@FediTips@social.growyourown.services We can't be telling people “don't worry too much about all that server stuff for now” and also “oh you don't know if your account was on mstdn.social or mas.to, then you're just outta luck sorry”.
We also know that asking fedi newcomers to pick their own server does not work. Your suggestion addresses this point.
My conclusion is that having a default server for all newbies (not invited by a friend) is the best practical approach. Somewhere people can get their bearings.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services And yes, I understand the cons.
IMHO the path forward is to improve the scope & simplicity of the account moving process, and then encouraging people on m.s to use it after some time. Not to abolish the default server.
I've been holding my tongue on this since @andypiper@macaw.social said Mastodon may reply to this with a blog post. But I hope we can acknowledge that a “rotating servers” suggestion is incomplete without an idea to (unobtrusively but reliably) teach people about their own server.
@julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @andypiper@macaw.social
One key might be to stop encouraging people to join barely-memorable servers with which they have no real-world affinity, and instead encourage people to launch their own servers for a group which they have a real connection to, like their employer, university, city, family, church, club, or similar.
I don't forget my work email address because I know where I work.
It's a lot harder but long-term retention will be better.
@julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @andypiper@macaw.social Suppose we created a shortlist of servers. (Maybe something like 8 or 10?) We give each server a simple little icon. You know, like, "house" "bird" "cup" "mail". Each user then just remembers this little associated ID, acting basically as a shortname or a checksum for the full server name. Then they just remember "I'm johnsmith with the little bird icon".
Maybe we don't like the icons, we use something else. Some other piece of memorized data that's a hell of a lot easier to keep in your head then some domain name that looks just like all the other domain names. As servers come and go, we add new icons (or whatever thing we pick) to the list to represent new servers on the shortlist of possible servers.
Just an idea is all.
@riverpunk@defcon.social @julian@fietkau.social @andypiper@macaw.social
People learn stuff when they find it useful. My granny knew dozens of phone numbers off by heart because she used them regularly. How many people today know a single phone number off by heart?
If people get used to servers, they will remember them.
If you never ever expose people to servers, they will never even have a chance to learn.
@riverpunk@defcon.social @julian@fietkau.social @andypiper@macaw.social
People learn stuff when they find it useful. My granny knew dozens of phone numbers off by heart because she used them regularly. How many people today know a single phone number off by heart?
If people get used to servers, they will remember them.
If you never ever expose people to servers, they will never even have a chance to learn.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services @riverpunk@defcon.social @julian@fietkau.social @andypiper@macaw.social I still remember my best friend's phone number. and I could dial it faster than my own. I got it in about half a second once. It was a wild day.
But I agree that remembering your server isn't too much to ask like remembering your email domain. Also it's only nature now that we have password managers. They're plentiful. They're easy to use. You can manage them manually or cloud based. Password managers are perfect for things like putting in your server
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services @riverpunk@defcon.social @julian@fietkau.social @andypiper@macaw.social I still remember my best friend's phone number. and I could dial it faster than my own. I got it in about half a second once. It was a wild day.
But I agree that remembering your server isn't too much to ask like remembering your email domain. Also it's only nature now that we have password managers. They're plentiful. They're easy to use. You can manage them manually or cloud based. Password managers are perfect for things like putting in your server
Julian Fietkau
