Lost_My_Mind

Ya know? Most of the time I don’t get to say this, but I think if the fediverse had a MySpace type service, I think the fediverse version might actually out-perform the official real version of MySpace. Which would probably be the thing that makes some corporate entity try to sue the fediverse.

Now in theory, MySpace can’t sue this Fediverse version of MySpace. For clarity sake, let’s call this fictional version of MySpace “FediSpace”.

So if MySpace tried to sue FediSpace, we all know that the decentralized nature of the fediverse should make that more or less impossible. But how would it hold up in real life? You can make all the laws you want. You can plan your government to run however you want. If the last few years have taught me anything it’s that none of that matters. If the people with money want to win, the courts are not an obstacle. They will make shit up, ignore shit, do whatever they can so the company with the money wins in court.

I just have no idea what that would look like. I don’t rule out the possibility, but I think it would require thousands of lawsuits. And I don’t see MySpace footing the bill for that. So I have no idea how to imagine it.

Oh god not again!!! MySpace Tom is about to kidnap people in vans, and shoot innocent people on the street while taking no responsibility in the slightest.

What? That’s what happened last time someone trying to make a comeback said that. Look what happened within a year.

Well clearly nothing could go wrong with that, right? …right?

Government: Describe how they opened the artificial tubes of intelligent internet.

AI companies: Oh. It would appear we can lie our asses off, because these dustpiles don’t understand the core concepts at play here…

AI companies: They used a zappy gun. Which is why we need to install mass surveilance on every phone and street corner to find all the zappy guns.

Government: My god!!! Those zappy guns go pew pew pew and now everyone knows I wear pink panties and a dog collar in my wifes basement! Fund the AI immediately!

Hell it’s the only place I’m okay with something up my ass.

Psssshhhhhh! Prude!

Btw, I’m not defending these doctors with the glasses. Fuck that shit! That should absolutely be banned.

I’m just saying anal is awesome! You’re missing out.

Here’s the thing.

looks around

Hmmmm, yeah. That’s what I thought. Everyone here is the wrong audience to really comment on this.

The reason peoples opinion here doesn’t matter much is because like it or not, Lemmy is a hive mindset.

Don’t like linux? Booooooo

Don’t care about open source? Boooooo

Don’t engage in antisocial behavior? Boooooo

And thats the audience here. It’s impossible for you to comment on the mental state of the general broad population when this site seemingly collects an audience that goes out of their way to stay away from the broad general population. How could you possibly relate to someone like my brother in law, who uses Windows 11, without issue? I asked him how he can stsnd all the AI, and the spying. I was expecting an actual answer, and maybe some insight as to how to not make Windows 11 the dumpster fire that it is. Instead, he defends Windows 11 with blind faith ignorance. Insisting that there is no spying in Windows 11, and the AI is actually a good thing.

And I watched as an entire room nodded along in understanding. All agreeing with these points. I realized in that moment that there is zero conversation to be had with these people. I know for fact that Windows 11 spies on you. I know for fact that there is AI in Windows 11. It’s easy to see that if left at its current rate, that AI and data centers that support AI will inevitably lead to mass water shortages.

And I’m confident that these words would land harder here on Lemmy, where I think 99% of you understand the gravity and real nature of what I’m saying.

The problem is, 99% of Lemmy’s typical userbase accounts for 0.01% of the general population. This website is a bubble. Which is a shame, because I fully believe the model for Lemmys infrastructure is the cure for the problems that the general population complain about.

But it’ll never be tested at scale. Most people do not give a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck about privacy, or open source, or decentralization. Facebook knows my phone number, and has photos of me. Against my consent. And my mom who’s in her 80s, who uses facebook to keep in touch with her sewing community, sees nothing wrong here.

Thats why the people here, who only support mastodon, will never understand why that stratagy won’t work for the masses. And honestly, even if it did, then it wouldn’t work for you.

Because twitter has something like 375 million users. When taylor swift wants to promote something, she does it on twitter. Because it’s where the people are. It’s also a right wing agenda platform, owned by a literal seig hailing nazi, but yet its still the default service regardless if you’re left or right. It’s just where the people are.

Here is what you have done. You saw an ocean. You took note of all the problems fish have in the ocean. You then designed a new concept where fish can swim in a tiny little manufactured pond. But if it gets too small, it can be scaled bigger. You removed the threats of being eaten. You’ve removed the fishing boats. You managed the algae. You planted seaweed so they have food. You installed everything a fish needs to have a happier healthier life from your perspective.

Except there’s no water in this pond. The fediverse concentrates so hard on the advanced features that would make for a great experience…and then forgets the basics that are needed to support life here. Social media only survives when it has an audience, just as fish only survive when they have water.

All the advanced stuff that goes unused in the fediverse means nothing without an audience. Basically if bluesky dies, the users go back to twitter.

You complain that mastodon is better. But bluesky only got popular because the general population didn’t want twitter with nazis. They wanted old twitter. Bluesky is old twitter without the nazis. Thats all they wanted. But it’s only got a tiny fraction of the audience twitter has. So again, taylor swift says her things on twitter. Not bluesky. Not enough people on bluesky to be considered the default. Just like the fediverse can’t keep fish surviving without water, the same is true on bluesky.

The order it goes is that celebrities need to say things to hold an audience. Before the internet, that platform was tv/radio. There were also a lot less celebrities. Because tv/radio just didn’t have a need to create more celebrities. But now, a celebrity can either get their message across to 375 million, or 14 million.

Celebrities go where there is an infrastructure that can handle their fame, and the audience goes where the celebrities go. Below that are us. We’re not the 14 million. Lemmy has 60k and shrinking. But for us the order goes “infrastructure THEN audience”. Which is never going to pull in a huge audience. It can support a large audience. Argueably better. But it’ll never be tested.

Sooooooooo, we as a nation have ALREADY just given up that trump can and will run for a 3rd term? I always said he’ll try to force a loophole. So far he’s done nothing of the sort. No loophole has been established. There is from a legal standpoint no reason to think he can currently run for a 3rd term.

Yet all across the internet I keep seeing people talk about it like it’s inevitable. Like we’re just going to skip the two term limit, and just pretend he found the loophole, because otherwise he’ll drag us through some bullshit to get there. So now, rather than challange him at all, we as a society have already given up, 2 years before the election even happens. We’ve come to accept that laws and constitution mean nothing. Trump is just going to run for a 3rd term. That’s just how it is. Laws don’t matter. Government doesn’t matter.

And who exactly decided all this? I for one plan on repeatedly challenging his ability to run for a 3rd term.

Oh man! I can get a gyro now??? Sweet deal!!!

deadpans left

deadpans right

…I was being sarcastic!

…not sure who that is, and I’m unsure why you’d throw him under the bus for stealing flock cameras.

Hercules was with me all night. We were doing competitive pushups.

He won. Because he’s awesome, and he can balance a spoon on his nose, and he tore down soooooo many flock cameras…I mean…no, not that last one. I don’t know why I said that. He was with me all night in the garage doing push-ups.

Wait…you had a party and didn’t invite me???

Rude.

Our current government took its cue from Drew Carry.

Everything’s made up, and the points don’t matter.

I mean for gods sake! One of our senators has been dead for weeks, and they’re just weekend at mcconnels over here.

Correction: No they fucking didn’t.

And if you think you saw someone doing this, no the fuck you didn’t.

You say /s, but that’s the literal exact reason that Microsoft has all the market share.

Well the reason that is big, is that regardless of the OS, whether it’s windows, MacOS, or Linux, the concept of a desktop experience itself is shrinking.

Most people today that use desktops do so at work only. Meaning they don’t control if it’s Windows 11, Windows 10, Linux, or some company made propriatary OS (which, is most likely a form of linux). Doesn’t matter. They come into work, use a computer that isn’t theirs, to use an OS they have no say in.

With France using Linux, those people who don’t know how to use a windows PC, will now be the people who don’t know how to use a linux PC. But, like all things, they’ll learn SOMETHING from it.

The major reason that Windows thrives is because businesses use it. When businesses use it, the employees use it. When the employees use it, they learn SOME things from it.

So when it comes time for them to buy a PC, they’ll be firmiliar with linux, and windows becomes the foreign thing they’ve never used.

Thats the glass ceiling. People buy windows because they know windows. And they know windows because their school/job taught them windows.

But if their school/job teaches them linux instead, then that’s what they’ll know when they bring a PC home.

It’s not a huge deal in itself. It becomes a huge deal when you consider the snowball effect.

Here’s the truth of the matter. As a server, Linux runs the show. As a desktop, Linux is basically little league.

There is some growth, but it’s not people getting fed up with microsoft. The real growth comes from Valve.

Despite it’s apperance, SteamOS is considered a linux desktop, and it’s driving growth on linux. I don’t think it’s up to 10%, considering 2 years ago it was at an all time high of 4%. But I can believe it’s at 6%. And even that would be considered tremendous growth. 4% in 30 years, but 2% more in 2 more years? That’s huge.

I keep seeing the same story about linux. People are gaming on steamos, or bazzite, and they have to keep a windows installation on the other partition because select games have anti-cheat that 100% does not work on linux.

But here’s the better news. Console games are dying.

Yrah, but that’s what they said about Windows ME…and Vista…and Windows 8…and now 11.

Microsoft learns from their mistakes. It’s what helps them to make sure they make all new mistakes.

What concerns me is that ever since XP, every “good” release is worse than the last good release.

Welcome to 2026. Apperently we faught wars for this…

No no. I can imagine users AREN’T signing up as quickly as before.

There are a finite number of humans on this planet with internet. Of those with the internet, you have to look at the breakdown of people who know about reddit, and those who do not.

You may be thinking “Everyone knows about reddit.”, to which I would say “Wow. What a stupid person you are. So sure of yourself that everybody knows all the same things you know. Just because something is common knowledge, you think that everybody knows about it.”

And it turns out, that’s just not the case. Consider the fact that when you break people down by age catagory, the overwhelming majority of humans on this planet right now are boomers. I don’t mean this faux definition of boomers that some of you use. I’m not saying a 36 year old who doesn’t know how to open a can of beans. He’s not a boomer, specifically because he’s 36. He would be a millennial. No, I’m using the ACTUAL definition of boomer here. Those born between 1945 and 1965. Those are a generation known as the baby boomers. Ironically enough, even though I’m not using the faux definition of “person who doesn’t know common knowledge”, it IS that same stereotype that comes into play here.

There are millions of boomers still alive. They are the dominant generation by sheer numbers. When I asked my 80 year old aunt what she looks at on reddit, she had no idea what reddit was. I had to explain the concept. Then I had to explain what a content aggregator was. Then I had to explain what content was.

Mind you, she knows exactly what facebook is. She knows what facetime is. No clue what reddit is, and when I explained it to her she said “I just don’t see how anyone would want to use a website like that. Why do I care what stories other strangers post? I only type comments on facebook because they’re being read by my friends and family. I don’t care if someone 5 states over doesn’t like my comment I left for your cousin Bret on how to make better gravy.” Then she spent 10 minutes complaining that mashed potatoes and gravy isn’t that hard to make, and Bret is being lazy every thanksgiving.

These are the people that dominate the internet. A website like reddit needs new eyeballs on their platform. Here’s the problem. There’s only so many humans on earth, who have access to free internet. I don’t mean free as in non-paid. I mean free as in not censored. Many countries censor their internet. Even the united states has to some degree begun censoring in some states.

So when reddit looks for new groups to target, they want people who have lots of free time, and who are going to engage every post. The boomers are the perfect target for that. They have nothing but free time right now. They’re opinionated enough to be confident in their wrong opinions. They’re argumentative. These are all desired qualities to reddit. Reddit doesn’t care if you’re posting racist or divisive opinions. They prefer that, because it creates engagement. But boomers have no clue what reddit is, and when explained to them, they seem to dislike the core concept.

Reddit targeted young people since it’s inception. It targeted the nerdy. It targeted a small sample of everybody, but in the begining it was mostly social outcasts. I remember in 2010 being on reddit, and feeling that the people on reddit were mostly people who were smarter than most people you’d interact with in real life. I remember using reddit to ask for advice because I felt like I was asking a smart audience. Then by 2016, I remember thinking at some point idiots took over.

So young people aren’t signing up, because they know what reddit is, and the ones who want to be there already are. They aren’t attracting middle aged people, because most of them know exactly what reddit is, and if they wanted to be there, they would be there. Gen X is where the divide starts. Some Gen X know exactly what reddit is, and if they wanted to be on it, they would be. Other Gen X have no idea what reddit is.

And then boomers just have no clue.

The end result is, I imagine not many people are signing up for reddit at this point simply because they’ve reached max capacity. Sure, their servers might be able to handle more humans, but my point is, more humans don’t exist. All the ones who know of your service, are either already signed up, or don’t want to be.

They have two options. They can either target the boomers HARD, and make reddit the new facebook. OR they can wait like 15 years, and target the NEW young people which right now are still watching Sesame Street, and not really contributing to political discussions currently.

The downside of targeting boomers is, it’s not really a long term strategy. I just watched a documentary on youtube where an american soldier from the vietnam war who gave his perspective on what he saw in the war. The video was filmed in 2014. It ended by saying “Three months after filming this documentary, (name) died peacefully in his sleep.” That was 12 years ago, and he died of old age.

The downside of targeting new people is, there is no big event where there will be massive new drops of new generation population. They trickle in as days go by. Also, young people aren’t having kids as much. So even when they do trickle in, there’s not a lot of them.

The thing to remember about the boomers is simple. Their generation was NOT natural. The greatest generation really lived up to their name in terms of being the greatest to repopulate the country. My grandpa had 4 kids, and for the time period, that was considered a small size family. There were other families that had 12 kids. And while the baby boom officially lasted 20 years, the bulk of it was between 1945-1950. It was basically young adults getting done with their tour, and coming home like “Where’s my girlfriend, I haven’t had sex in FOREVER!!!” And it must have been really good sex too, because they just went at it like rabbits.

So now the question becomes "Do they go after the immediate short term profits which have a guarenteed end date quickly approaching, or do they do the hard work for slow but sustainable long term returns?

C’mon. It’s 2026. It should be obvious that businesses today only thing about short term. That’s why everything is in the shape it’s in. Companies make quarterly decisions for big payday over the choices that would ensure the company stays afloat for 50 years.

I actually got an award as being in the top 1% of reddit karma earners for 2022.

In 2023 they banned me because I didn’t buy stock when it was being introduced.

You’d think they’d want me there. Creating content. For free. I’m sure they thought I’d just create a new account. Nope. I just came here.

Weird thing is, I’ve had two main running jokes for years. One is being obsessed with corn. The other is calling George Clooney a smug bastard.