Does it feel like the fediverse is exclusively used by older tech nerds?

gamer@lemm.ee to Fediverse@lemmy.world – 1858 points –

The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:

  • ~30 years old or older

  • tech enthusiasts/workers

  • 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?

1217

You are viewing a single comment
View all comments

Picking a server is complicated... And I still don't get how to get content from other servers into my main feed.

But the other thing is monitization. If you build up a decent filling on TikTock for example, they pay you. My kids friends are all chasing that.

I agree.

To get content from other servers in your main feed you just have to subscribe to the community you want to see the content from. If you are using the website go to "Communities" located at the top bar. When you use the app there should be also a button called "communities" or similar. On the website by default only communities of your own server are shown so select "All" at the top left. Then just select a community you like and press subscribe.

If your instance is not big, then communities from other instances may not be indexed yet, as it is triggered by local users' research and subscriptions, and it seems to not work well if the target instance is overloaded. (as far as I understand for now) I've been trying to search for tiny communities that exist on lemmy.world, and after 24h, the research still doesn't find them. It's quite frustrating, and I think it hinders the development of new instances, which is problematic.

Edit: you have to search the exact URL of the community, I was only using the name, with the URL it works after a few tries.