The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:
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~30 years old or older
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tech enthusiasts/workers
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linux users
There’s nothing wrong with that particular demographic or anything, but it doesn’t feel like a win to me if the entire fediverse is just one big monoculture.
I wonder what it is that is keeping more diverse users away? Is picking a server/federation too complicated? Or is it that they don’t see any content that they like?
Thoughts?
Let’s be honest here - Lemmy today is a very broken experience. I can’t recommend it to my partner because she will complain non stop that this not working, that is laggy, etc. It’s all fun for enthusiasts, but it’s nothing more than a very broken alpha preview of what could be made in few years.
There’s also a lack of content. Can you get a professional skincare advice on Lemmy? No. Can you talk to Bill Gates on Lemmy? No. Is there a Chinese Cooking Demistified community on Lemmy? No. It’s just Linux, Fediverse, cats and porn.
And then there’s a question of money. For Lemmy to go mainstream it needs to spend millions on promotion, ads, development, customer support, lawyers, etc. You can build great thing on enthusiasm, but they will remain a niche. If you want to reach the masses, you need a lot of capital. You can see that clearly with Facebook’s Twitter clone - tens of millions sign ups in 24 days. Can’t do that without spending tens of millions.
Yeah, the first companies to support Linux clearly saw it had a shit ton of money. If it’s a good idea, the right people will pick it up, even if we’re dead by the time it happens.
Linux was definitely a very niche product for a very long time. Right until companies started investing heavily and it because a multi billion dollar industry. Just look at its alternatives which came out around the same time like FreeBSD etc. Where are they? Dead or living in obscurity.
FreeBSD is being used by Netflix and others, I don’t use it because I’m not offended by virtual hugs, but it might appeal to those who really hate systemd these days. Linux started being commercialized in the 90’s, the same decade it came out, and the same decade Microsoft wrote the “Halloween docs.” Linux took root pretty damn quick in the grand scheme of things. It may never take the server market, but Linux has been kicking ass since a few years after it was announced.