Hashtags do not replace groups.

No one moderates them. They’re easy to hijack and spam. And there’s simply no permanence to them.

Which is why, if you actually want to discuss something, it’s better to tag a group. For example, if you want to be part of an actual PC gaming community on the Fediverse, it’s better to tag @pcgaming@lemmy.ca than #pcgaming.

This needs to be common knowledge because people new to the Fediverse do not know about groups. Hell, I’d say people who have had Mastodon accounts for years still don’t know. And that’s a shame.

@fediverse@lemmy.world

  • CoolMcCool@mastodon.au
    71·
    5 hours ago

    @atomicpoet @fediverse TBH I think a lot of people (including me) have a very sketchy idea of how the different bits of the Fediverse link together… I’m still a bit vague about how my #Mastodon and #Pixelfed accounts could work better together.

    There’s a lot of *assumed knowledge* about the #Fediverse … and people don’t want to ask ‘stupid’ questions because they don’t want to ‘look stupid’. There needs to be easily accessible and explicit step by step instructions *to get people started*.

    Where could I find a group about #ux or #humancentredesign for example? Or #photography ?

    • Chris Trottier@atomicpoet.orgOP
      5·
      4 hours ago

      @Coolmccool@mastodon.au @fediverse@lemmy.world The best way to explain #Pixelfed is that it’s an Instagram-like front-end for the Fediverse. But practically speaking, it’s Mastodon if pictures were a requirement on Mastodon. You interact with a Pixelfed account from Mastodon in much the same way you interact with another Mastodon account, or how you’re interacting with my Akkoma account right now. It really is just like email.

      Regarding group topics, the best way to find them is to do a search on a place like lemmy.world or lemmy.ca. For example, uiux@programming.dev is one. And you can find the URL here:

      https://programming.dev/c/uiux

    • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
      31·
      4 hours ago

      I have literally zero interest in cross pollination between social media types.
      They each have their own interfaces that work best for their communities and content types. You’re always missing something trying to access one from another.

      • shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lolEnglish
        5·
        4 hours ago

        If you have zero interest in the fundamental architecture of the fediverse, why are you in this community? You’re probably interacting with “cross pollination” way more than you realize.

        • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
          4·
          3 hours ago

          I follow topics and have discussions on Lemmy, keep up with individuals and announcements on Mastodon, and look at cool photos on Pixelfed.
          None of my accounts are following anything on other systems.

          The reason I’m in this community is for discussions like this. We disagree on the nature of using he fundamental architecture of the Fediverse.
          I think using Mastodon to engage in Lemmy discussions is extremely awkward without the threading to keep it all organized. Equally, Lemmy is designed specifically around following communities. Following individuals on Mastodon breaks the pattern of the feed. And good luck following either Mastodon accounts or Lemmy groups in Pixelfed.

          However, having multiple decentralized servers within each system, is plenty of reason for the Fediverse to be better than a centralized platform. They don’t Need to interoperate with each other.

            • atomicpoet@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              3 hours ago

              Mastodon is terrible for topical discussions because people don’t use groups. But they can if they knew how to use them.

              You may say the system was not designed for cross-pollination, but the fundamental system is not Mastodon, and it’s not Lemmy: it’s ActivityPub.

              Now do all these apps implement ActivityPub imperfectly? Yes. But eventually, some app will get it right—ideally one that will let you choose your preferred UI/UX on the fly.

                • atomicpoet@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  3 hours ago

                  Not only is it possible, there’s lots of Fediverse software that’s just designed to be a “dumb server” akin to Nginx. For example, appy:

                  https://appy.cat/

                  Now the reason this stuff hasn’t caught fire yet is because we’re just now moving away from “Fediverse = Mastodon”. So the idea of federation itself isn’t just a paradigm shift, it’s a complete system shock that disrupts our mental models for how social media is supposed to work.

                  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
                    2·
                    3 hours ago

                    That’s entirely dependent on the interface switching, or some kind of universal interface. That’s the part I have serous doubts about. Keep in mind you have to make a single interface that work better than all the others on their respective native systems. I’m not sure that’s possible.