mbin has a more community-oriented development system tmk, whereas Kbin development is closely managed by Ernest.
Hey cool I'm replying to myself via my brand new kbin account! Your comment about having an All Content option combining maga and micros made up my mind for me!
Welcome! Yeah, the All Content view is great — probably my favorite feature added in the past few months. I have my home page set to Subscriptions (All Content), and it's the best. I see threads from my favorite magazines and microblog posts on tech & fediverse stuff.
Image uploading on microblog posts should be fine. Right now, Kbin's image uploading UI doesn't actually give any visual feedback when you click the upload file button, but it does upload.
In general, Kbin (and by extension Mbin) is quite early in its development, so you'll run into a good few bugs and odd UI issues. They should be resolved in the near future, and as I mentioned earlier, you can go to /m/kbinDevlog to follow progress.
Kbin.social has just had some big issues recently and still hasn't fully recovered (which is why development is currently stalled), so it's absolutely possible you'll run into more issues currently than usual. Not sure if what you're experiencing there is part of that though.
@ThatOneKirbyMain2568 Since you seem to be much more acquainted with the ins and outs of Kbin, can you tell me if there is any way to see the pictures contained in the posts in their full size from the get go or a single click? I click the thumbnail to get to the post, and then have to click it again because the picture in the post is the exact same size as the thumbnail. I know it's not a huge problem, but even having a peek feature like reddit does would go a long way.
The image icon in the bottom left corner of image posts can be clicked, showing the image at a larger size (i.e., what you'd get if you were to enable "Auto Media Preview" in the sidebar). There are a couple of userstyles that make this more button-like, such as kleanbin and (my own userstyle) idkbin.
None of the communities I actually need ever migrated here; most people just did not care. I still go to reddit for things relating to Japanese residency topics, finances, etc. as it is the only place I know of. I only visit those subs, though.
There are also people like me who post like one thing a year (though I comment much more).
I don't have specific examples, since I stopped using the Japan subreddits several years ago. But they are swamps of toxicity. Everyone is mad at each other and seems to hate their own lives. The new users ask the same 3 basic questions every single day, while the old users seem like new users are the only thing they hate more than Japan. The mods are ban happy and will punish people like tyrants for the slightest mistake, and while I sympathize with them for the crap they have to sift through, they themselves are some of the sub's most toxic users. It's just a terrible place.
It's still not perfect, but there were some changes in recent years. The main residents-only sub split into two with different moderation policies. I'm subbed to both. I also think some people generally chilled out more, and the removal of certain trolls also increased. Just my opinion, but I also don't spend nearly as much time there.
"I'm a million different people from one day to the next; I can't change my mould, no no." — Bittersweet Symphony
We all show rotating aspects of ourselves, but we remain fundamentally the same. Unless something drastic happens that changes how those aspects present or function anyway.
(Maybe that lyric doesn't mean what I'm reading into it, but it's what I've taken from it. That's a funny thing about art.)
So yeah, I've looked back through comments I've made and realised that I knew something at the time that I'd since forgotten, and seen how smart I'd been - or how utterly cringe-inducing, and known that at some point, that if the cringe is bound to return, so might the smart. Hopefully. Maybe. Please.
There's also the fact that we distil ourselves down for a comment. Present the best side, or the best of the aspect we're going for. Even trolls do this. Unfortunately. So when we look back, not at all in the same frame of mind that we were at the time, it's like looking at the highlights of someone else's life on some other social media, not seeing everything else that's going on besides.
I probably won't remember all the edits and corrections I've made to this comment before submitting the first time. Only time knows how future me will perceive it, should I ever look back.
OP, look into digital content marketing, because that’s what you’re doing. it’s an entire industry that unfortunately requires money or a lot of individual talent to get a good handle on.
start by reaching out to similar websites or key people you want using your website and build a network. understand your target and niche. leverage social media. put in the work early to optimize SEO so your site appears for people who search for it and related terms because that’s your biggest enemy. buy advertising spots if your research finds it’s useful.
EDIT: Personal stuff aside, you might have better luck in a programming community, particularly in a programming-centric instance (though IME federation w/Kbin may be an issue), and probably even better with an example of an article.
Then again, it might be an uphill battle when it comes to actually convincing people to use your place over others.
I don't like most programming languages, and I want probably too much. Problem with me or the timeline or something.
Also recently made a few 3D models with only vertex colors (no textures) such as plant and that didn't work exactly as hoped with Raylib (bindings-specific? maybe not?) either. Guess old tech isn't as supported as I thought it would be.
AskKbin
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.