@darius COISMS! (Thought I might have something for the first 3 letters...)

@darius more “co-op” less “confusing nerd shit”

@darius I had to explain the term “fediverse” to a person who does not live and breathe this stuff recently / and they told me their first thought was that it must be something “all things kevin federline” related…

@darius Do you also talk about federation ? I understand it's yet another dimension for describing what this is all about, but I feel it's the differentiator between "ok but I need to subscribe to your community" and "oh I can join any community"

@darius The Fediverse still sounds to me like a bad series of Marvel movies about the FBI.

@darius
How about, "community-owned independent social media sites", ... that openly exchange messages with acceptable & willing partners

@darius honestly with how much shit is peddling the "metaverse" I understand the immediate cringe associated with the term fediverse

I like using fedi as a shorthand, but without treating it as community bubbles it's bad

@darius
I guess if you said; "a tooters alliance", the hard of hearing might look confused, so maybe just stick with a "social alliance", as the shorter version of; "social media alliance".

Or; "Social E Alliance" but then, the hard of hearing might just think you have an interesting accent and feel lost at sea.

"Social internet-ing alliance"?

@darius I expect that the "fed-" prefixs is not well liked by some people.

@darius

One landmark 'net event I will always remember is the day the premier of Ontario (Bob Rae) received a suspicious email, and, for the first time, CTV news did not digress to explain what an 'email' was.

@darius I like it. I might call it "Indie social media."

@darius When non-geeks hear “federation” they tend to think of one of several things:
1. If they are geek-adjacent, they probably think about The Federation from the Star Trek universe.
2. If they are history or politics folks, they think it’s some weird term for federalism, or possibly a neologism for political entities like the USA, EU, or Brazil or a description of the formation of them.
3. Something related to some federal government agency.

@darius With that switch I bet there are also a lot less people confusing what you're advocating with the Metaverse.

@darius Plus...the fediverse is more than Mastodon.

@darius Community Owned Services for Multiplayer Online Systems, or COSMOS

@darius I think of an instance as a society or business. In this case friend.camp would be a society. Meta is an empire, and societies under Meta are colonized societies. In this analogy it would make sense to call friend.camp for an independent society or free society, because it doesnt fall under the influence of any empire.

#𐑪𐑮𐑦𐑯𐑡

@darius

a Lemmy conversation about naming this place might help.

@darius There’s a parallel in the way we talk to newcomers about the timeline here: “There’s no algorithm!”

Well, no, that’s 100% false, there absolutely is an algorithm that determines what’s on your timeline, it’s just that it is very simple and isn’t designed to manipulate anyone.

But it’s clearer to average person to say “There’s no algorithm” because it gets across what we mean: you aren’t seeing a carefully specified mix of content designed to enrage and engage you.

@darius Might start using this myself. I've previously been calling it decentralized social media, which while not as confusing as "Fediverse", always requires that I clarify it has nothing to do with cryptocurrency/Blockchain tech...

@darius ... to some, community-owned might mean municipally owned... and to others, fediverse might imply a federal government service..
Are there any examples of municipal ownership out there in independent social media land?
Have any Universities abandoned their promotional use of the bird net in favor of creating an open community for campuses and surrounding towns?