Thanks for asking. I am in the final stages of allowing users to have their own lemmy servers, to include a mobile app. Lemmy is only part of the offering. At large, I’m looking to bring decentralized alternatives for almost everything, with some new edge features for security and the likes too.
I’ll probably make a post about it somewhere when it goes live but I’m hoping to really target folks on reddit and twitter(now X) + threads. I’d really like to show people that there are much better alternatives out there.
True but you can always jump to a different instance. I think it would be better to direct users to smaller instances instead of expecting them to know that it means to run a server. Running a server requires a constant internet connection and a knowledge of good security practices.
Well thankfully my team will be handling the server administration and security. Folks will have options to access their own server at their own risk. 😉
One thing I noticed using my instance instead of lemmy.world is that some communities may be empty when opened through feddit.it while they have content (not yet sinced) in world.
There’s nothing wrong with lemmy.world. I think most people aren’t looking for specifically a federated platform, they’re just looking for a platform, and it happens to be federated. In that case, it sorta makes sense to go with the most popular instance.
Right, but smaller instances break as well. The only solution for that is to have multiple accounts, which doesn’t work very well on Lemmy right now. Hopefully that will be improved
I have a couple accounts, but I only use the lemmy.world one because it’s a pain to resubscribe to all the communities. Is there a mass-subscription-list copy function somewhere?
I find using the Connect app for Android (not sure about ios) makes it easier to find or subscribe to a community, either by browsing by All or using the search bar, although the search function may take a few tries or not work at all
Thanks for the suggestion! It does ask for your password, so are you sure it’s 100% secure? I tried it out, but it seems like it only copied something like half my subscribed communities, but better than nothing.
Honestly, this kind of thing should be done automatically by whatever app they sign up with. It’s not something that the average person will really know how to choose.
Because it’s not only number of users, it’s also number of connections to other servers, how many federate with it. Most people don’t wanna use a social network where they have to type exactly what they want in to search it every time. Never mind the different policies about posting and de-federation that can completely change how the network works for each user.
It’s the disadvantage of decentralizion, and we’ve gotta band-aid it somehow.
It can't truly be automatic. The other advantage of decentralization is that rules are also decentralized. Not all instances are the same in regards to what they will or will not allow to be posted locally. And they may defederate from other instances, etc. So it can't be automatic. A directory of instances with summarized rules, or instance niches would be helpful. And just another reminder to everyone, you don't even need to sign up with Lemmy to use Lemmy.
I’d say an instance finder feature should be created where you rank priorities and it selects a (few?) best instance(s). It could have a default setting to prefer instances with lots of connections, then locality of the server to you, then prioritize smaller servers. Something like that would be a good automatic option, because it would spread people out and optimize performance.
Yes that’s pretty much what I’ve been thinking as well, this CAN be implemented, but it needs to be implemented well and dumbed down to the maximum for an integration on join-lemmy.
There could also be more complex tools for users that have a better understanding where you can really tailor your feed with weighed inputs like how much politics do you want, remove US-centric communities, explore hobbies, etc etc. (I’m dreaming but the possibilities are wild).
That’s the cool thing about the Fediverse, over time it can develop in multiple directions at once, not just what one CEO wants to do. There’s enough internet for everyone to get what they want.
Only fair way to do that is to have large instances close for new accounts, so as more people find Lemmy they'll have to pick the next ones on the list. Making the choice is the hardest part for a new person (most of you probably realize that having done it yourselves) so streamlining that as well would help. Then make migration to other instances with all your "stuff" easy. Perhaps have it so your old account can forward anything to the new one, like email and regular mail can do. The bloated and centralized instances are just a byproduct of an unforeseen growth explosion and can be rectified, plus help future development.
eh, picking an instance wasn’t too bad for me. I already knew how federation worked, though, so I suppose that was helpful. I just picked one that wasn’t too big (cryptocurrency mining has centralization issues too and i knew a bit about that so i knew not to pick the biggest), and had reasonable rules.
Account migration would definitely help. Most new users just go with the largest server because of FOMO and not understanding fully what federation is yet. Once they are comfortable enough, providing the ability to transfe their account to another instance would definitely be useful. Mastodon already allows you to do that.
The average tech idealist underestimates network effects and natural centralization. Any goal beyond a single entity having over half the traffic is probably too ambitious.
@embrcrndm@altima_neo I'll just say this: I'm currently sending this from Mastodon. Your instance and my instance both use the ActivityPub protocol which is likened to email by many people.
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