cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39653865

John Oliver promoted alternatives to big tech in last night’s episode, including Mastodon and Pixelfed

It’s brief, around 25:15

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nf7XHR3EVHo

If you’ve been sitting on making a post about your favorite instance, this could be a good opportunity to do so.

Going by our registration applications, a lot of people are learning about the fediverse for the first time and they’re excited about the idea. I’ve really enjoyed reading through them :)

    • Rose@slrpnk.net
      8·
      3 days ago

      I think discussion forum type apps are just niche by default. Reddit never courted the masses, it was a site for geeks (and now it’s being turned into a site for the fedoraèd clientele exclusively). And despite what Facebook hoped, Threads isn’t exactly a household name.

  • Parptarf@lemm.ee
    61·
    5 days ago

    This might actually be kind of huge. Doesn’t he have a pretty big outreach?

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
          25·
          5 days ago

          Its like with normal advertisement. If you heard the name of it before, especially from a trustworthy source, then it instantly becomes more trustworthy to you. When people seriously start looking for alternatives, they will think back or try to find that episode again.

        • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
          20·
          5 days ago

          Yeah the question is where does he personally have his social media? X, facebook, instagram by the looks of it?

          I don’t see him on mastodon

          • Parptarf@lemm.ee
            20·
            5 days ago

            Hmm. If people like himself were to start using Mastodon and Pixelfed, there would be a bigger increase of users for sure.

  • Monstrosity@lemm.eeEnglish
    22·
    5 days ago

    Pixelfed is growing fast.

    A few months ago, it was like me and six other losers. It’s great to see!

        • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
          7·
          5 days ago

          Not really.

          I’m a big signal proponent, but it’s very barebones. There is a half ass story implementation, but otherwise, it’s a pretty lean messaging application with voice and video and that’s pretty much it.

          Signal doesn’t really have a mechanism for following accounts the way you can on telegram and WhatsApp, and while it supports group chats, it’s more akin to an old school group text rather than a channel like on telegram or Whatsapp.

          • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
            6·
            5 days ago

            I guess I didn’t know WhatsApp caught up that much to Telegram, the WhatsApp I knew used to support group chats and voice calls but nothing like channels, supergroups and following users, yet.

                • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
                  2·
                  3 days ago

                  I am forced to use WhatsApp for work and a few groups. Until last half of 2023 they literally had nothing.

                  They had no polls, no channels, communities, not even reactions… more barebones than signal to be honest. I was surprised when I switched mostly to signal. Now they have passed signal in terms of “features” again, but indeed no stories like signal.

                  I don’t know a single person who follows something on whatsapp. That is just not what it does well at all.

        • ultracritical@lemmy.world
          21·
          4 days ago

          More like WhatsApp is a Signal clone. Whatsapp uses the signal protocol for its encryption. Or at least it did until the Zuck took it closed source. It’s still at least, in part, signal though.

          Course Signal is still very barebones. Great for a secure messenger, but not as super featured like telegram. Would’ve been nice if they kept SMS compatibility though.

          • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
            1·
            3 days ago

            When was WhatsApp open source? I can’t find anything on that.

            Also WhatsApp is 6 years older than Signal, they couldn’t have cloned Signal by definition.

            • ultracritical@lemmy.world
              1·
              3 days ago

              Signal protocol is what you’re looking for. Started as text secure then changed name eventually. Whatsapp was never opensourced they just used the Text secure (now signal) protocol for their encrypted messages. They still allegedly use the signal protocol, I think, but with it being fully closed source and not implementing current signal feature for years afterwards.

              In other words I have a high degree of faith our nuclear secrets will only be leaked to me when our DUI hires add me to the group, again using signal. But guarantee they’re also leaked to the Zuck using whatsapp.

              • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
                1·
                2 days ago

                I know what you mean, WhatsApp is still several years older than that. They added it later. WhatsApp wasn’t developed as a Signal clone, it can’t have been, but Signal seems to try to be a drop-in replacement for WhatsApp (phone number-based (yikes), focused on messaging the SMS way but with files and over the Internet, simple profile with a status message on them, E2EE…)

        • David@masto.es
          11·
          5 days ago

          @lord_ryvan @Evotech It may not be the most private (unless you use private chat), but Telegram is the best alternative to WhatsApp, both in terms of user count and usability. It’s the easiest transition.