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> Podcasts are the pinnacle of decentralization yet I haven't heard once the word "federation" or had to choose an "instance". This is due to the difference be

> Podcasts are the pinnacle of decentralization yet I haven't heard once the word "federation" or had to choose an "instance". This is due to the difference between one way vs 2 way communication. Blogs and podcasts chose the word "syndication" and you use an RSS client to subscribe instead of an instance that can talk back. What your story doesn't deal with is accounts (not just logins). If you add that you pretty much land in the fediverse model (except in your story every subreddit would run their own userless instance).

oDot 3y ago
Very true. Still, it makes a big difference, to omit the jargon and the need to choose an instance. Even if under the hood the technology is the same, the users just know they sign in to an app and it works everywhere. The content creator/moderator knows that if the hosting service starts acting iffy, he exports everything to a different host, keeps the same domain, no one knows he even moved. Much smoother. The problem with federation is not the technology, is that the technology is packaged as a platform.
s__s 3y ago
Is a unified account important? For me, no, not really. In fact I think I’d prefer unique accounts per “subreddit”. The way I see it, each “subreddit” is an independently run instance that I can authenticate with. Once it’s set up, my client handles the details of automatically authenticating me when I’m interacting with that instance. I’m imagining it securely stores the domain and token for each “subreddit”, though admittedly I haven’t given it any real thought. As long as every instance is using some standardized protocol / API you’re set. A system like this is not only dead simple, but it opens up the potential for all sorts of really amazing frontend clients. In addition to that, each instance could have a lot of control over which features they’d like to expose. For example, whether or not downvotes are allowed. They’d also be able to monetize in a lot of unique and interesting ways that aren’t possible on a centralized platform.

oDot 3y ago

Very true. Still, it makes a big difference, to omit the jargon and the need to choose an instance. Even if under the hood the technology is the same, the users just know they sign in to an app and it works everywhere. The content creator/moderator knows that if the hosting service starts acting iffy, he exports everything to a different host, keeps the same domain, no one knows he even moved. Much smoother. The problem with federation is not the technology, is that the technology is packaged as a platform.

s__s 3y ago

Is a unified account important? For me, no, not really. In fact I think I’d prefer unique accounts per “subreddit”. The way I see it, each “subreddit” is an independently run instance that I can authenticate with. Once it’s set up, my client handles the details of automatically authenticating me when I’m interacting with that instance. I’m imagining it securely stores the domain and token for each “subreddit”, though admittedly I haven’t given it any real thought. As long as every instance is using some standardized protocol / API you’re set. A system like this is not only dead simple, but it opens up the potential for all sorts of really amazing frontend clients. In addition to that, each instance could have a lot of control over which features they’d like to expose. For example, whether or not downvotes are allowed. They’d also be able to monetize in a lot of unique and interesting ways that aren’t possible on a centralized platform.