Ryan OzawaMar 9, 2019
Trying to find an article I think I saw on the #fediverse a day or two ago about the "myth" of federation and the failure of #Mastodon to decentralize sufficiently (finding that two instances carrying most of the overall activity of the entire network). But now I can't find it. Anyone bookmark it? @Gargron @federationbot
Show threadMauro

@editor
this one maybe?

https://rosenzweig.io/blog/the-federation-fallacy.html

@Gargron @[email protected]

The Federation Fallacy

Mar 9, 2019 at 2:36pmMastalab
Show threadRyan OzawaMar 9, 2019
@mauro_motion @Gargron That's it! Thank you! (And what is it with academics and full-justified text?)
Show threadEugen RochkoMar 9, 2019
@editor @mauro_motion Thank god for Firefox (and Safari's) reader mode!
Show threadMauroMar 9, 2019
@editor
you're welcome :) very interesting article indeed!
@Gargron
Show threadRyan OzawaMar 9, 2019
@mauro_motion I disagree that federation is dead, but she makes an effective point. @Gargron is helping distribution and federation by closing signups on Mastodon.social. But I suspect the other largest instances like being the largest instances. No? #fediverse #mastodon
Show threadEugen RochkoMar 9, 2019
@editor @mauro_motion Everyone's always hung up on registration numbers, because it is the most exposed metric (activity metrics are public, but not on the frontpage of each instance). Out of 300k people registered here, 13k-15k are active week-by-week. I think if you adjust by those numbers, the distribution might not be the same.
Show threadRyan OzawaMar 9, 2019
@Gargron @mauro_motion What is the best way to estimate active users on a given instance? You're right that it's an important data point for any kind of analysis. Could you add "active users in past month" to the API?
Show threadEugen RochkoMar 9, 2019

@editor @mauro_motion The API path is always the same:

https://mastodon.social/api/v1/instance/activity

It's in weekly buckets right now

Show threadMauroMar 9, 2019
@editor
well for what I remember of the article at first it looks like it says that mastodon is dead but towards the end it praises it for being a great tool of online democracy, and I tend to agree with this view
@Gargron
Show threadOndřej PokornýMar 9, 2019
@mauro_motion @editor @Gargron Yeah, the article is quite inconsistent. First it seems like it argues there's no point fighting with centralization because it's natural and therefore inevitable and later admits that federation, self-hosting and other aspects of #Mastodon or #web are helping in pursuing that democratic ideal. The whole democratic analogy is extreme oversimplification, though. Market competition still creates centralized oligopolies even withing real-world democracy, for example.