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I keep seeing this repeated over and over every time the discussion of the Fediverse comes up, but I don't actually see this being a problem in practice. It’s

I keep seeing this repeated over and over every time the discussion of the Fediverse comes up, but I don't actually see this being a problem in practice. It’s perfectly fine if the network consists of a bunch of loosely connected islands without the ability to propagate information across the entire network because there is a limited number of people you can interact with meaningfully. Federation favors smaller communities where the interactions are more personal while still facilitation interaction between different communities. Even a centralized site like reddit is ultimately broken down into subreddits because nobody wants to see all of reddit all at once.

encryptluks2 4y ago
This is an issue because people want social media to be an identity that they control. Suggesting it is fine to lose your identity and all the work you spent building connections whenever an instance shuts down is nonsense. People are looking for reasons to move away from Twitter, not for more reasons to stay on Twitter. Federated identity is something that can be added but Mastodon doesn't have something like this to the best of my knowledge.
- riffic 4y ago
  some identities are not directly yours to control, but are roles assigned to you by your membership in a group. Employment, for example. Luckily good orgs use directories to manage membership (LDAP, etc). What I'm thinking about here is something like my particular city (Los Angeles) delegating social media accounts to people involved in government, like city council members or spokespeople in certain departments (LAFD? you get the picture). https://riffic.rocks/city-hall-on-the-fedi/ https://riffic.rocks/city-hall-on-the-fedi/
  - encryptluks2 4y ago
    Federation implies that users identity should not be tied to a single instance but that they should be able to access their account from any federated instance.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - yogthos 4y ago
      It doesn't, that's just a straw man you're using.
- yogthos 4y ago
  That's not how federation works at all. Your identity in Fediverse is akin to an email address. You're not losing your identity when you interact with people on other servers, and Mastodon does allow you to verify yourself. The way this works is you have to put an HTML tag on a page on a site you own, then link to that page in your Mastodon account. This verifies you as the owner of the site and your identity.

encryptluks2 4y ago

This is an issue because people want social media to be an identity that they control. Suggesting it is fine to lose your identity and all the work you spent building connections whenever an instance shuts down is nonsense. People are looking for reasons to move away from Twitter, not for more reasons to stay on Twitter. Federated identity is something that can be added but Mastodon doesn't have something like this to the best of my knowledge.

riffic 4y ago
some identities are not directly yours to control, but are roles assigned to you by your membership in a group. Employment, for example. Luckily good orgs use directories to manage membership (LDAP, etc). What I'm thinking about here is something like my particular city (Los Angeles) delegating social media accounts to people involved in government, like city council members or spokespeople in certain departments (LAFD? you get the picture). https://riffic.rocks/city-hall-on-the-fedi/ https://riffic.rocks/city-hall-on-the-fedi/
- encryptluks2 4y ago
  Federation implies that users identity should not be tied to a single instance but that they should be able to access their account from any federated instance.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - yogthos 4y ago
    It doesn't, that's just a straw man you're using.
yogthos 4y ago
That's not how federation works at all. Your identity in Fediverse is akin to an email address. You're not losing your identity when you interact with people on other servers, and Mastodon does allow you to verify yourself. The way this works is you have to put an HTML tag on a page on a site you own, then link to that page in your Mastodon account. This verifies you as the owner of the site and your identity.