Mastodon should ask you to pick a "moderator" not an "instance".
The latter is obscure technical detail. The former is about people, and power, and explainable to anyone.
"You pick which person or organisation you want to decide who and what is banned. You can change it later."
@moh_kohn This is, to a large extent, what you get if you go to a smaller, more focused instance. If you get on a server dedicated to a particular group or worldview or interest, one dedicated to safeguarding the interests and safety of the people in that particular group, you're likely to get an experience close to what you're looking for.
In other words, what you're asking for is, for the most part, already there. You just have to wander away from the larger instances to find it.
>You're missing Al's point here.
I added a point
> Its not about 'micromanaging' speech, its about useful terminology that the average person will understand. Social Media platforms live and die by the extent of their userbase
Agreed. Sadly I think that ship has sailed for Mastodon. The people who will not tolerate those differences already went to BlueSky or Threads.
How on earth is any user going to know who or what is a moderator and what they're like?
It's silliness like this that puts many off. Just let people get on with their own experience and use their own nous.
I doubt they do. I've no idea or interest in who the moderators are of mastodon.social.
Explaining what an instance is isn't that hard but the first thing to explain is that it doesn't matter, until it does. And it really doesn't matter for most users in most circumstances.
But they wouldn't know who they would be or how they moderate and still that isn't a reason that would occur to me.
And it still wouldn't explain how federated instances work. So if they had the confusion you're presuming they'd still have it.
@moh_kohn "choose an instance" is the first thing most newbies see - it's jargon, and it's alienating. My friend stalled, asking me "what's an instance"? And "how should I choose?" Come on, y'all can be friendlier than that 😥.
And, while I now agree I should (I did) choose by quality of moderation, there's no way I'd have had the info to do that when I joined. How can people possibly know?
@inthehands
Agree 100 percent.
I'm reasonably savvy with technology, but when I joined masto I froze like a deer in the headlights when I got to that question.
@moh_kohn I like your suggestion because it emphasizes that there is a human paying the server bills and that might drive people to contribute to help paying those bills. The only problem with that is how do you learn who a moderator is before you pick one?
So much of the terminology associated with the fediverse and Mastodon is alienating to non-tech people. I believe it's a big reason that people stay on Twitter or use Bluesky.
@Gargron I think us nerds have a tendency to favour a complicated but accurate truth over a simpler but inaccurate metaphor, and that is a major barrier to usability.
One of the things you learn early in UX is that people need a story to help them understand. A great example is electricity flowing in wires. Electricity doesn't flow like water, that's massively inaccurate. But for the average person it is a perfectly serviceable metaphor.
@moh_kohn I beg to differ. There are a large variety of things where "instance" is as important as "moderator", geolocation and applicable law being only one.
Actually, I would have expected the moderators of mamot.fr to be more liberal. And today I'm really happy they aren't. They are doing a really good and balanced job! I think the best feature in mastodon is that you can move if unsatisified.
@moh_kohn I agree with the spirit of this, but an instance represents more than just moderation. On joinmastodon.org at least, seems like "server" is the term they're going with, rather than instance.
"Server" does seem too technical. If I'm a new user, why would I want to "pick another server" (vs. joining mastodon.social)? OTOH, "pick another moderator" also seems confusing, e.g. can't I just join mastodon.social and pick a different moderator there? Is a moderator a person or a place?
From dealing with people on FediTips, I don't think it's going to get any easier than calling it a "server".
"Community" was used for a while, but people assumed it meant something like a forum, and thought they had to join lots of servers to talk on lots of topics. It didn't get across the interconnected nature of the network.
"Instance" was used before that, but people very rarely use that word to mean computer stuff unless they're programmers.
"Server" is the most honest way of describing what their account is connected to, and makes understanding lots of other things they deal with on here clearer.
If all you see of a server is moderation then asking people to pick a moderator would make sense, but that's not all that people see.
For example I often have to help people with technical hitches on their server, because the server's translation system or media storage is broken etc. How can I explain that situation to them if they think they've only chosen a moderator?
Also, how are server admins meant to raise money to keep going if people think all they do is ban people? Knowing that they run the whole infrastructure is a big part of why they get donations. It would be devaluing their work to hide it.
I'd say "server" is the least-worst option. I totally get the idea of avoiding tech terms, but at some point you do need to explain at least certain concepts.
IMHO it's worth educating people about being on servers, because once they grasp the concept it explains the point of being on here as opposed to a centralised network:
https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers
Servers aren't just about who moderates, there can be many other differences in what features are available.
For example some servers let you post just on that server, some servers have much higher character limits, some servers let you use text formatting etc. Specific example: the mathstodon.xyz server lets people write using mathematical notations.
Also many servers have multiple moderators, or the moderators change over time etc. Mastodon.art has switched lead admin many times. Your account isn't tied to a specific person, it's tied to a specific server. Hiding this fact could cause more confusion than it solves.
@moh_kohn For quite some time now, people have been picking a server. This is a major improvement over picking an "instance". The vast majority of internet users know what a server is. It is basically the same as choosing an organisation.
Picking "a moderator" would not really work because many servers are moderated by multiple people. What matters is a server's policies and practice.
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