There is perennial discussion about what fediverse servers (Lemmy or otherwise) to recommend to new users. I have a proposal, perhaps not very original but I haven’t seen it made often.

Let’s just recommend that newbies pick an instance that is located close to them geographically. That’s to say: their country, their region, or (ideally) their town.

Some context. Personally, I am not totally sold on social media, federated or otherwise. The evidence is now pretty clear that it causes major social harms. One way it does this is by fuelling polarization around hot-button national and international debates, at the expense of local issues. Reviving democracy is going to mean boosting communities at a local level. This could be a small way to do that.

  • Ofiuco@piefed.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    There’s only one mexican instance, it uses a whitelist and it fucking federates with grad so… Yeah, out of options.

    I’ve been here since the reddit API exodus and I’ve never seen a latinamerican comm in my feed, much less latinamerican spanish posts.

    And hosting an instance is not that simple, it requires effort, content, time, some originality and money (even if a little)… And people who want to join, but I’ve seen maybe 1 mexican (who I assume lives in México too) other than me… Because mexicans love being strangled by meta, so there’s little to no incentive into creating a space for us in the fediverse.

      • Ofiuco@piefed.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 hours ago

        And I’ve never seen their posts on my feed… I’ll try searching some comms from there to here and see if it was just missing active federation.

        And being the cynical asshole that I am… It doesn’t surprise me at all, the technological ignorance is huge in latinamerica and we are stubborn as fuck, people just don’t want to learn or try anything different, even if it could be better.

    • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      1 day ago

      There’s only one mexican instance

      Join it and make it better.

      it uses a whitelist and it fucking federates with grad

      Change that fact, or accept it, or use blocking features (which are not lacking).

      Sure, these won’t be popular suggestions, but IMO social media should not be just another form of shopping, where we pick exactly what agrees with us best, and annoys us least, and then lock the door to keep everything else out.

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Your views here go against the nature of the fediverse. You’re telling people they should go there and be unhappy with their choices. That’s not how the fediverse works.

        The fediverse way to to spun up a Mexican server which does have the views and federation people want, and encourage others to join naturally.

        • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          1 day ago

          Well, if the true nature of the fediverse is to encourage people to silo themselves into echo chambers where they never have to deal with others who don’t already share all their values and opinions - if that’s truly the point of this thing - then yes, apparently I’m wasting my time here. I still hope there’s a better way.

          • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            1 day ago

            Ah I believe this is the Either/Or logical fallacy.

            People not wanting to see hate speech or propaganda does not mean they are in echo chambers. Those are two different things.

            It also doesn’t stand with my original statement. Go set up your own instance that is welcoming. That would prove that it’s not an echo chamber and expand the fediverse. Win win from what I see. Let us know when it’s up.

            • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              1 day ago

              People not wanting to see hate speech or propaganda does not mean they are in echo chambers.

              You know that bad guys are now calling your ideas “hate speech” and “propaganda”, right? And they believe it as much as you do. How do you propose to get out of this mess if not by talking?

              • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                9
                ·
                1 day ago

                And I believe this logical fallacy is Moral Equivalence.

                We’re not comparing here, I’m not biting on the rage bait. Again, the proposed solution stands. Set up your own instance and prove us all wrong, show us how to make this utopia you promise.

                • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  5
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  Since when am I proposing a utopia? I’m proposing that people talk to people in their physical communities. Nothing more ambitious than that.

                  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    7
                    ·
                    1 day ago

                    Again, the proposed solution stands. Set up your own instance and prove us all wrong, show us how to make this local place where people talk to each other in their physical community.

                    There, that better? Show us how to do it, if it’s popular more will do it.

          • glimse@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            But then you’re supporting an instance that in turn supports something you don’t agree with. lemmy.world federated with a furry server and I don’t mind just blocking it because I don’t want to see it…but if something like hexbear gets federated, I’m gone.

              • glimse@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                1 day ago

                Nah, being tolerant of intolerance is how we got here. Don’t need to hear from the “other side” anymore