@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange
I feel that its worth pointing out in these conversations that nobody starts new servers anymore. Its hard (to measure kinda impossible now since fedidb removed the 'first seen' statistic, and server age does not show up in nodeinfo), but virtually no new servers have been started since 2024 that have gotten over 1k mau, I think it was like 4 total (this spring when the stat was still available)
@julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org
imo a core problem is that perceptually, an app is usually tied software (the mastodon app) instead of network (the fediverse app) or server (the indiewebsocial app)
@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange @julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org
Mo-Me is leaning into this dynamic. For #MediaLiberationDay, it was very useful to be able to point people to Mo-Me to get started (as oppose to "start by picking an instance" or "start on .social"). And I wouldn't call it a "paddling pool" since it's got pretty rich functionality and is fully federated, but it's definitely an example of what I think of as a "starter instance".
One of the challenges with the app focus though is it's likely to reinforce the default tendency on flagship instances. If I want to use Piefed-the-app, it's natural to sign up on piefed.social; even though they're putting a lot of work into helping people choose an instance when they sign up (and kudos to them for doing it!), why not just sign up on piefed.social? It's hard to answer that without talking about instances and why they matter!
@laurenshof@indieweb.social @julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org
@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange
Yeah MoMe is a great example
I get your point on how app focus also increases flagship importance. But I think that also partially points to that we keep trying to see the platform software as neutral with all expressions of community coming from servers, and I’m increasingly starting to feel that’s a dead end
@julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org
@laurenshof@indieweb.social @thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange @julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services Laurens, can you say more about this?
@UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org @laurenshof@indieweb.social @thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange @julian@fietkau.social
Whatever you suggest, please say something that doesn't involve centralisation.
This isn't meant to be a thread about how to do onboarding, it's a thread about how to stop centralisation.
In this particular case it's a badly-conceived onboarding mechanism that is causing the problem, but the problem itself is the centralisation.
All discussion is pointless if the Fedi centralises, because it would no longer have a reason to exist.
Laurens Hof
