First rule of the Fediverse: There is no such thing as "The Fediverse"

get out of my head I watched that episode an hour ago

The Fediverse is a concept that seems to me as real as the Internet or the World Wide Web.

That's like saying webrings didn't exist, only discrete websites.

We know! Oh, you’re out of chips.

I hate the entire fediverse and instance jargon. It is off putting to mainstream users.

The Internet has always been "federated" with "instances". Yet no one ever said, "What email instance do you use."

We say "What email provider do you use?".

Not much difference.

I dislike that it feels complicated to the average user, but it's useful for explaining why it's different from the corporate web.

How else would you explain what makes Lemmy/Piefed different from Reddit?

What's a "mainstream user"?

Is any of those on the room with you? Blink if you need help.

I call instances, "servers". Most people, in my experience, have some idea of what a server is, but most people have no idea what an instance is. Not needing to explain what an instance is right off the bat is typically good at not immediately overwhelming them. And functionally to me they are the same, if there even is a difference.

Like, "its a bunch of different social media servers, hosted by people instead of corporations, that all connect and communicate to each other. Its like if you could see and engage with Reddit content from Tumblr. But its not just one Reddit or one Tumblr, its a bunch of mini Reddits and Tumblrs that all communicate together." That typically gets the idea across.

And Santa Claus!

Also, come to think of it, "computers" as well... and "Linux" (excuse me, GNU/Linux), and so much more besides!

There is no such thing as fairy society. There are individual fairies, and there are families of fairies.

Rules of the Fediverse:

1. You do not talk about the Fediverse.
2. You do NOT talk about the Fediverse.
3. If a user says "disengage", goes limp, or taps out, the shitposting is over.
4. As many people shitposting together as you want.
5. One dogpile at a time.
6. Eat the rich, fuck cars.
7. Memes will go on as long as they have to - including beans.
8. If this is your first time at the Fediverse, you have to do the no poop challenge.

But there's a "fairy society official website" and everything!? 🤪

Sus... where do the beans come in? (This seems like it would greatly increase the difficulty of the no poop challenge!?)

There is no such thing as human society. There are individual humans, and there are families of humans.

We don't have to ask what instance they use, it is displayed with their user name.

WINK WINK

Fixed #7 to include the beans

There's definitely a Fediverse. It's a collection of instances with different links to each other determined by each instance and further filtered by users. Just because a particular instance isn't federated with another instance doesn't mean both of them aren't part of the Fediverse.

People will definitely be confused if you explain it badly. They might still be confused if you explain it properly, but in this case that's on you.