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Right now Mastadon might as well be off-grid, unable to add additional accounts on the main server. Popularity has stunted it's growth! I am not sure how much

by j_s 10y ago

Right now Mastadon might as well be off-grid, unable to add additional accounts on the main server. Popularity has stunted it's growth! I am not sure how much thought has been given to the scalability of this solution, it sounds like it will benefit from most of the advantages offered by P2P in this department. Eventually something like this could organically grow into the "next Internet", in much the same way that the current internet has morphed into what it is today.

dublinben 10y ago
But you can register an account on any node[0], and communicate with anyone else on the entire network. That's the strength of federated protocols. [0] https://instances.mastodon.xyz/ https://instances.mastodon.xyz/
- j_s 10y ago
  My point was not what I could do but rather what I will do to try out some random new social network. Having now read that migrating identities is currently impractical I am even more certainly not going to take a chance on some other random server or even my own! How well has federation worked out in practice (for other federated, social network related protocols) so far? As far as I know, federation has only worked for ancient stuff that has nothing to do with social networks, like email and DNS. Basically, it is a part of core functionality and thus can't be co-opted by commercial interests (though GMail has made quite an inroad!). Until it has proven itself, social federation doesn't really seem like a strength to me. It does sound good in theory! Other people with actual experience are adding their anecdotes which lines up with what I'm trying to say.
  - algesten 10y ago
    > As far as I know, federation has only worked for ancient stuff that has nothing to do with social networks, like email and DNS. Basically, it is a part of core functionality and thus can't be co-opted by commercial interests (though GMail has made quite an inroad!). Email only works _because_ of big players like GMail. Running your own server spam free and away from black lists is an endless task. DNS is going a similar way with more and more ISPs resorting to hijacking DNS lookups for all sorts of nefarious reasons. This protocol seriously need a broadly embraced signature system to validate origin.
rocky1138 10y ago
Run your own instance and all your performance problems go away. That's the point of federated services.

by j_s 10y ago

dublinben 10y ago

But you can register an account on any node[0], and communicate with anyone else on the entire network. That's the strength of federated protocols. [0] https://instances.mastodon.xyz/ https://instances.mastodon.xyz/

j_s 10y ago
My point was not what I could do but rather what I will do to try out some random new social network. Having now read that migrating identities is currently impractical I am even more certainly not going to take a chance on some other random server or even my own! How well has federation worked out in practice (for other federated, social network related protocols) so far? As far as I know, federation has only worked for ancient stuff that has nothing to do with social networks, like email and DNS. Basically, it is a part of core functionality and thus can't be co-opted by commercial interests (though GMail has made quite an inroad!). Until it has proven itself, social federation doesn't really seem like a strength to me. It does sound good in theory! Other people with actual experience are adding their anecdotes which lines up with what I'm trying to say.
- algesten 10y ago
  > As far as I know, federation has only worked for ancient stuff that has nothing to do with social networks, like email and DNS. Basically, it is a part of core functionality and thus can't be co-opted by commercial interests (though GMail has made quite an inroad!). Email only works _because_ of big players like GMail. Running your own server spam free and away from black lists is an endless task. DNS is going a similar way with more and more ISPs resorting to hijacking DNS lookups for all sorts of nefarious reasons. This protocol seriously need a broadly embraced signature system to validate origin.

rocky1138 10y ago

Run your own instance and all your performance problems go away. That's the point of federated services.