People want the Fediverse to grow because we can see how much damage corporate walled gardens have done to our society, and we care about others who are still trapped in a cycle of corporate abuse. We dream of a better world and see the massive potential benefits a decentralized global communications protocol hold for humanities future.

I'm sick of people acting like they're superior and only they deserve the Internet because they think they're intelligent. The "brainless masses" have just as much right to use the internet as you do. Stop trying to gatekeep the Internet.

I do not fully agree with this. Simply because by having a lack of users, there will not be answers to questions that require expertise

Because I want there to be shit to do on here

The bigger a social platform gets, the more synergy it spawns. That's what adds utility to a social platform.

I don't think anyone here wants it to be 'the next big thing', but I do think a lot of people (myself included) want to see it become 'one of the next big things'. As in...we want it to become big enough to be a viable alternative to the proprietary walled-garden corporate establishments that have become the current standard.

More choice = better, and for as long as this platform remains small and elitist (referring back to your 3rd sentence), it will never truly be a viable choice. There's still a lot of engagement I'm required to use Reddit for - and I hate that - and the only reason for it is we just don't have the community size needed (yes, it's getting closer every day) to be that viable alternative.

The internet used to be difficult to use and that acted as a filter to keep the brainless masses away. It’s fine. It was BETTER back then.

yeah, that September never ends

It's not the people that got dumber, the tech did. Everyone has the capacity to become more knowledgeable of computers and the internet as a whole, but large corporations dumbed it down so they can take control of everything.

"The internet is for ME and OTHER SMART PEOPLE that I LIKE and not DOODOOHEADS."

Son, you gotta share your toys - or no ice cream after dinner.

I just want big tech social media to fail. It gives too much power to Musk, Zuck, Spez, et al.

I really don't like this superiority complex of calling anyone who has other priorities in life a member of the "brainless masses".

I get that it's nice to have in-depth conversations with smart people about things you find interesting. I'm here precisely for that reason myself, but I'd much prefer to do so in a community of people that doesn't derive its sense of identity from how superior they feel to everyone else. I agree that the Fediverse doesn't need to be the next big thing, but that doesn't mean we have to actively be asses to everyone we think is beneath us because they're not worthy of the truly great privilege that is speaking to us.

I'd much rather the platform itself simply be deeply robust, very accessible and easy to use, and most importantly, extremely conducive to allowing individual communities to form and enforce their own rules and norms. There is no reason at all why one community can't have extremely strict standards and require all comments to be made by credentialed users who cite all sources while having discussions about, say, physics, while another might be devoted to the Kardashians or logistics for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour or whatever else pop culture has decided is the topic du jour. These are not necessarily in contradiction, and particularly with different instances, nothing stops you from primarily participating in an instance that focuses more on nerdy things and bans memes and pop culture, or that has any other focus that suits you. If you find yourself getting content from more general interest instances that you're not liking, you can block them. This level of flexibility is the exact point of the Fediverse in the first place. There's no need to gatekeep the entire Fediverse because you want your own fun nerd space; the Fediverse already easily facilitates that level of independent community creation.

Lest you think I be one of the brainless rabble, rest assured I'm speaking as someone who studied computer science at Harvard, works in cybersecurity, and knows Latin, Greek, French, and Arabic - since apparently people aren't worthy of speaking to you unless they pass some kind of intelligence test.

This post has the energy of a treehouse with a "no girls allowed sign" on the door.

The gatekeeping just makes some people feel like they're special because they are the ones doing the gatekeeping rather than the ones being excluded by it. And it usually involves defending flaws in the community that drive most people away because they serve the same purpose.

Speaking personally, I'm trying to replace that "Frontpage of the internet" that Reddit used to be. Lemmy is great. I'm actually really liking the communities here. But there aren't enough posts because there aren't enough users yet, IMO. Maybe what I actually need is to stop using a single place for all of my news/pop culture watching, but... that's where I'm at.

brainless masses

You sound like a lovely, humble person who never screams at their loved ones

Indeed. The masses would ruin this place, 100%.

It feels like September is finally ending. Somebody wake up Billie Joe Armstrong.

Because social media exists to connect people. This is not a forum for a single niche topic, why would we ever just call it enough and be done with it? There are many communities that I'd like to follow that are still struggling to get off the ground.

I don't know what you are here for, but to me the Fediverse is not great as it is. It has potential to be but it's still largely tiny and niche, I can't find a fraction of what I'd like to. That may make it more manageable so far, but it's also pretty empty.

Let me be real, one thing that definitely won't help this place no matter the size is this sense of superiority that we are better without the "brainless masses". Over the years it has become very clear that whether people are technologically adept and whether they are good contributors and members of a community are two completely unrelated things. It's just unfounded elitism.

What we do need to watch out for is for corporate control, advertiser influence and algorithms which prioritize profit or clickthrough at any costs. A lot of internet media has devolved not because of "the masses", but because they prefer the eyeballs that outrage bring over cultivating a harmonious community.

Finally, an actual controversial post!

Many people -- and especially the media -- are trained at this point to follow "the next big thing". It's the promise of being out ahead of your peers somehow, without actually having to do much of anything.