Alistair DavidsonDec 16, 2024

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."

Show threadPeter LutzDec 16, 2024

@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?

Show threadPeter Lutz
@moh_kohn My vote would be for "community". E.g. a community has its own server, admins, moderators, rules, etc. It's intuitive why I'd want to join a different community.
Dec 16, 2024 at 7:02pmWeb
Show threadfallenleavesDec 16, 2024
@pjaml @moh_kohn Intuitively, community is how I thought about an instance when I had to choose one. I'm more of a techie than average but I don't work in tech, am not even a hobbyist, still my first PC was a TRS80 and I've been on the net since Prodigy... Neither of my family members will move over. It's too challenging/overwhelming. One tried during the Great Migration when things were a bit overwhelmed. Clarity around the safety/privacy implications of instances would be a big help.