Here’s an idea: let’s call people “people” on the fediverse instead of “users” whenever we can.
Compare:
“There are 42 users on this instance.”
vs
“There are 42 people on this instance.”
Which acknowledges our humanity more?
Language matters. We don’t need to perpetuate mainstream technology’s othering/colonial framing of “us” – designers/developers/other “clever folks” – and “them” – the users (usually one step removed from “dumb user” and usually the ones who get used).
@aral Setting the 'bot' problem aside, there is another problem with your plea. The word 'people' has a special meaning, implying distinct units. The word 'users' includes the possibility that one person could have multiple accounts. For this reason, it will always be the case that #users>=#people.
@jasonemiller If only there was a word we could use to denote different accounts that a single person might have on a system. I don’t know, maybe something like “account?”
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