3 ms·

Onboarding for a federated network is not easy. Answering "which server should I set up on" is almost inherently difficult and mired in politics. The issue is t

by im3w1l 4y ago

Onboarding for a federated network is not easy. Answering "which server should I set up on" is almost inherently difficult and mired in politics. The issue is that advice has a centralizing effect. If it becomes common wisdom that a given server is the best and everyone joins it, then decentralization is over. This is an issue that neither a centralized service nor a pure p2p service has (e.g. Patchbay/SSB).

fragmede 4y ago
Only if your important metric on which to join is its politics. If, instead, your goal is professional, eg https://infosec.exchange/ https://infosec.exchange/ or https://mstdn.science/ https://mstdn.science/ for microbiology, the choice becomes much clearer.
- Karrot_Kream 4y ago
  I don't think they meant big-P Politics in the sense of political affiliations, but politics in the sense of intra-group and inter-group dynamics.
- concordDance 4y ago
  Clicked on the latter link. Found no microbiology, just lots of anti-musk and leftist activist commentary. This might be an example of the Vote phenomena where only people quite unhappy with the previous big place leave, which means the new place will end up with a very big skew...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - fragmede 4y ago
    Ah sorry I should have linked to the local posts page instead of the bare url, which brings you to the federated stream, which automatically pulls in all of the dreck. Too late to edit now, but if you go to https://mstdn.science/public/local https://mstdn.science/public/local instead, you'll find it's way more science (well, and Xmas) focused. Using that URL no longer pulls in diatribes from general topic servers where that kind of thing is encourage like mastodon.social. It's not 100% absolutely totally politics free but the SNR is way higher. Dr Fauci is a fellow at the American Academy of Microbiology so it's only natural he comes up on a server focusing on microbiology. One even wished him a Happy Birthday (Dec 24)! Another good one seems to be https://sciences.social/public/local https://sciences.social/public/local
  - scaramanga 4y ago
    You've hit the nail on the head, and this is, I think, why the media types do not like it. And, honestly, if you look at the "anti-musk" "left-wing" journalists who are on there. All they seem to do is complain that it's not twitter and demand changes to accommodate them and their ilk better. I think they just want to be intellectuals in John Mastodons court, where they feel they have access to power and can enjoy it vicariously. Then they can tell us breathlessly about how John is going to revolutionise the world and "make it a better place" all over again.

by im3w1l 4y ago

fragmede 4y ago

Only if your important metric on which to join is its politics. If, instead, your goal is professional, eg https://infosec.exchange/ https://infosec.exchange/ or https://mstdn.science/ https://mstdn.science/ for microbiology, the choice becomes much clearer.

Karrot_Kream 4y ago
I don't think they meant big-P Politics in the sense of political affiliations, but politics in the sense of intra-group and inter-group dynamics.
concordDance 4y ago
Clicked on the latter link. Found no microbiology, just lots of anti-musk and leftist activist commentary. This might be an example of the Vote phenomena where only people quite unhappy with the previous big place leave, which means the new place will end up with a very big skew...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- fragmede 4y ago
  Ah sorry I should have linked to the local posts page instead of the bare url, which brings you to the federated stream, which automatically pulls in all of the dreck. Too late to edit now, but if you go to https://mstdn.science/public/local https://mstdn.science/public/local instead, you'll find it's way more science (well, and Xmas) focused. Using that URL no longer pulls in diatribes from general topic servers where that kind of thing is encourage like mastodon.social. It's not 100% absolutely totally politics free but the SNR is way higher. Dr Fauci is a fellow at the American Academy of Microbiology so it's only natural he comes up on a server focusing on microbiology. One even wished him a Happy Birthday (Dec 24)! Another good one seems to be https://sciences.social/public/local https://sciences.social/public/local
- scaramanga 4y ago
  You've hit the nail on the head, and this is, I think, why the media types do not like it. And, honestly, if you look at the "anti-musk" "left-wing" journalists who are on there. All they seem to do is complain that it's not twitter and demand changes to accommodate them and their ilk better. I think they just want to be intellectuals in John Mastodons court, where they feel they have access to power and can enjoy it vicariously. Then they can tell us breathlessly about how John is going to revolutionise the world and "make it a better place" all over again.