I'm thinking I might stop using the term #fediverse#fedi or #activitypub when I want to talk about this community of federated social media services.
It's confusing and to be honest sounds way too much like a corporate brand trying to sell something.
I'm thinking I might start using something like "open internet" in general and "open social media" in particular to make the point that fedi isn't some specific thing; it's the default social media for the open internet.
Don't think you're wrong. As long-time fedizens we are kinda used to hear fediverse / fedi. To the uninitiated it sounds weird and off-putting.
I avoid "social media" (media too much associated with broadcasting, selling your message), and use "social networking" there, which we also do offline for ages already.
Instead of #Fediverse I increasingly refer to open/decentralized #SocialWeb, which makes it more broad and inclusive (e.g. different network stacks than #ActivityPub-based).
@doctormo@smallcircles I have been using “the social Web” to describe this because fediverse has too much metaverse ick sound and people already get the concepts of the Web.
@doctormo The norwegian fediverse has coined the term #allheimen, which directly translates to "the home for everyone". It is also a play on the word Alltinget, the name of the Icelandic parliament. Alltinget is the worlds oldest funtioning parliament. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althing
@doctormo to me it feels like this technology path is about more than "social media". Its a general pattern for bidirectional exchange of information online via web standards. This can lead us to amazing new places that were maybe implicit in the original web vision but kept untapped for decades.
The right choice of label would be sketching that new reality in a clear and catchy way, thereby bringing it closer. Not sure "open + something" conveys that though.
I admit that it might be a bit of a "lies to children" (Pratchett et al), but it might be the first steps to carefully lead people away and towards a place where that brighter and wider future is visible.
I am using another term #Peopleverse, but not with intent for that to be a real name. More a vision for an online landscape that seamlessly aligns with our offline world and is in support of our daily lives.
