@Gargron maybe you could pay a company to make an informative video about it, with illustrations

@Gargron
yup, so many things are easier to communicate with voice.
introducting voice-todon now

@Gargron "Future proofing" is another strategy. I'm told, "but what if your server host goes bust?" (as have many of my past blog hosts eg #Posterous) and I hope I'm correct in saying it is trivial to download your stuff and re-home it elsewhere, free, paid or self-hosted.

What I've seen so far of GDPR compliant exports (WP, LinkedIn, Twitter) is they are not easily imported anywhere else, presumably another 'Dark Pattern' move.

@Gargron In my conversations, the federated/decentralized part has been pretty easy: “there are lots of servers that can all talk to each other, like email, and you can run your own if you really want” has worked well. “Like email” is the key phrase, I’ve found.

I’ve had a harder time with the basic function/purpose. Preceding the above with “it’s line Twitter, but” works pretty well, but there’s good reason not to want to start off with that comparison.

@Gargron i say "open source, user-based and without manipulative algorithms" for this exact reason

@Gargron Also, "If you're not paying, you're the product being sold." That's kinda backfired against everyone who isn't a surveillance capitalist.

@Gargron i usually start with "it's built so the community could run it with no corp at play" and if i have time i explain it with email services as an analogy

@Gargron I use “federation” and make a lot of analogies to email, which people already understand. That seems to do the trick.

@Gargron this is what I didn’t understand, why you against bitcoin and crypto currency and pro decentralization ?🤷🏻‍♂️

@Gargron I think even the big social media companies rely on conversations more than their websites. All of my friends and family join a certain social media because everyone else is having fun over there and talking about it. They almost never check the websites and just download the app and sign up.

@Gargron
Money talks. Bitcoin has a market cap of $475000000000
Mastodon is worth what?
If you want to beat them at their own game you will have to play it. You should actually embrace the idea. It might make more sense if you go along with it instead of fighting it on your own principles.

@Gargron maybe turn that perceived weakness into a strength instead

@Gargron For explaining the Fediverse, I like to say: Imagine you could subscribe to YouTube channels and Instagram accounts from Twitter and talk to everybody.

@Gargron When I talk about Mastodon, I usually explain it with the email analogy. Everyone gets it immediately because everyone knows the concept of emails (at least those that are using emails... ;)

@Gargron
I second that. Every time I mention Mastodon in a conversation and I describe it people look at me like they see an alien. It has gotten little bit better since Startpage engine promotes Mastodon by sharing their account. Same thing for /e foundation. But its shocking to me that Mastodon has been around for years and yet general public don't know about it. And when I mention decentralization I get an alien look again. :)

@Gargron I'm on it now and I still don't fully understand it or the Android app tbh. Is there a site that explains how I can explore different instances to follow people ?

@Gargron
"It's like Twitter, but anyone can set up their own version of Twitter and connect it to everyone else's versions of Twitter"

@Gargron I've found we have to simply it even further. Mainstream people might know "decentralization" as a term, but not what it really means. The most simple explanation I've come up with for friends and family who can't detach themselves from Facebook...

"It's like Twitter or Facebook, but they all can talk to each other, and the one you join is like your "home base." Then imagine no matter which one you're on, you can talk to people on all the others!"

They still don't get it tho. :D

@gargron It's social media, but anyone can provide it, just like email.

*pause*

Realize that the person you're talking to doesn't realize you can have email outside of Gmail.

@Gargron Just use the email analogy. Everybody understands Gmail, Hotmail, john@doecompany.com being able to talk to each other, and the value of it not being a locked garden. Imagine we all had to sign up to services with a single email. Only difference: it's "publicly posted/viewable emails" and it's like Twitter.

@Gargron I say the following (whenever I try to do this exercise it only passes if my mother-in-law can repeat it to a friend):

It's an interlinked network of communities owned and operated by the communities they serve, with millions of members around the world.

I use as little techspeak as possible

I do not highlight the negatives of other platforms, 99% of the people being spoken to don't know or don't care.

I do not highlight similarities to email as I don't want to confuse the use case