Honestly they don't sound like great people, or particularly intellectually curious - you explained it well, there's no reason for them to be caricaturing it as nerd stuff. Especially since they're on Reddit. I wouldn't worry about them.

Imagine the staff mods trying to run AskHistorians💀

😭
that was awful, and I love it

I don't think it's fair to expect someone looking to join a new knitting community to learn about client/server relationships and federated social platforms.

This is the situation with the communities I'm most interested in - it's a big psychological barrier to entry, if you're not particularly tech-minded. I've been trying to spread the word, but I don't think I can put it simply enough (and I've been putting it really simply, because honestly I don't completely understand it all myself yet).

I'm here because it was easy to sign up, it's friendly and reasonably intuitive, and it seems like a place where you can learn by doing. I just jumped in without thinking too much about it, and it's working out pretty well so far. I just wish more people understood that they could do the same thing...