Having to choose a server before you know what that means or the differences between the slightly different versions of federated networks makes it more confusing.
Yes, “it doesn’t matter which server you choose,” because you can see the posts from anywhere, in theory. Except, it also kind of does matter. Places defederate from each other. If you pick a smaller instance, it may suddenly just go down and then you’re back at the start again.
Honestly, I’ve made… 5? 6? different versions of me on different instances. Kbin went down, didn’t get into Mastodon, lemm.ee went down, didn’t like Mbin as much as Kbin, tried fedia.io sort of liked it, ended up largely on piefed.social, but also like being on sopuli.xyz because it’s defederated from less and has more global content.
It’s confusing and niche. I honestly really love it even when I kind of hate it. I end up ahead of the curve in a lot of tech news because of the hardcore enthusiasts on here.
I have two accounts that went dark. The main mastodon website with the list of all instances really needs to filter by popularity and longevity so people can make an informed choice!
after lemee.ee almost everyone dispersed, so less content overall on lemmy. plus the amount of blocking one has to do from trolls and extremists comments.
This is absolutely correct, and is also another reason why Lemmy hasn’t taken off. For people like you and I, it seems like we don’t really mind making alts. But for the average Joe, this could be a tedious thing. And if the average Joe isn’t able to figure out the Fediverse, then this platform will struggle becoming popular.
This could be avoided, though. You could just join an instance that rarely defederates from others. But first, you’d need to figure out which instance has the fewest defederations (how do you even figure this out if you’ve just started to poke your head into the Fediverse??). And when you do figure it out, you join that instance and all will be good. That instance might become the most popular in the entire Fediverse.
That is until the admins go on a power trip and start saying to other instances: “If your instance doesn’t do X, Y, and Z, then we, the LARGEST instance of the Fediverse, will defederate from you!”
Once again, you and I would just say “Fuck it, we’re going to another instance”. And what if we find another instance that rarely defederates, but it has other problems such as frequent connectivity issues? Or maybe the admin’s a dick? We could keep searching, but we might never be able to find one that’s as good as the first one.
But most importantly, would the average Joe also do the same as us and move to another instance? Chances are, they might not and will stay. Just look at Reddit after the API drama. Despite being spat in the face by Reddit, the majority of the people stayed. But I don’t blame them because the Fediverse is confusing and has many unresolved issues.
TLDR: If the average Joe doesn’t get the Fediverse, the Fediverse will not grow.
Having to choose a server before you know what that means or the differences between the slightly different versions of federated networks makes it more confusing.
Yes, “it doesn’t matter which server you choose,” because you can see the posts from anywhere, in theory. Except, it also kind of does matter. Places defederate from each other. If you pick a smaller instance, it may suddenly just go down and then you’re back at the start again.
Honestly, I’ve made… 5? 6? different versions of me on different instances. Kbin went down, didn’t get into Mastodon, lemm.ee went down, didn’t like Mbin as much as Kbin, tried fedia.io sort of liked it, ended up largely on piefed.social, but also like being on sopuli.xyz because it’s defederated from less and has more global content.
It’s confusing and niche. I honestly really love it even when I kind of hate it. I end up ahead of the curve in a lot of tech news because of the hardcore enthusiasts on here.
I have two accounts that went dark. The main mastodon website with the list of all instances really needs to filter by popularity and longevity so people can make an informed choice!
after lemee.ee almost everyone dispersed, so less content overall on lemmy. plus the amount of blocking one has to do from trolls and extremists comments.
This is absolutely correct, and is also another reason why Lemmy hasn’t taken off. For people like you and I, it seems like we don’t really mind making alts. But for the average Joe, this could be a tedious thing. And if the average Joe isn’t able to figure out the Fediverse, then this platform will struggle becoming popular.
This could be avoided, though. You could just join an instance that rarely defederates from others. But first, you’d need to figure out which instance has the fewest defederations (how do you even figure this out if you’ve just started to poke your head into the Fediverse??). And when you do figure it out, you join that instance and all will be good. That instance might become the most popular in the entire Fediverse.
That is until the admins go on a power trip and start saying to other instances: “If your instance doesn’t do X, Y, and Z, then we, the LARGEST instance of the Fediverse, will defederate from you!”
Once again, you and I would just say “Fuck it, we’re going to another instance”. And what if we find another instance that rarely defederates, but it has other problems such as frequent connectivity issues? Or maybe the admin’s a dick? We could keep searching, but we might never be able to find one that’s as good as the first one.
But most importantly, would the average Joe also do the same as us and move to another instance? Chances are, they might not and will stay. Just look at Reddit after the API drama. Despite being spat in the face by Reddit, the majority of the people stayed. But I don’t blame them because the Fediverse is confusing and has many unresolved issues.
TLDR: If the average Joe doesn’t get the Fediverse, the Fediverse will not grow.