@FediTips@social.growyourown.services
1. Right. The point is that it is the same server for everyone. So people can do logins and password resets without knowing what server they were assigned.
2. I'm sorry, but this was widespread. I had multiple people in my circles who bounced off of Mastodon because they couldn't remember their server. I believe @evan@cosocial.ca verified this as well.
3. I would expect them to move after learning what servers mean and which ones could fit them. How long this takes will differ per person.
@julian@fietkau.social
You're basically suggesting killing the Fediverse for the sake of making it easier.
Do you know what percentage will "bounce" if it no longer has any advantages over much bigger alternatives?
What, exactly, is the point of a Fediverse that operates on one server? Where is the advantage over Bluesky or Twitter/X for that matter?
There would be nothing left of it, it would be just another centralised network owned by a single company that eventually enshittifies.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services @julian@fietkau.social I'd like to point out that small, sustained growth over time while sticking to founding principles is infinitely more beneficial to users of the network, as compared to viral success at the cost of abandoning those principles.
I wanna see Mastodon take off big as much as everyone else, but not if that just means another tech monopoly that has a cool open protocol for a while before they finally extinguish when some billionaire buys it and decides to lock everyone in and start enshittifying.
That's basically how I see this tradeoff. Some users are gonna take longer to get on, but hey, at least that way, the thing they're getting on is a decentralized network, not a single platform that is only open in theory.
@julian@fietkau.social
"I would expect them to move after learning what servers mean and which ones could fit them. How long this takes will differ per person."
It has been two years since this was suggested and it just has not happened, the percentage on mastodon.social has gone from 15ish to 30ish.
The process of moving could be simplified but it will ALWAYS be more complex than the process of remembering whether you signed up on mastodon.social or mas.to. It is not realistic to rely on this path.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services Moving accounts will always be a nontrivial process, but after some weeks or months on fedi, people will be more equipped to pick a server they can identify with than they are to remember a random server during initial signup.
And I'm not saying to cross our fingers and hope they'll move on their own. We could do in-app reminders for m.s users, server recommendations like yours, maybe even gradual throttling of overly long-lived m.s accounts. There is room for more ideas.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services Moving accounts will always be a nontrivial process, but after some weeks or months on fedi, people will be more equipped to pick a server they can identify with than they are to remember a random server during initial signup.
And I'm not saying to cross our fingers and hope they'll move on their own. We could do in-app reminders for m.s users, server recommendations like yours, maybe even gradual throttling of overly long-lived m.s accounts. There is room for more ideas.
@julian@fietkau.social
Telling people to sign up on mastodon.social and then punishing them for signing up on mastodon.social is (with all due respect) not a good idea. It will make people feel gaslighted by Mastodon and put them off the network completely.
Encouraging people to choose a different server to begin with and helping them to do this is innately the most effective way to spread growth out. We know this because it worked when they did this.
@julian@fietkau.social
Telling people to sign up on mastodon.social and then punishing them for signing up on mastodon.social is (with all due respect) not a good idea. It will make people feel gaslighted by Mastodon and put them off the network completely.
Encouraging people to choose a different server to begin with and helping them to do this is innately the most effective way to spread growth out. We know this because it worked when they did this.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services It isn't a punishment if m.s can be conceptualized as a transitionary tutorial server. Kind of a “Great Plateau” of Mastodon, if you've played Zelda BOTW.
I think there can be a design where it feels natural to have an area that people are expected to leave once they get their training wheels off, especially if the migration process is improved to include posts, update conversation threads, contain fewer UI steps, etc.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services @julian@fietkau.social any fedi app have any kind of wizard for picking an instance?
sorry for crashing the middle of your debate but that's how I'd handle it: with the client-side database. and then immediately export settings, maybe with a file including the name of the instance.
@travisfw@fosstodon.org
I run a website at https://fedi.garden to help people discover good well-run servers. All of them are human-curated and comply with seven points listed at https://fedi.garden/about-this-site/
There are also wizard sites but I wouldn't recommend them as AFAIK none of them curate the servers they list, so they may be directing people to unreliable or unsafe servers.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services you do, I know, and you are awesome, and I haven't checked it in a while but thank you.
are any client apps funneling people to your site?
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services you do, I know, and you are awesome, and I haven't checked it in a while but thank you.
are any client apps funneling people to your site?
Julian Fietkau
Fedi.Tips
