I’m fairly new to the Fediverse, and I’d like to share my onboarding experience. Personally, I appreciate the concept of decentralization and the community-driven aspect of Fediverse. I’ve used Mastodon and Lemmy, based on ActivityPub, for a while:

  1. I find it difficult to get all the updates I need on a particular instance, and except for a few very large instances, most others appear quite quiet and like the Internet ten years ago.

  2. The content and style of each instance tend to be quite diverse. To find someone to follow, I must switch between different instances with lengthy domains.

  3. Fediverse isn’t truly decentralized; instances operate under the will of server owners, who can ban and remove content as they please.

These reasons prompted me to explore more decentralized networks, I mean truly decentralized networks, such as Nostr.

However, creating a Nostr account and saving the Recovery Phrases is challenging (I lost my first Nostr account due to the loss of Recovery Phrases). And generally speaking, the user experience on Nostr is much worse than Mastodon, full of scam and ads.

I believe people should leave Twitter due to shadowbans and robots and Facebook due to privacy concerns, but I’m struggling to choose a platform to migrate to. Each has its drawbacks, making it difficult to decide.

I’d love to hear your opinions on this.

  • bachalxyz@lemmy.world
    4·
    10 months ago

    I’m sorry to hear that your experience on Mastodon has been unsatisfying, but you should never expect a perfect, dreamlike experience on Fediverse, because such a perfect experience often comes at the cost of your freedom and ownership.

    Since Elon took over Twitter, the platform has shown a declining trend. It’s only a matter of time before users abandon it. So why not now?

    Personally, I believe the scam and ads on Nostr are a result of its close ties with the bitcoin community, drawing in users primarily motivated by profit. If you are still looking for decentralized alternatives, consider platforms like WireMin, Session, etc, where privacy-conscious individuals often gather. These platforms also have better user experience than Nostr because they are committed to retaining the relatively small number of users who value privacy and freedom.

    However, it’s important to note that both the Fediverse and the decentralized platforms are still in their very early stages, lacking the ability to generate a significant network effect. Keep this in mind as you navigate through various alternatives.