Twitter wasn’t just software or visible leadership (for better or worse) but an entire important slice of Internet history.

  •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    161 year ago

    20 years ago this was everyone. The internet was too technical, people didn’t really use search engines, an argument with a friend over who played the bad guy in a movie could go on for hours.

    I feel that one day a large organisation will run a large centralised node, much the same way that Google runs Gmail. They can have a smooth onboarding process, no confusion about how to pick a server, and federation can be a footnote. They can pick up lots of non-technical users, who don’t even need to understand that federation is a thing. But people on other servers can interact with them, and that’s the important part. Over time people will start to meet people from other nodes and slowly be introduced to the concepts.

    Remember Facebook is still mighty confusing and has it’s own terminology that makes no sense to an outsider, but it’s introduced slowly enough that you can get the basic concepts and slowly learn more. I feel the “pick a server first” model is what is the biggest hurdle at the moment.

      •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
        link
        fedilink
        English
        41 year ago

        Oh shit, I didn’t know about this. This is big! I think you could argue over whether it’s good or bad for the Fediverse but I’d argue it’s good! If/when big names and celebrities start using the platform, people on Mastodon can follow them, and that’s often cited as a barrier to Mastodon uptake.

          •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
            link
            fedilink
            English
            41 year ago

            What’s also great is that if, for example, Google wants to try their hand at social networks again, now they don’t have the Google+ issue of no one using it. If this new one is implemented right, Google could start their competing platform, and people could use it while still being able to connect with everyone on the Meta platform.

            If uptake is a problem for the fediverse, then if this is done right it could well solve that issue.

            • I agree completely, and after there are multiple big name companies connected with their own servers,(Possibly already established social networks) it’ll be more likely that others join, they do like copying each other after all

              And after that well, it won’t entirely be the open internet that I want, but it’ll be a whole lot closer than what we have today

              •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
                link
                fedilink
                English
                31 year ago

                I think when you get a bunch of people using a federated Meta platform, and they start to connect with friends using Mastodon or others, this will introduce them to the concept of federation. And then when they talk to their friends and find they can follow all the same people but don’t have to be bombarded with ads all day, they can move to another server.

                Actually, I think I just worked out why this could go bad… if you are on Mastodon and follow someone on meta-twitter, Meta can send you ads as posts of the person you’re following… they could advertise to anyone following people on their platform without them needing to even use their platform…

    • Agree on the pick a server … And then approval!

      I had almost forgotten about it but I’m glad I came back.

      I think maybe the ability to just join a generic starting point and then port your account when you find where you want to be might be a better model, but that will remain to be seen

      •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
        link
        fedilink
        English
        31 year ago

        Yes, I agree. Don’t make it confusing, when someone hears about Lemmy, just point them at Lemmy.ml. Then offer a one-click option to migrate to another server.

        It goes against that decentralised philosophy but makes a much cleaner entry point for new users. I think for social media, content is key, so users should start on a large community with lots of content then slowly be introduced to the idea of following other nodes.

          •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
            link
            fedilink
            English
            11 year ago

            If you plan for it, it shouldn’t be an issue. The issue is that reddit made an announcement and then Lemmy servers got swarmed, they weren’t prepared for it. If you were prepared, you could make sure the server had the hardware to handle it.

              •  Dave   ( @Dave@lemmy.nz ) 
                link
                fedilink
                English
                1
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                While optimisation is likely an issue, lemmy.ml added “only” about 7,000 users in the past few days. Probably a $1,000/mo VPS would solve most of the problems - it just wouldn’t scale to hundreds of thousands of users., and probably is not financially feasible.

    • This is also my take on the, maybe well-deserved, complaints about the “pick a server” step. I’ve never been handed a massive list of email providers and only one was suggested to me at a time.