I think this decentralization and federation is what web3 is all about, without all the corporations calling everything to do with monkey pixel art that costs a million dollars “web3”
I think this decentralization and federation is what web3 is all about, without all the corporations calling everything to do with monkey pixel art that costs a million dollars “web3”
This is what I keep thinking as well. The “kids today” don’t remember usenet, IRC, etc. All were decentralized systems capitalizing on distributed compute resources and moderation. They did have problems when it comes to direction, moderation, systems playing “nice”, fragmentation, etc. But I still feel the plusses outweigh the minuses in a federated system. Unfortunately the public does like their “benevolent (until they aren’t) dictators”…
It’s because a system where everything is controlled by one person is so commonplace that any other idea seems foreign and impossible, or more often these days not profitable.
Yeah - and it does simplify things a lot as well. A single entity can move a platform in a specific direction without needing to consult other servers, writing an RFC, etc. And the onboarding is much simpler by comparison.
I think at this point the fediverse should turn its eye towards simplifying sign-ups. If only to make the language more clear about what you are, and are not, locked into when picking an instance. But also provide people with “I don’t really care which one I use” options to round-robin them to servers to distribute the load (thinking out loud).
It’s a never ending debate on how to “onboard” new users with all the growth. Honestly I’d think it would be easier to compare it to email. like a simple look it all works together just get a account and it will federate. It doesn’t matter too much where you sign up your account it’s able to send and receive email from everyone. But, everyone gets overwhelmed by choices and not knowing the difference between servers. Something like a email app where it gives you a list to pick and a other option would be good imo.
Would be cool if there were geographic designators for individual instances so you could find one close to you. Not sure if that makes the experience better but I’d assume so.