austI really wish Mastodon didn't have multiple networks and instances. Just confusing for 99.5% of ppl. Maybe that's a feature not a bug, but I doubt it. Fragmentation is rarely a good thing in a social network.
lo ❌@aust It's like torrents: it's a bit confusing but when you get used to it you get 100% decentralization and 0% censorship.
Hisham@aust Depends if you're looking at it from the perspective of the owner of the network or as a user. Users don't have a problem with email addresses having "@server" in them, I think they'll cope with federated instances.
I do like the suggestion that they should have been called Planets and Galaxy though!
@hisham_hm but with email it's really just a namespace. All email is on the same network, so to speak
@aust I think we see it that way because the coordination works, but the occasional hiccups remind us that's not really a single network. I think users will coalesce around major instances and will eventually see federation as email-like namespace.
@hisham_hm ya that's the only long term solution
Critical Value@aust Worked well for email.
Les Orchard@aust Not to be too snarky, but it was also confusing when folks moved from CompuServe & Prodigy & AOL to the Internet & the WWW. Folks figured it out, because the benefits were worth it. Putting all the eggs in one basket is the driver for a lot of problems right now. Whether this federation helps things needs to prove itself out, but I'm hopeful
@lmorchard 99% of people still don't understand the details because they've been abstracted away. People don't understand.
@aust And that could happen here. We got better UX, search engines, etc because it was worth doing. Of course then the distributed web collapsed into silos, but it could be a cyclical thing and we distribute again
Sonya Mann@aust essential for a place with no business model — gotta spread out the hosting costs
Simon@aust are you feeling confused? I'm not a programming nerd and federation doesn't seem that complicated. I don't see people posting being confused or frustrated by federation. some people confused by features working differently I.e. favs and DMS and CWs. what makes you think laypeople can't get their heads around federation?
@Anarchist586 > what makes you think laypeople can't get their heads around federation?
Laypeople can barely wrap their minds around Twitter
@aust There are millions of people who use Twitter every day. I guess I'm just not sure what you mean when you say people aren't wrapping their heads around it.