I think part of why it’s confusing is that we don’t have defined names for these things. This is so early in a social media “product” life that there isn’t a common understanding. You’re now part of making those names. It’s a bit exciting but mostly confusing while everyone uses their own terms to mean the same fundamental things. Embrace the chaos!
I don’t know, Reddit and Lemmy differ from common social media platforms (I wouldn’t really call Reddit style forums social media anyway) in that they are structured around different topics/categories and threads and in that way are closer to earlier newsgroups, bbs’s, forums and such. So the main concepts aren’t really that new and weird, we have had subforums, topics, groups, channels and such for decades now.
I think part of why it’s confusing is that we don’t have defined names for these things. This is so early in a social media “product” life that there isn’t a common understanding. You’re now part of making those names. It’s a bit exciting but mostly confusing while everyone uses their own terms to mean the same fundamental things. Embrace the chaos!
I don’t know, Reddit and Lemmy differ from common social media platforms (I wouldn’t really call Reddit style forums social media anyway) in that they are structured around different topics/categories and threads and in that way are closer to earlier newsgroups, bbs’s, forums and such. So the main concepts aren’t really that new and weird, we have had subforums, topics, groups, channels and such for decades now.
Lemmy is four years old, I think there are names for these things and we should probably learn them.
We are sojourners in a land that already had people, maybe see what they call it before declaring it New Amsterdam.
But we do: Communities.
You find that term in the UI, in user documentation, and the /c/ part of the URL also refers to that.
Calling it anything else, especially unrelated to /c/, will only make it harder and more confusing for new people to join.