Sascha
➡️ new acct link in bioImagining if Mastodon called instances "neighborhoods" instead. The metaphor works really well IMO and doesn't sound like robot-speke.
Mike Tannenbaum@alexhillman I’ve been reading about mastodon since I first replied to your tweet and this thing seems insanely awesome and exiting. I created my account like a year ago but nobody was here. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of hyper-local (i.e. Philly) neighborhoods. Will really help to cultivate community both online and off.
@miketannenbaum same (including an account last year!)
Jag Talon ✨@alexhillman I like that. Gets you thinking that the instance you choose is important to your experience.
@jag @alexhillman I’m trying to figure out what instance(s) I want to be on and that seems to be the hardest part.
@miketannenbaum @jag it's also not permanent, like picking a place to live.
Marcin Cieślak@alexhillman @miketannenbaum @jag it would be great if "federated timeline" could be explained in terms of "neighborhoods". In the Polish translation of #Amaroq I took the liberty to use "rozmowa" ("conversation", "talk") instead of timeline and therefore I could use "rozmowa miejscowa" (lit. "Local talk" but also "local (telephone) call" and "rozmowa międzymiastowa" (lit. "Inter-city talk" but really "long distance call"). Old telecom meanings seemed to play nicely in Polish
Yeah it's overwhelming! People have made alternate instance lists that feature some nice ones:
https://instances.noct.zone/ by @dzuk
https://kitty.town/@GinnyMcQueen/100571796007162060 by @GinnyMcQueen
tom brandt@alexhillman that's a great idea
soypunk@alexhillman would this just invite nextdoor-style communities though? I consider nextdoor a digital community anti-pattern fwiw.
@Soypunk I don't think so. Nextdoor's anti patterns are almost 100% driven by their recruitment strategy and winner-take-all zip code leadership model
Huxley DJ@alexhillman patches welcome
suc@huxley @alexhillman then it would sound more like Nextdoor
Huxley (@[email protected])
291 Toots, 59 Following, 32 Followers · DJ and electronic musician, techbro, staunch SJW. 18+
Ben Ramsey@alexhillman Imagine if they called toots “posts” instead.
thesoundofsomethingbeingborn.
Justin Weiss@alexhillman Shades of GeoCities!
In a good way.
Mikey@justinweiss @alexhillman Definitely made me think of the same thing.
Ralf Göke@alexhillman or sticking to that animal world, you could name them billabongs. 🐘
@alexhillman or just waterhole. I just learned Billabong is the australian term.^^
Dirksen ⚓@alexhillman Good point!
Seth Goldstein@alexhillman
Agree. That would be neat
Agree. That would be neat
Jacob Herrington@alexhillman absolutely agree. While instances makes sense to us nerds, it's not the most accessible term for your average person.
Richard K Niner@alexhillman in this analogy, would mastodon.social be "downtown"?
@rkniner yes or something like it!
Wolfie Rankin@alexhillman I've been likening them to bubbles or second life islands.
Spongefile@alexhillman I've thought of instances as cafes/bars/pubs/clubs :)
@spongefile I like this too!
Blair MacIntyre ✅@alexhillman I’d be happy if they just changed the term Toot. Because, seriously: I lose so many people (to laughter and derision) in a discussion of Mastodon when they discover that posts are called toots.
Often “ya, I have no interest in a social media platform designed by juvenile boys.”
Why didn’t y’all just call them “Farts” and be done with it?
Patrick Tanguay@alexhillman Also, makes the "local" timeline make more sense, since I always expect it to be geo local, not instance local.
Nathan Pitman@alexhillman good idea but neighbourhood still has geographical suggestion. ‘Communities’ seems to make more sense to me. In the end both are better than ‘Instances’ which refers to how they run, not what they are for. Tense is everything.
Beto@alexhillman agree the "instance" label is a bit confusing for #newbie... In order for #Mastadon to thrive with the current uptick of users we need to remove any friction when it comes to the on-boarding process. Picking a instance,neighbohood,pub.. or whatever it ends up being called should be a super simple and intuitive
adriaanp@alexhillman I like that idea. Where can we submit a pull request?
Rana@alexhillman sounds too AOL tho
James Smith 💾@alexhillman yes! Someone else suggested “community”, which I also like.
Charlie Chapman
Steve Roy@alexhillman What about “communities”?
Matt Peterein@alexhillman The whole verbiage of instances makes me not want to try to explain it to others because as soon as I start I can tell their eyes are glossing over.
DeathUnicorn#11564 ♀️🇺🇸@alexhillman when I first saw "instance" I thought of the #warcraft term and got confused at the idea of it going away😂
kcǃ@alexhillman YES! …or “tribes”, or “communities”? All of which seem to make a lot more sense describing what an instance is.
Don@alexhillman call me old fashioned but I don't know why we aren't just using the well established "domains" (since instances are tied to them) 🤔
Lord Guysbert de Fieri 
@alexhillman I use "planets in the federation" because I'm a sci-fi nerd 😎
Although really I just use "sites" for general purpose explanations. Everyone knows what a site is in the context of the web.
Max@alexhillman "Neighborhoods" takes me back to old GeoCities. Maybe not in a good way? To fit the Mastodon theme/motif, I've thought "herd" a possible option.
Bert Latamore@alexhillman Feel like I should be linking the song from "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood".
blub@alexhillman
I See your point and the term is great. In the other Hand, instances are pretty common and well defined term in distributed networks and tech language. So we nerds know whats (exactly) all about ;)
I See your point and the term is great. In the other Hand, instances are pretty common and well defined term in distributed networks and tech language. So we nerds know whats (exactly) all about ;)
Troy Gilbert@alexhillman One step closer to GeoCities. I love it!
Cybre RickGeocities tried that. Maybe the term got burned?
infinite love ⴳ@alexhillman I personally prefer "site" because that's literally what it is, while still being more appropriate than "instance". No one really cares about the finer points of software instantiation or server architecture, but basically everyone already understands what a "site" or "web site" is. (Consider how many people use the term "bird site" here, as opposed to "bird network" or "bird [instance/neighborhood/community/etc]", for example.)
Ricky Billingsgate@alexhillman If you're aware of this already, I apologize, but Geocities had "neighborhoods" organized exactly like Mastodon instances 20 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_GeoCities#Neighborhoods
Ralf Stockmann@alexhillman agreed. "tribe" would be another option.
buttle@alexhillman I like "neighborhoods". But let's stop saying "instances" when we are taking about something else.
https://gnusocial.club and https://quitter.es are instances of #gnusocial
https://mastodon.social/ and https://red.confederac.io are instances of #mastodon
https://red.confederac.io and https://pleroma.soykaf.com are instances of #pleroma
They are all "nodes" or "neighborhoods" of the #fediverse
https://gnusocial.club and https://quitter.es are instances of #gnusocial
https://mastodon.social/ and https://red.confederac.io are instances of #mastodon
https://red.confederac.io and https://pleroma.soykaf.com are instances of #pleroma
They are all "nodes" or "neighborhoods" of the #fediverse
Maarten den Braber@alexhillman I've tried explaining it as "that village next to the on-ramp" :-)
Martin Schmitt@alexhillman The Esperanto translation of the web UI calls them brotherhoods. Could use a bit of work on the sexist side, though.
MaryQuiteeContrary@alexhillman This makes me think of Mister Rogers and therefore makes me happy
Mike Sperry@alexhillman plus, it would allow for all new usage of that "You came to the wrong neighborhood, mother***kr" meme.😆
Henryk Plötz@alexhillman OK, now I have a Geocities-Flashback. Area51 represent!