memes

The advantages most of us see in the Fediverse (lack of corporate control, low algorithm interference) are seen by most normal users as either of little importance, or actively detrimental. The Fediverse requires you engage with it to cultivate a feed that gives you what you're interested in. But the people fleeing to Rednote want a strong algorithm that feeds them what they want, and they don't mind influence games being played by the algorithm in exchange for this convenience.

A lot of people are going to rednote as a show of protest:

• these people have had their data mined since they were babies, they've been taught by the market since birth that their data isn't something they should value
• then they're told that it's bad that these other people can access their data, with no explanation as to why it's any different
• while at the same time being told that it's totally fine for the folks who are already mining your data to sell it to the people who shouldn't have your data

So they're basically saying "you're lying, and your explanation contradicts your previous behavior, so I'm gonna do the exact opposite of what you want"
Again because they don't actually care about their data

Unfortunately, Fediverse apps still have a lot of UX issues compared to their mainstream alternatives. Those will need to be smoothed over for mainstream adoption to take root.

They’re attractive to the tech inclined who are comfortable working around what, to them, is minor clunkiness. Mainstream users have shorter attention spans and are more likely to move on when there’s friction.

Far as the meme is concerned, the only Fediverse equivalent is Loops which is still in closed beta.

You're missing the important factor of the cultural zeitgeist

People who flocked to RedNote weren't just going there for an alternative to TikTok

They were specifically going there because the US government said "you can't go on the Chinese App!" so they said "Oh yeah? I'm gonna find an even MORE Chinese app to hang out at!"

Fediverse fanboys when they realise that their obscure and socially complex software isn't know by many people specially outside of the tech bubble, and that it's not the same experiences that they will get with known platforms:

You're expecting Zoomers and Gen Alpha irreversibly addicted to short-form video content, which has resulted in an attention span that doesn't extend past 30 seconds, to READ?

Have you seen what acquiring lots of mainstream users does to a platform?

Best thing that happened recently. Wonderful wonderful chaos, when the best plans of authoritarian politicians go awry. And I mean both Chinese and American politicians.

Guess they're China's problem now.

Even worse; they flood the internet with „china actually kinda based“ posts. Orientalism is back and nothing changed

I don't think there are any experiences on the fediverse right now that are comparable to TikTok. Loops is still beta, isn't it? If Reddit was banned and people clocked to some Chinese forum I could agree with this meme.

You mean they signed up for an app that actually works and generates a feed for you vs one that doesn't do either of those things?

I think that it was less: let's find alternatives, than it was fuck you government TikTok isn't Chinese enough. It was a direct answer to the government telling us which social media apps we were allowed to use. Also, 100% avoidable if they'd passed data protection instead. It really felt like the government enforcing private interests on its citizens.

Americans typically don't like the government telling us what to do. It's all fine if Facebook buys all the competition, but it's another thing when the government makes the competition illegal because they won't sell to zuck or musk.

Honestly, Redbook was sort of neat. I doubt it has much staying power as it was really just a protest, but it was sort of a historical feeling moment.

I like the fediverse because there's no algorithm feeding me crap.

But from all the memes I've seen about people's "Chinese spy" perfecting their feed. I guess normal people love the algorithm

What is the one on the left anyway?

Red note just added a feature that lets you translate any comment to English (or presumably the local language of your phone number) . Online reviews and Airbnb have done this for a long time. It's a simple yet amazing feature, one that will really remove barriers to appreciating different cultures. I would love to have it here so that everyone can speak their native tongue and others could appreciate it. I always want to know what the French and German communities are up to (those are the most common other languages I see).

Perfect meme to describe what's happening. Yes, fedi has some UX issues and is not very beginner friendly.

But also, people have gotten so used to being spoonfed content from an algorithm that tells them what they want to see that they can't handle the prospect of "build your own algorithm"

Corpo-curated-content is a hard drug and most people don't realize that they have an addiction.

power users/businesses: "you can't go VIRAL on mastodon"

Regular Users: "yOu HaVe To PiCk A sErVeR?????"

Is the cute little monster thing eating powdered sugar with his whole face?

Yep that's addiction it's hard to recover.