@aral

Maybe there should be gradually more friction on joining as the limiit is approached?

Otherwise it's like "99,999 - come on in!" ➡️ "100,000 - go somewhere else!" and people who aren't sure how federation works may be confused. The momentum of everyone joining may tempt the admin to stay open.

Maybe when a server gets to (for example) 70% of capacity it could switch to the "why do you want to be a member?" form which creates a bit more friction, and might push people to look elsewhere.

@FediThing Great idea… it could then start offering links to alternative instances that are not close to capacity, for example.

This should be in the fundamental design of fediverse software if the goal isn’t to grow your own instance as large as you can. (And if that’s your goal, you should really be doing Big Tech instead as you’ll never beat them at their own game.)

CC @Gargron

The default behaviour for fediverse instances really ought to be 'request an account', with the admin offered options after install to;

1) stick with default

2) change to invite-only

3) change to open registration

Choosing 3) brings up a bright red warning about the costs in time and money of hosting a large instance, the moderation work required, and the risk of mass defederation if you get it wrong. At the bottom it asks "Are you sure", with yes/no buttons.

@aral @FediThing @Gargron

@strypey @aral @FediThing @Gargron

It is okay like it is.

The problem is not closing instances. The problem is redirecting people to other instances.

@pthenq1
> It is okay like it is.

Unless an admin knows how to handle growth and prevent overgrowth, defaulting to open registration sets them up for stress and failure.

> The problem is redirecting people to other instances

The list of endorsed instances at joinmastodon.org seems like a good dataset to use. Just linking to that on the signup page would be an improvement, regardless of whether registrations are open, by request, invite-only or closed.

@aral @FediThing @Gargron

@strypey @aral @FediThing @Gargron

Perhaps we could consider to add a broader list of instances. So we are getting ready for at least 5% of the 490 millions of the twitter's user base.

Still joinmastodon.org list is better than what we have today.

@pthenq1 @strypey @aral @Gargron

A problem is that instances aren't a commodity, they are qualitatively different.

You have to have some minimum requirement for reliability and responsibility. IMHO joinmastodon's list is pretty good for this, it's short and do-able on a low budget: https://joinmastodon.org/covenant

To do a list you'd have to contact each instance owner and get them to agree to requirements like this.

I wouldn't want to send new people to a list that didn't do this (or similar).