The “it’s like email” analogy was always doomed, because the people saying it know how email works at a technical and architectural level, while the people hearing it know email as “that thing that Just Works ™️ to send messages to anyone else with an email address”.
At that level, the Fediverse and Email are nothing alike.
I don’t agree. But, even if I was fully on board with that, I’d say “it’s like email” is still orders of magnitude more relatable as an analogy than telling non-technical people it’s like a BBS, it’s like UDP, it’s like, technical mumbo-jumbo that the majority of the audience probably doesn’t even know by name recognition, let alone understand what these things are and how they work.
Analogies are rarely perfect (I’d argue good analogies are never perfect).
The “it’s like email” analogy was always doomed, because the people saying it know how email works at a technical and architectural level, while the people hearing it know email as “that thing that Just Works ™️ to send messages to anyone else with an email address”.
At that level, the Fediverse and Email are nothing alike.
I don’t agree. But, even if I was fully on board with that, I’d say “it’s like email” is still orders of magnitude more relatable as an analogy than telling non-technical people it’s like a BBS, it’s like UDP, it’s like, technical mumbo-jumbo that the majority of the audience probably doesn’t even know by name recognition, let alone understand what these things are and how they work.
Analogies are rarely perfect (I’d argue good analogies are never perfect).