> the platform There's a hidden misunderstanding here. Phrasing Mastodon as "the platform" implies you (probably subconscious) perceive it as a "classic" singl

> the platform There's a hidden misunderstanding here. Phrasing Mastodon as "the platform" implies you (probably subconscious) perceive it as a "classic" single, centralized, authoritative service managed by a single (legal) entity. As you've learned: it's the exact opposite. It's not a service: it's just software. Mastodon fits in between (self)hosted solutions like Matrix, Postfix, IRC, XMMP/Jabber. It would be the odd one out between Twitter, Slack or Discord. > The main one being discoverability. And that's a valid concern to have as a dealbreaker. It's also an advantage that's innate to centralized, authoritative services. Storing millions of users in a single telephone directory vastly lowers the bar for discovery compared to a distributed system of telephone directories. Then again, it's also a chicken and egg discussion. Centralization is a key driver that prompted hundreds of millions of users to flock together. Aspects such as ease of use, convenience and discovery are key conditions as well... ... but let's not pretend this is a net positive: we also experience the many downsides of having millions of people on a single platform that provides common denominator interfaces and policies for governing interaction. In a federated environment with many instances, agency over governance is delegated again to the countless of small communities and tribes that generally tend to emerge organically in any social context. Remember, back in the early days, between BBS'es, Usenet, online fora, IRC communities,... the fragmented nature of online communities in itself wasn't seen as problematic. On the contrary, if anything, the freedom to be able to start your own IRC channel or host your own forum was seen as a boon. In that regard, I don't think that discovery should be treated as a zero sum game where the only logical conclusion is a silver bullet solution e.g. either a single centralized authority or a distributed ledger that acts as a single source of truth. Discovery is massively complex and relies on innate heuristics people have used since forever to find and interact with others. It's never a "solved problem". That doesn't mean throwing up arms not investing in discovery tools. But rather acknowledging that discovery isn't necessarily worth a trade off against other key aspects of complex interpersonal relationships such as having agency to build your own community space, and self-reliance to implement your own set of policies allowing for governance