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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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No, it's mastodon but centralized. It takes all the difficulty out of signing up for the fediverse, like finding a server. I said it from day 1 on mastodon. We will never see mass adoption until there's a simple sign up process. People like centralized because it's easier.
I've been trying to hammer this point home.
I wish devs would wake up and create a default easy mode sign-up for the fediverse with an option to click "advanced sign-up" if you choose to do so.
The easy mode would just automatically assign an instance based upon some algorithm.
How?
Well, like asking users what their preferences are and select the servers based on the criteria users have chosen?
Hmm actually yeah this is a good idea, but the problem is that there's so many servers that I feel that after choosing criteria there'd still be a bunch of servers in the list and the problem remains, right? Just bouncing ideas. I quite like this idea though.
Then the algo recommends the one with the lowest load and hides the others behind a ... icon or something.
Mm this could be a problem because server load is too unpredictable. I would actually say just randomize the list, so that it kinda does its own "load balancing" by incentivizing to pick whatever random top one it selected?
Yeah, whatever metric. Could also use a mix of number of users, some form of reputation measurement, uptime, etc.
I mostly meant that the system should pick a "best server" and recommend that. Smarter people than me can come up with the best metric.
But swamping the user with >100 servers to pick from is counterproductive.
I wish the devs would wake up and create a default easy mode sign-up for creating a web site. The web will never catch on with all this complicated stuff.
Honestly I like the fact that there is some difficulty in the sign up. I think it brings a better quality of people to the Fediverse.
How is it difficult to find a server? Just pick whatever server you come across first and create an account.
You tell the average dude about how servers exist and the first instinct is that it matters, so they stop, fret about the importance, look for a second, then just drop it because they dont give enough hoots yet to invest more effort versus using a centralized service.
Want ppl to join, don't even tell them about servers. No choice paralysis, no fear of being wrong, nada
I haven't used Mastodon, but on Lemmy the instance you are on totally matters.
For example, beehaw.org is pretty happy to defederate. It tries to give you a more moderated and curated environment. Feddit.de is slow, laggy and often outdated, and they just deactivated federation in general (at least they said so, to me federation seems to be still working) to avoid that session stealing vulnerability.
In general, federation is pretty buggy right now, with federated posts/comments having a decent chance of not being replicated.
So the choice of instance really does make a difference. But there is no help at all up front to choose the correct instance.
And just hopping over to another instance is also not a great solution, since people are used to build their social media account. It's not some anonymous throw-away thing.
I the case of lemmy, i feel like it's definitely some anonymous throw-away thing. We're not here to build a follower base are we?
Much less than on other platforms, that's true, but after a while you do start recognizing usernames again.
Sure there's exceptions like SrGrafo on Reddit but most are here to lurk around or engage in random discussions
you could also simply recommend them an instance
The average dude who can't figure out how to sign up for an account on a website can go fuck off back to Facebook, where SOMEHOW they managed to create an account.
It looks like most people don't have enough braincells to do such a simple task. Isn't it just nice to live in a world like this?
At least this is one thing that's not as bad as decades ago. Just remembering how computer illiterate most of the developed world used to be.
Most people weren't ever taught about this shit and had no reason to spend time learning about it on their own. Most of us are either professional or amateur nerds, figuring this out wasn't really that hard because of our circumstances rather than our ~superior brains~
They have just as many braincells as you, throw that attitude away.
Finding a server could not be any easier: https://joinmastodon.org/servers
If they can't manage that then maybe they should not be on the internet. If my 60yo dad can do it then so can they. Learned helplessness in anything involving IT is my pet peeve.
Tbh, this is not a good solution.
It dumps you in front of a wall of 22 pages of servers on my laptop (equivalent to 4.35 meters).
Most of which have completely nonsensical descriptions.
If I look at e.g. the first page (top 6 servers) I get these:
Ok, so of these I can only rule out mstdn.jp, because I don't speak Japanese.
mastodon.social and mastodon.official are, I guess, the "official" instances, with one of them being newer, for some reason. What does that mean? No idea. Is mastodon.social running out dated software? If not, why fork the instances at all?
mstdn.social and mastodon.world mention that they are general purpose. Without (and even with) Fediverse experience, I would expect any social media platform to be general purpose unless otherwise stated. So they basically have no description.
mas.to mentions only that it's "fast, up-to-date and fun". That basically has no meaning, except all other instances are slow, outdated and boring. So now I am worried.
mstdn.social says it has a 500 character limit. Without googleing a new user would have no idea what the regular character limits are. And I have no idea whether that will cause issues when interacting with other instances.
This page is like getting to a used car dealership without a clue about cars and you ask the car dealer to help you choose a car, and the dealer is like "Yeah, so I'm gonna help you. The right car for you is any car on the property of the dealership."
Yeah but, it sounds like you can read and retain information long enough to make decisions on your own.
Most people can't even grasp scrolling past the ads in a Google search. If they even get to Google in the first place.
Centralization is the core problem of social media though. It allows a single entity control over the data and as soon as you have that, you have Zuck.
Centralization isn't the problem, privatization is. If the single entity that controlled the data was democraticly controlled and not run for profitability it'd be the best of all worlds.
In 2023, there is very little democratically controlled anything left that has not been tainted by the 'capitalist gains mindset' - most democratic social programs that are far more fundamental than a social network have either been corrupted and impaired by corporate greed or have had enough legislative protections or funding sources cut out that they can no longer operate properly, allowing the argument for 'privatisation' - a one way ticket back to corporate greed. They operate at the whims of corporations and no longer serve the people.
While I believe what you say is true, it's not something we're capable of in the current state of civilisation.
Everything you said is true, democracy does not exist under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. I'm just saying, centralization isn't the problem. Furthermore you can't escape capitalism by decentralizing.
True, but it makes it possible to breakaway from an instance or leaders that are toxic/circumventing your privacy for profit without having to find a new tool or network. You can just hop to another instance.
It's possible as long as competition exists, but every market trends towards monopolization. EEE is real.
Huh? The default Mastodon app signs you up on mastodon.social by default. Nothing complicated about that:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/
And the devs faced major opposition for that, because plenty of people accused them of wanting to centralize the decentralized network with that move.
I've seen people lose their shit over having to "sign up for another app" and honestly I don't want people who have no respect for their data, privacy and have the personality of a wet cardboard right-wing conservative on the fediverse. That's why Fb exists. We are here as users because we chose to, as other people chose what best suits them.
I think it's a good thing honestly. It brings a better quality of people here in my opinion.
Exactly, I downloaded Mastodon and deleted it in one day. It was too complicated (in an annoying way) to use. I'm very IT literate, but I don't want to learn to use a platform, or do research. I want it to work out of the box, and I want it to be easy and the content to be accessible. Now think about all the non-IT literate people out there, of course Threads will do well because it's just create an account and you're good to go... If Mastodon was like that I would use it.