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.
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.