4 ms·

Sounds good in principle but how would mastodon scale to billions of accounts and maintain data centers around the world?

egypturnash 9y ago
This would involve a buttload of people independently deciding they want to run a Mastodon instance and setting one up in a location convenient to themselves and the community they want to serve. It’s like mesh networking.
prophesi 9y ago
The main Mastodon instance probably can't do that. But then I think you're missing the point of a distributed social network.
- partycoder 9y ago
  Makes sense. But how can a user validate a mastodon instance is not malicious?
  - rainbowmverse 9y ago
    Reputation! And I don't mean some convoluted algorithmic scoring system. Most people seem to find out about Mastodon from someone, and that someone suggests the instance they're on. That's why a lot of artists end up on Mastodon.art, for example. So far, the admin has a good reputation for being consistent about updates and keeping the community engaged. People keep trying to find some technological heuristic to establish trust, like requiring legal names or some kind of scoring system. So far, it's even worse because people encode all their cognitive biases into it and none of the mental models or processes people develop for checking those biases.
    - partycoder 9y ago
      An instance could have good reputation and still be malicious in terms of privacy and what is done with your data. In this sense, trusting a Mastodon instance with your data is the same as trusting a Bitcoin exchange with your money. Bitcoin is decentralized too, that doesn't make Bitcoin exchanges trustworthy.
      - AsyncAwait 9y ago
        In the end you have to trust somebody. If you can't trust your instance admin, you can run your own, (even single-user),instance, however that still doesn't protect you from your host provider being malicious etc.
riffic 9y ago
Anyone (or any organization) can self-host their own open source mastodon instance. The way it scales is the same way there are billions of email accounts - federation and an open protocol.

egypturnash 9y ago

This would involve a buttload of people independently deciding they want to run a Mastodon instance and setting one up in a location convenient to themselves and the community they want to serve. It’s like mesh networking.

prophesi 9y ago

The main Mastodon instance probably can't do that. But then I think you're missing the point of a distributed social network.

partycoder 9y ago
Makes sense. But how can a user validate a mastodon instance is not malicious?
- rainbowmverse 9y ago
  Reputation! And I don't mean some convoluted algorithmic scoring system. Most people seem to find out about Mastodon from someone, and that someone suggests the instance they're on. That's why a lot of artists end up on Mastodon.art, for example. So far, the admin has a good reputation for being consistent about updates and keeping the community engaged. People keep trying to find some technological heuristic to establish trust, like requiring legal names or some kind of scoring system. So far, it's even worse because people encode all their cognitive biases into it and none of the mental models or processes people develop for checking those biases.
  - partycoder 9y ago
    An instance could have good reputation and still be malicious in terms of privacy and what is done with your data. In this sense, trusting a Mastodon instance with your data is the same as trusting a Bitcoin exchange with your money. Bitcoin is decentralized too, that doesn't make Bitcoin exchanges trustworthy.
    - AsyncAwait 9y ago
      In the end you have to trust somebody. If you can't trust your instance admin, you can run your own, (even single-user),instance, however that still doesn't protect you from your host provider being malicious etc.

riffic 9y ago

Anyone (or any organization) can self-host their own open source mastodon instance. The way it scales is the same way there are billions of email accounts - federation and an open protocol.