@taylorlorenz Here's my best shot: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/11/03/Time-to-Migrate from which

1/2 ”Have you noticed that social-media products, in the long term, can’t seem to manage to stay fun and safe and useful? I have. But there’s one huge exception, a tool that’s been serving billions of us for decades, and works about as well as it ever did. I’m talking about email.

@taylorlorenz "Nobody controls the network. It's like email. If GMail loses their mind and starts inserting Republican propaganda everywhere, you might have to switch to Hotmail, but you can still use email. You can still email the people you used to email. It's not like you have to keep using GMail hating it more and more every day because this one single company is the only way you can email anybody."

@taylorlorenz You get to keep a sane distance from Satan’s merchants on earth for one thing

@taylorlorenz I usually start by explaining the chronological feed with no publicity; then, that it's not a platform, but a software run in many different places, so there is no one owner; then, I circle back to the fact that there are no algorithms choosing what you see on your feed.
I have the feeling I'm not persuasive enough, so I would love to hear other strategies.

@taylorlorenz Profit isn't a motivating factor. Admins create and maintain instances because they want them to exist and other people to benefit from their existence.

@taylorlorenz

I get why they call it a "decentralized network" but that description was kind of a turn off for me before I came here because I thought you were trapped in a little server with a few dozen people and what's the point of that?

The power is decentralized but the communication need not be. You can talk to anyone from any community. You can have all of those fun instances of cross pollination when different communities intersect.

The more the fedi grows the better this gets.

@taylorlorenz

There are no ads.
There are no bots*
There is no secret algorithm controlled by strange billionaires and/or creeps trying to push agendas**
It's really fun and interactive and you meet great people, real individual people.

*Ya'll are such nerds you are going to bring up the good bots that we made and like, but you know exactly what I mean by this.
**ant propaganda doesn't count I'm not that rich either

@taylorlorenz Freedom. Free from algorithms. Free from the whims of an owner. It's people connecting as they see fit.

@taylorlorenz I see a lot of good responses. One contextual element is who is asking, and I think there are good answers that fit more for organizations. You can build a media platform that no one can take away from you. If you share a link to your post, no one will see a login wall. If i were an org, news outlet, or something like a very socially engaged regional music collective, i think the robust control of your platform actually means something important.

@taylorlorenz Because independent app developers can add features to decentralized social networking that vastly enhance the experience. Both the ability to follow hashtags and timed mutes are absolutely genius and are the reason I'm not on Bluesky. What new, totally kicksss things are going to be created for the Fediverse next week?

@taylorlorenz

IMO the 'free speech' trope has been used to flood billionaires' platforms w hate speech & AI-generated deepfake porn that isn't tolerated on my Fediverse server

I'm here less for freedom TO spew whatever I want & more for freedom FROM algorithms, ads, & someone's profit motive determining what I see. I'm here for Solidarity & Movement Building & learning from people all over the world like @pluralistic & @popcornreel & @StillRise1967

Also for #CatsOfMastodon & #HashtagGames 🙆🏻‍♀️

@taylorlorenz No corporate overlord mining your data and then using it to dictate what's in your feed.

@taylorlorenz I own my social media feed and my community. It feels like a local pub with friends where I share rumours and stories. Not attention seeking circus club.

@taylorlorenz It’s a more authentic experience on here, they monitor bots and eradicate them, troll like replies trying to influence, steer your original post with a negative connotation just don’t happen. It’s less commercialised. A chair, chat and cup of tea, kinder experience.

@taylorlorenz
Facebook has for years blocked links to my own blog, and now to news websites. Mastodon doesn't do that, and you can also keep your content, so Meta can't delete it all including your photos and friend connections.

@taylorlorenz On the old centralized platforms, everyone's in the same building with the same landlord, if the landlord is shitty (of course they are) everyone suffers. On decentralized media, there are tons of buildings with different landlords, and you can even build your own house. If your landlord sucks, you move.

@taylorlorenz The most important part for me is that this is not yet another "cloud app" where one entity controls everything: your account, what you see, the client applications, etc., but a protocol, where you can use whatever compatible software you want, even multiple.

It makes feature rollout difficult, but it's a massive safety feature in my opinion. If Mastodon gGmbH did something highly unpopular, all this software can feasibly choose to ignore it. They *cannot* force it on everyone.

@taylorlorenz I like Jefferson’s phrasing: “it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my arm” Technology that is not working actively to harm me and my loved ones is very appealing to me.

@taylorlorenz

A lot of people complained when Instagram first switched from a chronological feed to an algorithmic one.

But I think the way forward for the fediverse is communities moving here wholesale like the forkiverse server did.

I don't think people will make accounts here otherwise unless they're the kind of nerd who's interested in this (in which case selling it is easy) or they have network effects which take a long time to build up.

@taylorlorenz Imagine a world without politicians, billionaires and bosses running everything, abusing everyone.
No ads and no algorithm.
Add a high signal to noise ratio.
On arrivsl you can move into the neighborhood you like best, and pay the rent you can.
Now take that world online, make it a social network, better, a social community.
You get Mastodon

@taylorlorenz It's the only social where you aren't the product. You aren't being force-fed content to promote someone else's interests.

@taylorlorenz @stux It’s kind.

@taylorlorenz
Non-profit, no algorithm, no ads. Decentralized means that you control how and where (mobility) you interact with the network, and there is not a single point of failure as there is within centralized social media.

@taylorlorenz “your words”. Not “your words as long as they conform to this week’s ketamine fuelled fetished cravings of the owning billionaires”

@taylorlorenz @tchambers You're not forced to use a specific website or a specific software to look at it, and then use it. Explaining what's federation and what's decentralization is very complex, especially to someone who uses internet passively - without knowing how it really works.
I always say that Fediverse is very difficult to be communicated, rather than used. You can't avoid explaining what "decentralization" really means. Despite blackout and similar stuff are more frequent, they don't see it as an immediate concern.
I always say that communicating Fediverse is like talking about U=U (Undetectable Untransmittable) referred to HIV prevention.
It's a very important concept for everyone's sex life. As it means that if you live with HIV and are in constant effective treatment, even without condom you can NEVER transmit virus to anyone. This destroys all 40 years old stigma we have, theoretically.
But you can't really explain this concept of UNDETECTABLE without explaining (at least the basis) of what VIRAL LOAD is. A concept that you can't give for granted.

@taylorlorenz Let me give this a try from a non-admin perspective.. 🤔

The Fediverse is a place on the internet where you can still meet interesting people from all over the world. Instead of uploading your contacts and following the same people over and over, on the Fediverse you discover new interests, info, help and support and everything you need in a HUMAN social network!

Sorry if it's a little long but im sure you can make something out of it! 💕

@taylorlorenz I just think it's great that you can get together with a few of your friends and run a Mastodon server for a few bucks a month.

Together, you are an independent entity, you set your own rules, but you are also part of something bigger, you can connect with many communities and individuals that the fediverse is made up of.

And that is pretty neat.

@taylorlorenz Not beholden to one person’s ownership, as in there’s no Elon who’s going to take over and change the whole Fediverse, or even Mastodon

Chronological timeline.

You drive the algorithm instead of it driving you

@taylorlorenz

It's organized at its root level around what I want to see. That's the part nobody seems to get.

@taylorlorenz

don't appeal to high mindedness

sell it

- no ads

- choose a server that fits your style, no one-size-fits-all straightjacket

- zero privacy defilement

- immunity to some racist edgelord techbro coming in, buying the thing, and turning it into bigot and ignorance paradise

@taylorlorenz
What each user sees on the Fediverse is up to them. No billionaire can force their views into your feed, because your feed is opt-in. Likewise, they can't stop you from seeing what you want to see. If your instance blocks things you want to see, you can switch to another instance; there are many.

@taylorlorenz Because people here have to put energy into interacting with each other. And that makes us happy.

@taylorlorenz For me it's simple: people are nicer, people are smarter. IDK why, maybe 'cuz there's no algorithm amplifying the most outrageous hot takes, and no billionaire owners shoving their agenda down our throats. IMHO "free expression" means different things to different people. You can spout Nazi garbage on Mastodon if you want, but you probably won't get a wide audience. But if you have a reasonable comment to contribute to a conversation, there's a good chance you'll get heard here.

@taylorlorenz Free edit button 😊 https://bne.social/@phocks/113852656164872270

@taylorlorenz You can meaningfully have a say in content moderation policies.

Reporting bad actors usually leads to a more pro-social outcome.

I think there are many but that feels important.

@taylorlorenz Curious what finally won you over?

For me, it was an opportunity to reboot my relationship with social media in general, approaching it fresh, but having nearly 20 years of knowledge about all the ways it can go wrong.

I don't talk about decentralization. I just focus on my feed showing me only what I choose to follow, and enjoying the interesting people I've met here since 2022.

@taylorlorenz

Do you trust big tech controlled apps then let them divide into their respective camps

@taylorlorenz No ads. I think that's a highly convincing argument for many people & it's directly tied to decentralization: The fediverse is basically social media before algorithms & thanks to decentralization, if anyone wanted to add any kind of algorithmic reach functionality, everyone else would be free to ignore it - and without an algo, there's no business case for advertising in the 'verse.

@taylorlorenz

Ok. An Instagram influencer was complaining about the awful comments she keeps getting and that make her want to stop. I told her it's partly because of the platform. Meta loves drama, it makes people to consume more time there. So they do not have reasons to stop bad behaviour.

On Mastodon people do not harrass others, at least on the Finnish bubble I'm in. If they would, they would be kicked out.

In Finnish school the kids that are being heavely bullied need to changed the school. Here it's the opposite. The bulliers need to find a new instance for themselves and that may be difficult.

@taylorlorenz

My decision to switch was based on the motivations of the people running it. Commercial social media is motivated by commercial priorities. The point of the fediverse is connection for connection's sake.

@taylorlorenz You formulate your own algorithm using hash tags. Nothing is suggested to you. There are no ads. Thus, on your feed, you see only what you want to see and connect only with the people and businesses you want to be connected with. Yet, you can still scroll and snoop around the entire space if you want to.

@taylorlorenz How would you? When your bluesky is 1000% more active

@taylorlorenz
(Part 1)
because believe it or not, groups of people need some isolation from each other. People are angry and want to kill each other because they were all put into the same social forum on facebook, twitter etc. There are simply incompatible world views that if forced to co-exist, people literally they want to kill each other. Also don’t forget what Facebook did in Burma (different topic).

@taylorlorenz It's like the public radio of social networks, user supported social network.

@taylorlorenz No ads
No algorithms
Just people talking to each other

@taylorlorenz as others have said, you control who you see posts from. You only see things that the accounts you follow post or boost.

And zero Nazi tolerance

@taylorlorenz no algorithm: sequential timeline that updates when there are actually new posts. I can check in and know when I am 'caught up' and can go back to life.

@taylorlorenz
You pick your mods. You pick your rules. You pick your community.

@taylorlorenz Number one for me is, 'You are not making some rich **** even richer.' Secondly, you have better, more meaningful conversations.

@taylorlorenz You control what you see in your feed and you control what you post. No propaganda, censorship, games, surveillance or trolls. How is that not better in every way?

@taylorlorenz Monopolies are bad and there's no reason why "posts" need to be owned by a monopoly. Fediverse is good for the same reason why email is good.

@taylorlorenz
Its nice Twitter.
No adverts or algorithm.
No one owns it.
It's like lots of mini Twitters that can talk to each other.
Each mini Twitter has its own rules and interests.
You should join the one that best suits you.

@taylorlorenz

The most concise way I describe the difference between commercial algorithm based platforms versus the fediverse.

In the former, you are presented with the illusion of a town square, it propagates content based on spectacle and “engagement”

In the latter, people are the algorithm as members of distinct communities, moderated by real people.

@taylorlorenz

To answer this, we should first understand why people don’t think it makes sense. Someone I know that dislikes big business, and uses X said: “I struggle to understand the basics of a decentralized social network, it seems oxymoronic except for extreme nerds”.

Take that as you will, but hopefully it is useful feedback.

@taylorlorenz we are in control- not the algorithms.
Other platforms thrive on conflict. Mastodon does not because people do not like it and it’s people who drive Mastodon timelines, not algorithms.

@taylorlorenz
- Community-driven, not profit-driven
- chose instance with rules that suit you
- follow many other services/websites from the one account (Pixelfed, Lemmy, etc.)

@taylorlorenz
https://url-shortener.me/B1EQ

@taylorlorenz I compare it to email, with how people or organizations control their own servers. Then ask what they think email would be like if one company controlled all of it. And how much they would charge.

@taylorlorenz

On decentralized social media (like Mastodon) there's no Algorithm making sure you see the optimal toxic engagement bait.

All you get for posts is do people like it recently?

Its like the good old days before big tech had their Algorithms dialed in to make you as addicted as possible.

@taylorlorenz

No ads, no algorithm, admins who care (if you pick the right instance), a sense of community and control. You have it here, rather than the billionaires

@taylorlorenz By proving to them that crowdsourcing can still beat AI-fluff, perhaps? And you're well on your way 👾

@taylorlorenz It *starts* with community (does not seek unsustainable growth, by default). Because hosts depend on the community to fund it, it can’t grow so big as to be exploited (limits to growth are useful to sustain meaningful community connections).

@taylorlorenz

While it can be used for commercial purposes, the control rests with people, not corporations. In that sense it's true social media, rather than a profit-making enterprise disguised as something else.

@taylorlorenz At the risk of quoting a monstrous human being, "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"

@taylorlorenz
This post right here:

https://mastodon.social/deck/@AlSweigart/116019045298109492

Because Mastodon is lots of severable, community-edited, non-profits linked up.

@taylorlorenz let us know how we can help - we think a lot of people are pretty tired of having their data mined, conversations sold, and commercial companies injecting inauthentic content into their timelines. Maybe that’s just us? Happy to have a chat if it would be useful.

@taylorlorenz You own your timeline. Like early days when social media worked.

@taylorlorenz Real quick off the top of my head I usually say the Fediverse is not controlled by Billionaires, can't be bought/sold or controlled, isn't filled with ads, doesn't track you or try to sell your information, isn't filled with Nazis (they are on their own servers and I never see them because they are blocked) and there's not an algorithm trying to feed me crap I don't want to see.

@taylorlorenz well, I think that isn't about the quality of the free speech (there are tons of instanced banned from main federation networks) but the difficulty to apply censorship, of course, instance admins are individually more vulnerable by State or corporate pressure than the owner of csam dot com/x , but there are too many of them making it more resilient

@taylorlorenz someone with a profit motive is not incentivized to hijack your brain. I engage with things on Mastodon/fediverse in a much more controlled, healthier, self-driven way than I ever did on Twitter, Instagram, etc.

@taylorlorenz
Your choice and control. Nobody is trying to manipulate you or make you buy something. You can just hang out with the others.

@taylorlorenz Maybe frame it as similar to solar power?

Imagine a community solar grid as the Fediverse. So if the electric grid (corporate social media) goes down or gets enshitttifed by Nazis, you are protected from that since your instance runs on community grid without an owner and the rules are set by that community, so you can kick out bad actors.

Also, similar to social media, the solar communities can be connected together and share energy (information) and if one community goes down or turns bad (becomes a nazi bar) you can disconnect it easily and preserve your community.

Just thinking out loud…

@taylorlorenz
- Top of my list: it's not profit driven. That changes the entire incentive structure of everything.
- It's my data and I can move it elsewhere freely if I don't like my server.
- No algorithm burying my voice.
- It generally just self-selects a different userbase. Less performativity, less clout chasing, less drama. We aren't sexy or popular, and that attracts different kinds of folks.
- If I don't like how it works, I can (and have!) changed how it works.

@taylorlorenz WRT freedom of expression: Government of the people by the people for the people, not government of the people by oligarchs for oligarchs.

Mastodon is only part of the Fediverse in the same way Gmail is part of email, not the totality of it. Alternatives exist: Tusky, Megalodon, Phanphy etc.

@taylorlorenz Use simple examples:

What if an instance admin dislikes you?
-> Fediverse: Get banned from one instance; change instance; reconnect to your friends.
-> X: Get banned from X; be lost.

What if the owner of a server wants to spread their world view or influence elections?
-> Instagram: Algorithm changed; Propaganda gets boosted; noone sees other opinions
-> Mastodon: People curate their timelines and decide what they see

@taylorlorenz We're like a global NPR : each instance (thousands. of all sizes) is its own local radio station producing or relaying all kinds of content (local, national, global content), with free access to any other station's content through a voluntary federation. No ads, no corporations, no skeezy Nazi screwing with your feed to force a disruptive fascist content down your throat when you just want to tune into the ant station or climate change or German elections or jokes or cats or get live updates on the ground from Minneapolis. We exist beholden to no one man or corporation. And there's still a refreshing earnestness here. The meanness of X is not our vibe.

@taylorlorenz decentralized = no single entity will control the entire network.
No oligarchy control, almost impossible to shutdown, hard to manipulate via algorithm tweaks or short: real people interact, not corporate puppets

@taylorlorenz imagine picking and choosing what to read rather than having if rammed down your throat with 'suggested content ' that you can't avoid, where you are the algorithm.

@taylorlorenz Nothing new really--just that we make the algorithm with boosting often and following widely. The effort I spend in getting into streams of content is worth the satisfaction of enriching multiple aspects of my life. Knowing that a billionaire cannot ensh*ttify this is also a big plus because the present-day game plan seems to be billionaire + media outlet = ashes.

@taylorlorenz easy. I can explore whatever shows up on my feed without worrying about it showing up in my ad portfolio. It took time for this is sink in. My curiosity or lack of ability to understand what a link is before a click it no longer punishes me by assuming that I am now into whatever that was. It's like getting out of an abusive relationship when they question everything I do.