Crazy thought, but what if it differed by industry? Something like blue collar jobs get Monday off, white collar gets Friday off. That way office workers can for example more easily stay home to get their cable serviced and plumbers can more easily meet with a mortgage agent. Obviously because of overlap it’s not perfect (office workers can’t meet with mortgage agent, plumbers can’t get their cable serviced), but there’s a huge issue currently with people working 9-5 M-F being unable to access services that are also only available 9-5 M-F, so this would at least distribute things a little more. (This kind of thing already exists for some industries like restaurants, where W-Su workweeks are common)

To your “edit” point: Don’t take a handful of downvotes personally; it’s pretty easy to do accidentally on mobile so they may have been unintentional

The difference is if the primary (sometimes only) admin of your instance loses interest, goes to jail, or gets hit by a truck, your entire instance could be dead in the water, whereas there are way more safeguards to “established” social media like Reddit and Twitter. Plus the issue of “well shit my instance got defederated from most of the fediverse because it turns out the admin is an asshat” is completely nonsensical on platforms without instances. Example: before I knew that Lemmy had a tankie problem, I almost signed up on lemmygrad because I thought it was just a witty pun…

Plus when you say “point them to lem.ee” what scenario are you imagining? Because “you should join reddit” or “our business is on Facebook” or “Twitter is a great resource for artists” are all straightforward and easy pieces of information to convey and pick up. “Join Lemmy, a subset of the fediverse, I signed up via lemmy.world although I hear lem.ee is also good, but don’t let that stop you from picking another instance” is like… Dude, people just want to go to [site].com, click on “sign up”, enter a username and password (and maybe email) and that’s it. Just having to explain to people that “lemmy.com” isn’t a thing is already too complicated for most folks.

Lemmy (or at least lemmy.world) was bonkers levels of buggy last summer during the reddit blackout. Like, literally unusable levels of buggy. Getting the word out that it’s (mostly) bug-free now would probably be good, because I’m sure there were many redditors who tried it and quickly swore it off as a pile of shit.

Otherwise I’m in agreement that the instance-selection part of sign-up is a huge barrier, because what instance you choose is actually really important but it’s overwhelming when you’re just getting started. Plus not being able to migrate your account/communities/posts to another instance if yours goes to shit/shuts down/turns out to not fit your needs makes the fediverse feel really unstable.

Millennial here. My impression is we’re the largest generation on this platform, but I could be wrong.

Arcane, the animated Netflix show that was based on League of Legends.

Basically all the media.

There is (or at least was) a special kind of joy in discovering a new piece of media (movie, TV, book, video game, comic, etc), getting to the end, and hopping over to the relevant subreddit to sort by “top of all time.” Bonus points if you loved the series and would get to essentially relive it all over again through the sub, but even media that you hated or were neutral about could be fun subs to peruse; maybe you would get to revel in seeing something you hated turned into a meme highlighting how stupid it was, or get to feel justified in your negative assessment upon reading an epic rant from another user; maybe instead you’d find hidden details or explanations pointed out by other users that made you reassess the work (“huh, I though that was a stupid plothole but it actually was perfectly explained by that one scene that apparently went over my head”). The ATLA subs especially were treasure troves of tiny details and “holy shit I just noticed on my fifth rewatch” posts that really elevated my opinion (and thereby enjoyment) of a series I was initially kind of “meh” on.

When I think about what it would take to feel like Lemmy had sufficiently replaced Reddit for me, the number one practical answer is for comprehensive news (political, world, cultural, meme, etc… Reddit really did at one point feel like “the front page of the Internet” if there ever was one), and the second is to have the critical mass to be able to ask a question and get a good recommendation for any specific product or service, via regional subs, hobby subs, etc (although thanks to LLMs and corporate astroturfing that may simply be a bygone part of the Internet). But the “fun” answer is to have the critical mass for a wide range of specific fandoms.

I signed up during the Rexodus, which happened to be a lovely summer day so I was hanging out outside at the time of sign-up. I glanced around my yard looking for inspiration, saw my fireweed patch, and figured that was as good a name as any.

Fireweed is a hardy plant native to much of North America, with beautiful pink flowers that native bees love, and it requires little maintenance once established. It is also edible and has medicinal properties! Please consider planting it (or seed-bombing it in an empty lot) if you live in its native range! More info here

I would love to see increased standardization in the food industry limiting the possible sizes and shapes of containers (such as glass) making them easier to wash and reuse as-is. On the home front, for example, it’s ridiculous that I have to go out and purchase brand-new Mason jars for canning instead of being able to reuse a store-bought salsa jar. But more importantly on the commercially-processed food front, standardization would make reuse easier by ensuring that containers do not have to return all the way to their original company; that way a jar used by a raspberry jam company in the Pacific Northwest bought by a customer in Florida could go to a local orange marmalade company for reuse rather than having to travel all the way back to the PNW.

I think should also start seeing a lot more compostable products. We’re already getting there somewhat with paper replacing plastic in shipping, but more products need to be explicitly labeled as compostable, and more municipalities need dedicated compost pickup and processing facilities. It’s insane that we’ve created a soil-to-landfill pipeline for nutrients.

They rank lower than Volkswagen! I didn’t think that was possible given the VW emissions scandal that just happened [checks notes] eight years ago?! My god everything from 2016 onward has just been a giant blur hasn’t it

Two more suggestions that are upbeat and quirky (and highly regional): Cascadia Day (May 18) and Exploding Whale Day (Nov 12).

Cascadia Day is on the anniversary of the Mt St Helens eruption and is a celebration of the Cascadia ecoregion: a geographic area comprised of the NW United States and SW Canada that share similar natural features (there are several proposed areas, but the generally accepted definition is Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia). While there is a small succession movement associated with Cascadia, it’s mostly a recognition of the unique and interconnected ecology spread across several US states and British Columbia, as well as the interconnected human element across state and national borders (especially along the relatively-densely populated I-5/Hwy-99 corridor from Eugene to Vancouver, BC). The logo would be easy: superimpose the Cascadia flag on the Lemmy mascot.

Cascadia info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(bioregion)

Cascadia Flag: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_flag

Exploding Whale Day: This is an unofficial Oregon holiday of sorts. In 1970, a dead sperm whale washed ashore in the smallish town of Florence, Oregon. The Oregon department of transportation decided to blow up the carcass with dynamite, which (spoiler alert) went about as well as could be expected. The story was so bizarre that the event is still commemorated to this day, with a small celebration held annually in Florence (meanwhile on the Internet, folks celebrate by posting memes and rewatching the KATU news footage of the original event). A whale version of the Lemmy logo (perhaps with the body of a whale but keeping the Lemmy ears and whiskers, and with an explosion in the background) on the anniversary would be a fun way to share this local event.

The story: https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/florence_whale_explosion/

The local “holiday”: https://www.xplodingwhale.com/

The KATU news footage: https://youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34

This may be a YMMV situation. I’m not a huge gamer, but Pop has worked great for me for nearly all games I’ve tried. The one glaring exception has been the Civilization series (specifically 3 and 6)… Anyone know if that’s a Linux problem, a Pop problem, or a just me problem?

(Also, sorry you’re getting downvoted for sharing your honest opinion/personal experience)

In honor of !fuckcars, the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is the 3rd Sunday in November. Every year, approximately 1.3 million people (and untold numbers of pets and wildlife) are killed in traffic crashes.

More info: https://worlddayofremembrance.org/#about

How to visualize on the logo (two ways):

1. Crass but clear: tire tracks across a x.x face
2. Respectful but subtle: a bicycle helmet, a tear, and a vigil candle (bicycle riders are disproportionately victims of traffic violence, so the WDoR is often organized by bicycle clubs or traffic safety groups with a bicycle focus, plus there’s no way to visually represent the other disproportionately-affected group: pedestrians).