this is bugging me and I have to weigh in a little. I talk about [whatever this network is called] a lot with people who lack either the technical background or the desire, or both, to fully understand the system. In fact, it’s been enough of an obsession that my friends know if you give me enough drinks, eventually I start blabbing about decentralized social networks.

At some point this network needs to be about more than just technical and meta conversations. And that means it needs to be accessible to lay people. I will tell you right now, next to none of them care about the distinction between “mastodon” or “fediverse”, the same way they didn’t care about “web” vs “internet”

So when I have conversations that don’t take place right here, my priority is building mindshare, and I almost always say “mastodon” when I should say “the fediverse”, because I’m trying to be mindful of people’s aversion to jargon, and they’ve heard of Mastodon. The nuances can be explained later.