4 ms·

And yet the vanity metric is right in the title. Most of what we hear of the Fediverse is rants about twitter and a few of the same subcultures over and over a

And yet the vanity metric is right in the title. Most of what we hear of the Fediverse is rants about twitter and a few of the same subcultures over and over again. There used to be a site long ago, lost to the mists of time, called Big Boards, tracking the biggest forums: https://web.archive.org/web/20130223011947/http://rankings.big-boards.com/?filter=phpBB,all https://web.archive.org/web/20130223011947/http://rankings.b... 10 years ago it was a thing called Gaia online with Chibi anime thingies and 2 billion messages. The more things change..

fogzen 3y ago
Gaia Online! What a blast of nostalgia. I miss my chibi avatar…
- HopenHeyHi 3y ago
  Son, I still think about my green Neopets T-Rex.
  - Operyl 3y ago
    That website is somehow still kicking, years later. It’s a shell of its former self, though, having been sold a few times now.
- bovermyer 3y ago
  I created my Gaia Online account in 2003. Sadly, I can't regain access to it, as it was deactivated. Last time I tried, I needed to create a new account in order to create a support request, and things got weird. That was a decade ago, I think.
nstart 3y ago
> Most of what we hear of the Fediverse is rants about twitter and a few of the same subcultures over and over again. I feel like this isn't true anymore. There's definitely a lot of chatter about Twitter of course and even more so now that there's regular Twitter related drama happening. But I have 7 federated instances on speed dial that range from general purpose, to infosec, to art, and to game development. They all talk about a lot of stuff, not just the things related purely to the server theme. I checked all of their local timelines just now and found only one post talking about Twitter and it was just a link to a news item where Elon talks about government access to Twitter. Notably absent were any growth hack posts. Everything was just stream of consciousness stuff.
- rapnie 3y ago
  A lot of the rants came from frustrated people migrating away from Twitter by the shenanigans of Musk. There has been a bit of a culture change due to the large influx. But now that these people get to be comfortable in their new 'home', these discussion also become less frequent. Of course it is also who you follow that determines how you are exposed to these rants. If you are in a Twitter exodus group there'll be plenty more ranting.
- HopenHeyHi 3y ago
  > the same subcultures over and over again How many XX-chromosome neurotypical a-political undyed-hair normies are on your 7 federated instances? Please, count. People can be miffed at me for pointing this truth out but that is how social networks grow big. Such is life. The Rihanna/Swift/Kardashian/BlackPink people will never switch and as they will correctly inform you, they run the world. It is called social media, remember? Social people will stay on Instagram and Twitter as that is where you get attention. AI researchers are all on Twitter too for that matter. The gravitational pull is too strong. Edit: Hmm, I wonder who is downvoting this obvious mathematical fact of life, such a mystery!
  - dang 3y ago
    If you keep posting flamebait to HN we are going to have to ban you. We've warned you about this at least once already! https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - HopenHeyHi 3y ago
      The subject is growth hacking and social networks. Social networks grow big by targeting young female users as a vector for growth. Well documented countless times and talked about at length by the people who work there, this is one of the very key original "growth hacks" and not some sort of secret. Rihanna posts baby pictures on twitter that get more views and engagement than all of the fediverse combined. This captures the key demographic. You're welcome to publicly explain how the statement that you need buy in from content producers in the vain of Rihanna/Swift/Kardashians/BlackPink to capture the young female crowd, which brings in the young male crowd, which drives enough critical mass to bring in everybody else, an outright mathematical fact (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law), as some sort of flame bait. I am familiar with your link. What guideline specifically am I violating here in this thread please Dang? Thanks in advance.
rvz 3y ago
Funny thing is I don't see lots of people screaming about MySpace for 7 years on Twitter or Facebook. Looks like those hundreds of millions of users really did move on.

fogzen 3y ago

Gaia Online! What a blast of nostalgia. I miss my chibi avatar…

HopenHeyHi 3y ago
Son, I still think about my green Neopets T-Rex.
- Operyl 3y ago
  That website is somehow still kicking, years later. It’s a shell of its former self, though, having been sold a few times now.
bovermyer 3y ago
I created my Gaia Online account in 2003. Sadly, I can't regain access to it, as it was deactivated. Last time I tried, I needed to create a new account in order to create a support request, and things got weird. That was a decade ago, I think.

nstart 3y ago

> Most of what we hear of the Fediverse is rants about twitter and a few of the same subcultures over and over again. I feel like this isn't true anymore. There's definitely a lot of chatter about Twitter of course and even more so now that there's regular Twitter related drama happening. But I have 7 federated instances on speed dial that range from general purpose, to infosec, to art, and to game development. They all talk about a lot of stuff, not just the things related purely to the server theme. I checked all of their local timelines just now and found only one post talking about Twitter and it was just a link to a news item where Elon talks about government access to Twitter. Notably absent were any growth hack posts. Everything was just stream of consciousness stuff.

rapnie 3y ago
A lot of the rants came from frustrated people migrating away from Twitter by the shenanigans of Musk. There has been a bit of a culture change due to the large influx. But now that these people get to be comfortable in their new 'home', these discussion also become less frequent. Of course it is also who you follow that determines how you are exposed to these rants. If you are in a Twitter exodus group there'll be plenty more ranting.
HopenHeyHi 3y ago
> the same subcultures over and over again How many XX-chromosome neurotypical a-political undyed-hair normies are on your 7 federated instances? Please, count. People can be miffed at me for pointing this truth out but that is how social networks grow big. Such is life. The Rihanna/Swift/Kardashian/BlackPink people will never switch and as they will correctly inform you, they run the world. It is called social media, remember? Social people will stay on Instagram and Twitter as that is where you get attention. AI researchers are all on Twitter too for that matter. The gravitational pull is too strong. Edit: Hmm, I wonder who is downvoting this obvious mathematical fact of life, such a mystery!
- dang 3y ago
  If you keep posting flamebait to HN we are going to have to ban you. We've warned you about this at least once already! https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - HopenHeyHi 3y ago
    The subject is growth hacking and social networks. Social networks grow big by targeting young female users as a vector for growth. Well documented countless times and talked about at length by the people who work there, this is one of the very key original "growth hacks" and not some sort of secret. Rihanna posts baby pictures on twitter that get more views and engagement than all of the fediverse combined. This captures the key demographic. You're welcome to publicly explain how the statement that you need buy in from content producers in the vain of Rihanna/Swift/Kardashians/BlackPink to capture the young female crowd, which brings in the young male crowd, which drives enough critical mass to bring in everybody else, an outright mathematical fact (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law), as some sort of flame bait. I am familiar with your link. What guideline specifically am I violating here in this thread please Dang? Thanks in advance.

rvz 3y ago

Funny thing is I don't see lots of people screaming about MySpace for 7 years on Twitter or Facebook. Looks like those hundreds of millions of users really did move on.