Mastodawn

ACCOUNT MOVED Aug 11, 2018

After sleeping on it, I think #Mastodon should rename ‘instances’ to ‘Communities.’

Instances feels too technical and I see even savvy people struggling to understand it.

I argue communities would make much more sense. It denotes much of the purpose behind _why_ this service has different instances, and many people will already be familiar with the concept from Reddit (the, what, sixth most popular site on the net?).

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Justin Michael Aug 11, 2018

@chartier "Communities" is good except for one thing: it makes it sound like none of the instances are connected to each other, which is one of the key aspects. It's not just a bunch of seperate communities, it's one big interconnected federation.

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ACCOUNT MOVED Aug 11, 2018

@VioletPixel Sure, but real world communities interact with each other, and members frequently participate in multiple or uproot and move between them.

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Justin Michael Aug 11, 2018

@chartier True, but this place is even more connected than that. You and I are effortlessly talking to each other even though we're using different instances; it's not like I had to go over to your building or even pick up the phone, you're just immediately accessible. "Communities" implies barriers that don't exist here.

Don't get me wrong; I agree that "instances" is a very technical and opaque term, and I'm all for finding a better name, I just don't think "communities" is quite right.

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Mike Piontek Aug 11, 2018

@VioletPixel @chartier I don't agree that there aren't barriers. If I follow a web link to a different instance it's not at all clear how to interact with anything on that instance. I also think we're well past the point where people think of separate communities as a significant barrier to communication—there are so many ways different communities flow together constantly, especially on other social media sites.

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Mike Piontek

@VioletPixel @chartier More importantly, no matter what you call it, you're going to have to explain how it works, that these separate servers can all be a part of your personal feed. Calling them communities would save you from having to explain "instances" too—it's a friendly term that will give people a familiar concept to start from.