Chuck WendigLot of folks comparing instances to email servers, and no matter how often you explain it, that won't make sense to me. BBS? IRC? MMOs, even? Okay, maybe. Email doesn't track for me as a metaphor, though YMMV.
Damnable Bear@chuckwendig it's like being in different slacks, discords, world of warcraft servers, runescape servers, online poker systems' regions, lines at the grocery store, etc
slipstream/RoL⚡@chuckwendig "the masses" are used to email, so it's useful as an initial analogy.
TheMagdalenRose@chuckwendig I never got into BBS stuff, I only come around once AOL and ICQ were big. That's as far back as I go.
The Book of Kels@chuckwendig Now that you mention it, the setup does remind me of the old BBS days where some systems actually were networked to each other, and exchange data a few times a day. So you've have your local system and your friends there, plus it would connect to a few other locals and you could see what they're doing.
@Nezchan Yep. I used to run a BBS so that works for me. (Though it's a metaphor so old to be useless to most, I imagine.)
@chuckwendig You've got me kind of nostalgic for the old Citadel systems with USENET feeds. Where's my cane and bifocals, I'm feelin' a mite ancient now.
@Nezchan *strokes long ancient wizard beard* YES
Stephen T. Stone@chuckwendig @Nezchan So you ARE a wizard!
@Stephen_Stone @chuckwendig He's long and ancient, so if the beard fits...
@chuckwendig I admit, getting across the concepts of instances and federation is one of the biggest barriers for new users, and it falls to the existing membership and devs to make that transition as easy as possible. That's why I came up with the neighbourhood/city metaphor I mentioned earlier, to make it at least a little easier to communicate.
doodlemancy@chuckwendig
i think what people are struggling with is that mastodon itself is software, not just one website. it's a framework-- like MediaWiki, which Wikipedia (and many other lesser-known wikis) run on.
i think what people are struggling with is that mastodon itself is software, not just one website. it's a framework-- like MediaWiki, which Wikipedia (and many other lesser-known wikis) run on.
Badger ☕@chuckwendig I see it like WoW now -- people can be playing on different servers, but if you have them added on Bnet, you can still chat regardless of that fact.
welltemperedwriter@chuckwendig **shrug** It made sense to me. I've never hung out much in those venues, even when BBSes were a thing.
Pete Ford => wandering.shop@chuckwendig Basically there isn't just one world-spanning email server - most commercial entities have their own - but they can talk to each other (so I can send email from my gmail account to my friend's account at his work, for example). And I could, if I wanted, set up a personal email server. Mastodon seems to be something like that.
The Fourth Jesse@chuckwendig If instances are like IRC, I don't think I could actually use this, use this. I have IRC to be IRC. I want this to be my main new hang, mang.
Annalee@chuckwendig okay so science fiction conventions.
You can go to a con and still text your friends who are at a different con, and even remote someone in for a panel. But you have access to the hallway track only at the con you're at.