Post #4358525

Replies (1)

• @david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 2026-08-03 15:40

  @riverpunk@defcon.social @pixelschubsi@troet.cafe @giacomo @akareilly@hachyderm.io I wouldn't talk about bridges at all when talking to non-geeks because there's a huge amount of knowledge that you need to understand them. When you talk to geeks, there are a bunch of relevant things: The protocol.The operator of the service.The client used to connect to the service. To most non-geeks, all of these are 'the app'. To understand a bridge, you need to understand that: There are two different protocols.There are two or more different entities providing the different protocols.There is a layer in between to make them talk to each other. And that's way more detail than you have a chance to explain. A system where they can get the same service from different entities and it doesn't matter which one is key. The big problem for the Fediverse is that it does matter which server you join. The things that really matter are moderation policy, responsiveness to abuse reports, and character limit. Let's look at the flow on joinmastodon.org: First, you have a choice: [ Join mastodon.social ] [ Pick another server ] You've already lost most users. What are these two? Why is the left one the default? Why would I want a different one? But let's assume that pick the right option. Now there's some explanation: Mastodon is not a single website. To use it, you need to make an account with a provider—we call them servers—that lets you connect with other people across Mastodon. An account provider is the same as a server? Is that the same as an 'instance', which is the term the person who recommended Mastodon to them probably used? Or something else. But this lets me connect to users across Mastodon? So what does that mean? Why do I need to choose a server? I guess the descriptions will help? Oh, I can sort by topic. I want to see beauty content (real example from a different-kind-of-geek person that I tried to persuade to come here), since there's a load of interesting stuff there on Instagram but I hate Meta. So... uh. Hobbies? I guess? There's a woodworking server and a wargamers server? Oh, and train spotting! So now we've convinced them that Mastodon is only for geeks. But not their kind of geeks. When you do join an instance, you get an empty feed. To fill it, you need to follow people or hashtags. How do I find those people? Oh, and note that none of the three things I said matter are visible at this point. I joined this instance because I already knew some people using it, which gave me an initial list to follow. Also, I am the relevant flavour of massive nerd for this instance. But let's go back to the other kind of nerd who is interested in beauty topics. Maybe they guess that there's a 'makeup' hashtag. Search for it on my instance and it says '0 posts in the last two days'. Is that because this is not a beauty geek instance, or is that because, in the last two days no one across the entire fediverse has posted about makeup? If it's the former, this means that selecting an instance is important. And that's a problem, because none of the instances that are listed look like they're relevant for more than a few niche interests (often niche interests that I have, but I'm not representative). a few things that could improve this: A 'starter home' instance: join here, but don't stay. Expect to move away within six months. A staff of people (paid or volunteers) who will help you find your people and to move. Don't make people choose an instance until they know what that means.An onboarding quiz that would identify your interests and point you to hashtags and collections (I think that's what lists of people to follow are called?) to follow. And a thing of 'my interests didn't find anything' that would raise an issue with whoever maintained this quiz to improve the next version.A way for communities to bootstrap. Find a bunch of likeminded people and then create an instance for that community. masto.host charges $230/year for an instance that's supposed to support 100 users. Can you find 100 people who will pay $2.50/year and contribute some time to moderation? Congratulations, one click and now you've got a mastodon instance for your community! A flocking protocol for finding your community and bootstrapping is really missing here.

  Open ##4358522