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this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
1984 points (95.0% liked)
Fediverse
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I’m a tech nerd and software engineer and even I struggled to figure out how to signup. Most people I know just want something that works. And those things tend to be centralized because of ease of use. The Fediverse isn’t easy to use, and makes the user make major decisions before even signing up or understanding the tech.
Eventually there should probably be account migration and a somewhat “central” account management instance that most users are on, with the option to migrate their user to other instances.
Yep. Certified non-tech nerd here. And not quite 30, either.
I was awfully close to not figuring out Lemmy enough to make an account and participate.
I still don't understand exactly what's going on, but I can confirm that my first time visiting was extremely confusing. So many terms I was completely unfamiliar with, and no clear way for me to jump in easily (like you were describing with having to make important decisions before signing up/understanding). Truly the only reason I ended up successfully making it here was that I saw a post on the instance I ended up joining, welcoming reddit refugees so I figured - well, I guess I could try this one. And that was after I had searched around online to figure out what the heck the fediverse, instances, etc, were.
The barrier to entry is really high for those of us with little to no tech knowledge. And I was really motivated, I reeeeally wanted to commit to leaving reddit. I imagine those who are considering joining but aren't quite as motivated just won't make it. :(
I've been in tech for 25 years and it still took me a day or two to figure it out after I made a account. So no worries, you're in good company 🙂
My experience was exactly like you describe, I see we even ended up using the same instance. Only reason I chose this one was because it was the top option in the Memmy app.
A central account instance rather defeats the point of a federated system.
With federation it's ensured that any single instance is only a small part of the whole, and that if any instance goes down (or worse, goes rogue and becomes a bad actor) then the impact of that is minimised. All users being registered on a single instance is akin to putting all your eggs in one basket.
I do totally understand from the perspective of new users that it's hard to understand what to do or how to do it but that is a problem that could be better addressed with clearer onboarding. e.g "Choose any one of these recommended instances to sign up. It doesn't matter which - you'll be able to see the same content and communities across all of Lemmy no matter which you pick"*
*mostly, but close enough
To be honest, I’m still not sold on federation, and that’s going to be a huge hurdle to overcome with the general public.
I think its the only way to not be completely dependent on some single entity.
So far we have seen all of them go bad with time. At least with federation, you and me can talk with no corporation in the middle, which brings me back to the lovely feeling of the 90's with BBS's and forums. Before the corps took over and put ads everywhere, and basically took the world hostage.
If something big happens, ordinary people need to be able to talk without censorship. And its going to be very hard to censor a distributed network like Lemmy.
I think it’s a huge advantage. It’s not that confusing that different websites share content. I think all it would take is something like “sign up for the site you like or one in your state” and for the default home pages to be All vs Local.
Does anyone know of any Game Theory-esque analysis of how late-stage Fediverse is supposed to work? What's the end game? What happens to the Fediverse with all the different kinds of players involved at this point?
I see each topic having their own instance, a giant web of interest connected content servers... I'll call it, the internet 😄 For real though, this shit feels like the old days back in the 90s ♥️
Choosing an instance is no more confusing than choosing an email provider. I signed up on several right away. I figured I'd stick with the one I liked best, but since they all run the same software it makes little difference. One instance lost its domain, another is constantly being DOSed. Otherwise it's simple.
Does it? Would it not be possible for a minimal global account system to exist, which ONLY handles logging in and identity? Any user-related data could still exist in instances, not centralized.
I am pretty new to this type of system so maybe I am wrong but it does seem like both the biggest barrier to wider adoption and rather solvable: in current terms, imagine if the "login" instance had no communities, only account log in, while other instances have no log in, but integrate the "central" one. In case decentralization is wanted, I think it'd be possible to have multiple "login" type instances exist in a consensus, at which point problems and solutions start looking similar to cryptocurrency, but without the need to deal with "currency" or any of those ethical landmines - it'd just need to do the task of multiple instances agreeing to dataset of existing users.
Does it make sense to fave one central e-mail account management server? Email is a federated system, though it's becoming less federated all the time.