Please, put the pitchforks and torches down. Hear me out.
You (yes, you!) are a front-runner. You are a first-mover. You came to the fediverse while most people don’t even know it’s a thing.
In the last couple of weeks/months, there’s been an increasing sentiment to boycott the established social media (Facebook, Xitter, Reddit, etc.), due to their rollback of fact-checking and hate speech protection. This has resulted in a lot of new users for a lot of instances lately.
Feddit.dk has gotten over 50 new users in the past few weeks, which is about a +50% increase of the monthly active users, a big deal for a small instance like ours.
This is a great opportunity to teach others about the fediverse and get more people to move to a more democratic, sustainable internet. But all these potential users are still on the corporate social media - we can’t reach them unless we are there!
You, the first-mover, is exactly the kind of person we need to stay on Facebook, just for a while, to guide people over to the fediverse. Feddit.dk was actually posted in a Facebook group a few weeks back and we got a few users that way! We’ve also gotten a lot of users via Reddit recently, as people on /r/Denmark have been mentioning Feddit.dk. Guiding people from corporate social media to the fediverse has been the most successful way to get more users so far.
We can’t get second-movers if the first-movers leave everyone behind. So maybe, consider not deleting your Facebook or Reddit account just yet, and if you don’t, try to look out for people that are looking for alternatives. You can be their guide.
(and if you want to delete Facebook regardless, I totally respect that choice btw)
But I deleted my Facebook account in 2009.
People complaining about Facebook on Facebook is profitable for Facebook
Delete it, stop being part of the reason other people are there. If you can realise it’s a cesspool and get out, so could they.
I encounter a surprisingly large number of people who seem ashamed about their Facebook usage and say things like “but I need it for […]” or “but I only use Messenger” or some other way they rationalise it to themselves
Just get out.
I changed my profile picture to one of the Fediverse graphics: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/36806080
I’ve been posting about it periodically.
I’m pushing the “buy Canadian” angle by promoting Fedecan, the non-profit running Lemmy.ca and now Pixelfed.ca.
Also, reminding people that American companies are making money off your data, and these servers are Canadian owned social media, in a way.
I still have no followers on Pixelfed, but 🤷♂️
You’re doing your part :)
I left Facebook to preserve my mental health. I am never going back.
100% fair! Not everyone can muster the will to wander into that hellhole. Some brave few might try :)
Same. I think it’s been 14 years since I left, and I haven’t regretted it. Then I quit LinkedIn and Google in quick succession, and my quality of life went through the roof.
Unfortunately I actually just joined facebook recently. My professional field is a rather small one, and there are strong and established profesional groups on there that greatly benefit me that only exist on facebook. The older people in my field are unlikely to switch to anything newer. Set in their ways and what not. I am desperately looking for a job at the moment so I’d something I sorta have to grin and bear. I have an ad block and I don’t even post or engage with any of the crap on there though.
It makes you one of our brave heroes in the front lines. Come battle with me, and be lavishly permabanned for mentioning freedom social media!
Maybe once I get a job first. I need to sell the idea of myself to my small field first before I start trying to convince them why a federated social media alternative would benefit them. Honestly, aside from sticking it to facebook, I don’t think there would be tangible benefits. In all honesty, it would potentially fracture the field and weaken us even more by decreasing our professional network strength. I think if they migrate over here, it will have to be organically rather than coerced by me. Lots of people in my field migrating from twitter to bluesky though, so we take wins when we get them.
I deleted Facebook when the boomers got on.
Best decision I’ve ever made.
(Did miss some birthdays though)
I realize that Mastodon doesn’t track birthdays for security reasons, but it would be nice to have a “special day” that popped up in friends’ news feeds. It’s probably the nicest feature of FB, to get birthday wishes from friends.
Add them to your calendar
i honestly regret deleting my xitter account. not because i actually want to use it, no way in hell, but i got curious recently and saw that my username was retaken by someone else, so now any old links there go to them instead of me. would have been much better to delete all of my tweets and change my display name and bio to point people to mastodon. maybe even set up automated tweets telling people switch. even if i got banned for that, that at least prevents anyone else from squatting on my old id. oh well, you live and you learn!
If people aren’t switching when Musk does a nazi salute, they won’t switch because of your display name though
Here’s my problem: I don’t want the general user base of Facebook to move here.
First rational argument I’ve seen in this thread. I fully agree with you. I don’t know that we have to worry about that. The Facebook crowd still hasn’t had their introduction to Reddit probably. Maybe they can go over there
“General” Facebook user base is not a thing.
Every social media has its own varied bubble on them.
Even Fediverse has its own bubble of malice people.
I still use Facebook because all local community on them (people never heard Reddit or even Lemmy), and people are generally nice to each other. Shares hobby and stuff just like Lemmy and the entire fediverse.
Still, I still regularly on Facebook to recommend people to join local Misskey and Mastodon instance.
I may have used Facebook as a bit of a provocative example here… But even on Facebook, there are certain groups that could enjoy the fediverse.
The fediverse should be for everyone.
Even trolls, Nazis and other actively malicious people?
Unfortunately, I say yes. And hear me out first please.
The Fediverse in my eyes should be free. Free to have instances for everyone, including those we disagree with. Because in my opinion, the right to say and think what we want is very important (absolute free speech). And unfortunately, i think that means everyone should be allowed to say what they want. HOWEVER, free speech does not mean free of consequences. The option of federating with those groups or not is up to each community and fortunately I think many would not be okay with including them.
I’m always open to hearing input as these are personal thoughts so by all means add to or let me know the errors in my thinking. Thanks!
Your heart is in the right place but you don’t know about how Facebook works. It artificially makes people not see alternatives while giving them all the reasons to stay. Worse, those who aren’t as secure in their views might go back. Facebook is pure poison.
Forget it. Delete your accounts and move. Talk to people IRL and tell them where to find you.
Because if you can be found on Facebook you will be a reason to stay.
delete Facebook and xitter account now
Hell no. Get off of that shit now.
For the love of Christ, stop supporting these assholes.
My first thought was, how the hell are people still on Facebook?! 🤣
I see your point, but the most repeated reason/excuse for not leaving Meta (or other big tech platforms) is “I can’t, all my contacts are on there”. So the longer anybody stays on that dumpster fire, the more they add to the network effect.
My suggestion would be, announce that you’re leaving, posting links to where people can find you going forward, and log off for a couple of weeks’ grace period. Then login only to download your data and delete the account.
That way, you’ve given your contacts time to find your new profiles (and maybe their first glimpse of the fediverse), and you’re off the treadmill — the contacts who will miss you enough to follow you off FB are probably the ones worth keeping 😉
Edit: added a comma and closed a quotation for clarity.
Is there any real benefit to deleting the account? I don’t see what harm a dead account could do. I have a instagram account that has my real name on it, and I’d hate to have someone potentially impersonate me. I instead posted a link to my personal website and also linked my Bluesky account in the bio, stating that I will no longer be using instagram or regularly checking it.
Is there any real benefit to deleting the account?
I will no longer be using Instagram or regularly checking it.
I think you answered part of the question there: An inactive account is just bait for you to return and be sucked back in by the network effect. That’s basically what “not regular checking” implies — that you may check less often but still log in occasionally.
On the other hand, deleting the account sends a message to Meta (who don’t care about you individually, but mass exodus will be noticeable on their bottom line) and more importantly spur your contacts to move as well. Also, you make up your mind instead of keeping the abusive relationship with Meta an option.
Edited to add: Orphaned, unmonitored accounts are often the source of pwned passwords, which makes them an attack vector especially if you’re not using strong, individual passwords for different sites. /end edit.
Impersonation is a tiny but possible risk, I guess — depending on how valuable you would be as a mark for scammers. Most people probably wouldn’t even be on their radar. It’s not something I would take into account, especially as Facebook and Instagram become less trustworthy or secure platforms in and of themselves.
So yes, there are benefits, per OP’s point about first movers motivating others — and showing decisive action rather than leaving a door ajar (i.e. a dormant account) in case Zuckerberg shows slightly less oligarchic tendencies next week.
Looks like it’s time for me to proselytize on r/Denmark!
I deleted my facebook like 8 years ago. I don’t understand why people still use social media like that. It makes no sense to me.
OP I appreciate the reasoning.
But I’d advise against it,
and would recommend users to delete their Facebook account asap.Why? 4-5 years ago I already noticed the “illusion of free speech” on Facebook.
The platform is a data farm,
but I’m a data privacy advocate,
so I regularly posted data privacy articles/tools.Which went against the best interest of Facebook, so they simply held back that content from nearly everyone’s feed, resulting in it getting nearly zero attention.
But if I posted a dumb meme,
it would get a lot of attention.I’ve asked around to friends back in the day who where scrolling online if they saw my data privacy posts, none did.
So staying on the platform to advertise things that go against Facebooks best interest, will likely not yield good results.
However deleting your account,
is a great conversation starter that can easily be directed into WOM (Word of Mouth) marketing, to teach your friends and family about Fediverse tools.It is a matter of engagement. People like engaging with dumb meme more than data privacy stuff. Especially when people don’t understand the ramifications of poor data privacy or understand fundamentally what the even means. Heck, even I don’t understand what companies harvesting my data will mean for my personal life. I am guilty of ignoring data privacy posts in favour of dumb memes too.
It sucks, but thats why the term edu-tainment was coined. To educate people, you must also entertain them.
