Which alternate term for the Fediverse do you like best: Wood Wide Web, Fungal/Fungi Web or Fungiverse?

I think maybe if OP is writing solarpunk fiction, then it could be useful. However, outside of that - I totally agree. We have a descriptive term that's best to be consistent with so people can understand it.

I'm not a fan of fungi, I just think its a good metaphor for what ActivityPub does.

But I see your point: fediverse makes sense in the context, however:

1. The context in which the Fediverse was created is one that should be overcome. We don't want walled gardens, in a world without them, the term Fediverse doesn't make sense anymore. I think what we need to achieve as a society is a true implementation of the "social web". And federation is not a main thing here, it's just a by-product that could make it work.
2. I still think it would be great to have a handy metaphor that basically explains itself and that makes sense without having to explain centralized social networks first

For me it runs down to this: how do you explain the Fediverse to someone when walled gardens don't exist anymore? Its a term created with respect to the old times. I think its contraproductive. The term "social web" is much better imo.

Why an alternative term?

I find the term fediverse irritating and I'm currently writing a short story about the Fediverse.

If you want something that carries more meaning then those proposed terms are maybe not the best as a mycelium network does not represent very well what the fediverse does.

For me, ActivityPub does for the web about the same thing that fungi do in the forest: they allow communication about the content in the web without a central entity.

If you want some more practical comparison then maybe a network of scribes in monastery libraries that copy texts and exchange them via a postal network?

But they aren't sharing only text. Also: the monk doesn't exist. The communication works dezentralized through a protocol.

Technical innovations are often named after representations from nature or society. Take the paper bin on windows or the whole file system. These are all metaphors for complex concepts.

Could be that federation will be the metaphor to go but I think there are better ones out there.

I think with these fungi-terms there are much better metaphors attached to it.

Look at videos explaining the Fediverse to people. It's almost always with a very abstract universe-metaphor. In the mastodon video you have mammoths on islands that communicate with each other. It's cute but doesn't make much sense.

The fungi-metaphor is also abstract, but after all, the concept of dezentralized social networks is abstract in itself. But explaining it with something that at least exists in the real world I think could be much more effective.

Its also a nice claim: why are basically trying to implement what nature already does. Now we adapt it for human society. How cool is that? Currently it's like: there is this very abstract fediverse that's different than everything that people experience on the web currently but it's awesome, please join. I don't find this a very confincing narrative.

I think it's bigger than that. The verge says it will create an open social graph IN the web. I think it could have great potential to transform society for the better.

Your explanation makes sense but I think it doesn't convey the full potential of it.

Ok, looks complicated :D But it sounds good. I will add it to my reading list. Thanks

Ok thanks. I think I will take that :)

Honestly, staying away from fungal terms in general is probably for the best, we don't want people to associate with nft's