Aral Balkan

Number of accounts is the wrong success metric for the fediverse; number of instances is the correct one.

Absolute failure state of the fediverse is 7 billion accounts and one instance.

Aug 23, 2018 at 9:20amWeb
Show threadmaloki 🍵Aug 23, 2018
@aral Thank you
Show threadBálint SzilaksziAug 23, 2018
@aral I think I’ll work on instance monitoring and upgrades. Atm we have too many old/outdated instances. We need to up our security/maintenance game a bit.
Show threadkeithzgAug 23, 2018
@aral I'd expand that to the diversity of server and client software too. I think it's a really good sign that I see people from ActivityPub instances running Pleroma rather than Mastodon; no single point of failure or control, even in the software stack.
Show threadFerdi F. Zebua 🌏Aug 23, 2018

. @aral But who can afford to run a single instance with 7 billion—

…Oh.

Show threadShaunyataAug 23, 2018
@aral We beat Zuck at his own game—by playing a different game.
Show threadמאַשעלע MasheleAug 23, 2018
@aral
So what is the current estimate?
Show threadJames  Aug 23, 2018
@aral agreed, but daily users would surely be a better metric?
Show threadAral BalkanAug 23, 2018
@James 7 billion active users on 1 instance is still the absolute failure mode.
Show threadJames  Aug 23, 2018
@aral very true, but so is 7 billion instances with 1 user on each! Fully agree though that number of users is a wonky metric, there needs to be 3 or 4 metrics to give a more nuanced/balanced view :)
Show threadShananAug 23, 2018
@aral by the same measure, 7 billion+ instances with one account on each would be a wonderful thing, where an instance can run even on the lightest and cheapest device.
Show threadAral BalkanAug 23, 2018
@shanan Exactly.
Show threadFerdi F. Zebua 🌏Aug 23, 2018

@aral @shanan Moderation issues tho. And possible inability to mitigate dogpiling and other DDOS-style socio-electronic forms of harrasment.

When we each become our own moderator...

(But should we assume that virality is no longer existent in this arguably future forthcoming brave new world..?) (And/or vastly different..?)

Show threadploumAug 23, 2018
@shanan @aral : that's when you switch from "federated" to "distributed".
Show threadIntegralDuCheminAug 23, 2018

@aral One instance per user would then be the optimum?

I mean why don't you take the ratio total_number_of_instances/total_number_of_users?

Show threadqwazixAug 23, 2018
@IntegralDuChemin @aral I'd go for the product of the two :-)
Show threadEdenAug 23, 2018

@IntegralDuChemin @aral Or even number of instances who have an optimum number of users?

Like more than a hundred or so, but less than 1000s of users.

Show threadhrefAug 23, 2018
@aral Almost 932837 users on the first top 4. That's not so much better.
Show threadMatt JonesAug 23, 2018
@aral Glad to be helping out with that then. Thanks for the inspiration to set up my own instance.