3 ms·

how does mastodon get distribution? a series of decentralised sites lacking distribution and discovery have no incentives for users to join at scale?

by viksit 4y ago

INTPenis 4y ago
This is where the magic of federation comes in. Each instance can federate with any other instance, meaning posts from the other instance will show up in your local instance's federated timeline. On top of that they can add AP relays that will further add posts to your federated timeline. I run a very small instance focused on geographically local users and the federation is so rapid that I have to scale up my background workers just to process all the URLs people post from across the world.
- genewitch 4y ago
  is there a place to read up on relays (in general, or specifically misskey to mastodon/plemora)? I'm trying to populate my own server's timeline with stuff that won't scare off people, really.
  - INTPenis 4y ago
    Just search the web for ActivityPub relay, you might add github.com as the site because someone has gathered a list of known AP relays there. But beware that once you start adding relays you'll get a flood of messages in the federated timeline and much of it will be Japanese or other asian languages. Which might scare potential users away. So just silence them one by one, refuse media files from them. People can still follow users on these instances but they won't clutter your federated timeline.
Normille 4y ago
>This is where the magic of federation comes in... No. This is where the great misinformation about federated social media comes in. It's painted as being this great decentralised, liberated alternative to Twitter et al "If you don't like the instance you're on, just go elsewhere..." The reality is; you can't take your data elsewhere. There's no way to download your post history from one instance and upload it to another. There's no way to download your post history from one instance and upload it to your own server, if you decide to self-host. The so-called Fediverse is vastly over-hyped. It would be better named the Fragmentiverse.

how does mastodon get distribution? a series of decentralised sites lacking distribution and discovery have no incentives for users to join at scale?

by viksit 4y ago

how does mastodon get distribution? a series of decentralised sites lacking distribution and discovery have no incentives for users to join at scale?

INTPenis 4y ago

This is where the magic of federation comes in. Each instance can federate with any other instance, meaning posts from the other instance will show up in your local instance's federated timeline. On top of that they can add AP relays that will further add posts to your federated timeline. I run a very small instance focused on geographically local users and the federation is so rapid that I have to scale up my background workers just to process all the URLs people post from across the world.

genewitch 4y ago
is there a place to read up on relays (in general, or specifically misskey to mastodon/plemora)? I'm trying to populate my own server's timeline with stuff that won't scare off people, really.
- INTPenis 4y ago
  Just search the web for ActivityPub relay, you might add github.com as the site because someone has gathered a list of known AP relays there. But beware that once you start adding relays you'll get a flood of messages in the federated timeline and much of it will be Japanese or other asian languages. Which might scare potential users away. So just silence them one by one, refuse media files from them. People can still follow users on these instances but they won't clutter your federated timeline.

Normille 4y ago

>This is where the magic of federation comes in... No. This is where the great misinformation about federated social media comes in. It's painted as being this great decentralised, liberated alternative to Twitter et al "If you don't like the instance you're on, just go elsewhere..." The reality is; you can't take your data elsewhere. There's no way to download your post history from one instance and upload it to another. There's no way to download your post history from one instance and upload it to your own server, if you decide to self-host. The so-called Fediverse is vastly over-hyped. It would be better named the Fragmentiverse.