•  Gray   ( @Gray@lemmy.ca ) 
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      1 year ago

      Do you think “instance” is a bad word to use for the different Lemmy servers? My wife thinks so, but I’m not sure what a better word would be to use other than maybe just “server”, but that also feels too techy. I do think “community” is a good non-technical word to use for the equivalent of subreddits.

      • Not the guy you replied to, but to me personally the word instance comes across as technical, considering how its used in programming

        Not too sure if there’s a normal sounding alternative, defo could benefit from a non-techie perspective here 🤔

      • “Server” has been pretty normalized (albeit abused) by discord especially, so it seems accessible to me?

        “Instance” does seem vague and overly techy to me, it’s an oop/code term (think “instantiate the class”) that’s been borrowed for casual use.

        “Community=subreddit” sounds pretty good, but runs the risk of being misinterpreted as more of a “community = discord server” thing…

        I’m also fond of matrix’s “homeserver”, a server that (while your home) isn’t your only location, but that might be entirely foreign to new users too.

        Definitely a tricky problem