The presence of Indians, from India, in Fediverse is insignificant as on today. Most of us are happy with X and social media tools from Meta. Even the number of posts from existing users, in India, is very low though many of them seem to be active in the above mentioned social media sites.
What can be done to improve the situation? There are no carrots here.
@srijit@mastodonindians
I think one big problem is probably how hard it is finding people. I have moved to the #fediverse 3 months ago, and the only way of finding other Indians is through #MastodonIndian group or hastags. Even thee later one is very limited in scope. Hastags only works with instances that my instance federate with. And me being in a relatively smaller instance doesn't help.
I am yet to see the presence of any climate activist or climate activism groups, from India, here. I will be glad to correct myself.
There are several notable climate activism groups in India, including:
Fridays for Future India: This is a youth-led movement that organizes peaceful demonstrations to call for action on climate change.
Balajee Sewa Sansthan (BSS India): This organization is headquartered in Dehradun and promotes sustainability and fighting climate change. They conduct awareness programs on climate change in various schools and register students as environment ambassadors.
The Climate Reality Project India: This is a non-profit organization that works to promote climate action and awareness in India. They organize training programs, workshops, and events to educate people about climate change and its impacts.
The Indian Youth Climate Network: This is a network of young people who are working to promote climate action and sustainability in India. They organize events, campaigns, and workshops to raise awareness about climate change and its impacts.
The Centre for Science and Environment: This is a research and advocacy organization that works on environmental issues, including climate change. They conduct research, publish reports, and organize events to promote sustainable development and climate action.
The above groups seem to available only in X, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
I guess its also probably because mastodon is centralizing on one or two big servers. Its hard for Indians to relate to those servers because it doesnt have any india specific content.
Compare this with twitter - twitter shows india content to indian users along with global content. I think that makes it relatable and that is very important
It's depressing. I clicked through #MastodonIndians#MastIndia & found overwhelming number of toots focused on #Bollywood gossip & entertainment.
For a country with the largest population on earth, I saw little to no engagement on international affairs, not even about regional affairs (#China#Pakistan#Myanmar#SriLanka), much less about #MiddleEast and the world.
I'm building a new indies' hub on a Chennai server and started more stories featuring #DesiMastodon, so is okay to assert you deserve better.
You gotta get off the federating with mas+. to train; that server is corrupt -- it is like one of those "shell companies" that tax evaders use to make it look like they are doing good in the world when really they are just trying to get more tax writeoffs for their over-funded ugliness.
"More tax writeoffs and an easy import on their fake follower count and perceived popularity?"
"Desi, when I think about how smart you were to take those big BIG DENOMINATION dolla dolla bills OUT OF CIRCULATION to start downsloping that vector of corruption? Like before Drumpf got into office"
"In indigenoUS, we are gold 100 pennies of mining to get 1 dollar but how many rupees to get 100 rupee dolla? How much does that weights in what denomination of what metal?"
solemn nods. you get it!
YOU ARE SO SMART.
We who left Twoetter when it became clear that policing popularity was its only biz model? (and trust me, I was SO PATIENT WITH IT giving it easy tests -- cannot do nothing when the ppl just HATE you though, right?? They cannot go back in time and pretend like they didn't get bought off decades ago.)
There's all these people that wanna do a quick and easy import from Twoetter -> Mastodon and bring w/them their fake popularity and perceived follower accounts. NOT GONNA HAPPEN ON MASTODON. IF you do this, you will be outed as a POSER.
Big tip for future inference: do not join (or servers like mas+.to which are moderated doing the same thing Twoetter got rich doing;
I would never let a mas.+to user interview me about anything technical. Why would anyone with a brain trust a site promoting the popularity of spoiled rich Caucasus mountain daughters?
There's a similar parallel in some of those #bollywood stories, I know, money breeds corruption everywhere it is used as a weapon.
Is why we click, Desi! I like them anti-ColoniZer birdies, too.
The z designation is very important in math ... how well does the bird ____________?
s c z d<br></br>i o o <br></br>n m u<br></br>g p b<br></br>l l l l<br></br>e e e<br></br> x<br></br> c ...<br></br>
@kshah To me it feels heavily influenced by politics. I get the impression Mastodon became heavily associated with liberal thought that is less and less tolerated in India right now. So to start using Mastodon isn't just a technical decision, but a declaration of a political position people feel unsafe to associate themselves with.
Perhaps looking to a different fediverse platform that is interoperable but doesn't have that name recognition will help.
What I love about these answers is they reflect all our different ideas of what the fediverse is and can be. Suspect all the tactics will help. If anyone is trying any experiments, do share so we can all learn how to grow our communities.
Not Indian but an OCI and lived in Delhi for five years: I think inertia and networks are real. During the WhatsApp controversies a couple of years ago, really wanted my families Indian and American to move to Signal. Just could not do it. They had established networks already and did not want to loose them.
I wonder if more Indian instances could help? Especially some in local languages. I don’t think there are that many. You really have to dig. But a few well-run, friendly places might help. While I am on a general instance, I love the idea of regional ones or even ones for cities. Could give a good entry point.
Lastly, I don’t think Mastodons politics is a factor.
@kshah@srijit@mastodonindians I was successful moving my friend from WhatsApp to some open source application, I forced them, if they wanted to chat, they had to use it bc I don't and won't use WhatsApp or any other proprietary social media. btw i became associated with that app for them. i don't think I will be able to force them to use some other "microblogging" platform
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