Tbh, this has been on my mind for the past two days, so I hope you guys don’t mind if I unload it here. I tend to obsess and I figure if no one cares, then at least I can get it out of my head instead of thinking about it all the time. Also sorry for the length, I promise I have a doctor’s note.

I don’t overly mind all the duplicate reddit subs and I’m extremely interested to see what this place (and the fediverse in general) become. As a very recent, not-particularly-savvy ex-redditor, I didn’t even know federation was possible. The rest of this may or may not come off as cynical (I can’t tell), but I really do have high hopes for what this place could be.

It could go meh, and crash and burn in a fireball of shallow snark and cynicism like everything else in this day and age. But it could go so right if we play our cards right and learn to adapt to this instead of demanding the same things not a lot of us even liked, just because that’s what’s familiar.

It doesn’t seem to be the majority opinion as yet, but I’ve been bothered that some are so geared towards making this a second reddit that, before our temporary cloudflare isolation, I already saw questions about which sub dedicated to Whatever out of all platforms everywhere is going to be the real main sub.

Instances have a different strength here than what reddit was used for, but I’ve been worrying this won’t be recognized by those of us too used to reddit or too young to even remember forums.

The instinct, coming from a one-stop shop, is to recreate that. This isn’t possible in the fediverse and is the exact opposite of its intent. There doesn’t have to be just one “correct” community across every existing instance. Even usernames aren’t sacrosanct here. We can spread out as far as we want and never reach the horizon.

The focus lends itself very well to the closer, kinder bubble communities found in the 90s and 00s. I miss able to recognize people by avatar, something that is already happening here that makes it feel home-y.

I miss being able to take part in anything resembling a kind and manageable community instead of my only socialization having to come from Asswipe # 8675309 in the only non-dead subreddit about Thing, that happens to be a 14 million strong screaming match.

I miss being able to speak respectfully without being dogpiled in a mad grab for internet head pats. We can do all that here if we want, but we have to set the precedent early.

I’d rather be subbed to 5 identical mags across 5 different instances, each with their own individual style of community, than be stuck with The Instance That Has The Hades Sub On It because that one got created first/on the largest instance.

And then, lost in the crowd, the fighting starts again because on the internet, hurling insults and winning arguments is the only way the faceless horde might give you a thumbs up before also beating you.

The way reddit functioned and interacted with itself was our norm, but when cloudflare is turned off and federation is in full swing again, please don’t make this another reddit. I want the old internet back, and we have a chance.