Wikipedia and other sources tend to use “the Fediverse”, but I’ve also seen just “Fediverse”. From what I know, it depends on whether the term is a proper name or just the name of a unique thing. Could someone please explain how do you think the term should be properly named and why?

  • AgreeableLandscape
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    4 years ago

    I’d say “the Fediverse” is more grammatically correct since there’s only really one of them. Kind of like “the universe”

    • Serge TarkovskiOPM
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      4 years ago

      In the UK, the same person can be mentioned as “the queen” and “Queen”. I’ve heard an explanation that the latter form is like a name, similarly to “Mommy” and “Daddy”, which also could be used starting from a capital letter and without an article. “Fediverse” is always used with a starting capital letter, so that’s why I was confused. Seems it’s the matter of predominant native speakers’ taste whether to consider Fediverse as a name or just as a single unique entity.

      • AgreeableLandscape
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        4 years ago

        The Fediverse is a proper noun though, so I always thought it would have similar grammatical rules as “the UK” or “the US”.

        • Serge TarkovskiOPM
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          4 years ago

          Those are rather plural, so the use of “the” is a bit more clear to me in this case.

            • Serge TarkovskiOPM
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              4 years ago

              Technically “kingdom” isn’t plural, but means something like “a big group of people” or so, so sort of plural. “Republic” has a similar meaning IMO. Of course it’s just my interpretation as I wanted some logic behind all those tricky rules about when to use articles.

              • AgreeableLandscape
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                4 years ago

                Technically “kingdom” isn’t plural, but means something like “a big group of people” or so, so sort of plural.

                So is the Fediverse though.

                I think you can also think of it as “the Mississippi River”.

      • roastpotatothief
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        4 years ago

        “The queen” is normally the queen of England. “Queen” is normally the band.

        You could address the queen of England “hello queen” but that’s the only context i can think of.

        • triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml
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          3 years ago

          One more - her (informal) name is “queen Elizabeth”, no " the".

          I don’t know the terminology around it, but it seems like its similar with other titles - “who is the president”, but “vote for president dog”.

  • dengismceo
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    4 years ago

    i have only ever heard it referred to as “the fediverse”, which, as @AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml pointed out, is more grammatically correct. i’d also argue, however, that regardless of grammatical correctness, “the fediverse” is the term of common usage and is therefore “correct” for that reason.

  • triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 years ago

    I would say “Fediverse” when it’s used as an adjective - “many Fediverse apps”, “my Fediverse community”.

    “The Fediverse” seems right when it’s a noun - “lot of new folks joining the Fediverse”.

    But most people I know abbreviate it to " fedi" outside formal settings anyway 🙂

  • jiangshanghan
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    3 years ago

    we may have many different kings of different countries, so i think “the” is nesessary if you need to point at one of them…