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Fragmentation around the Fediverse. (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by themobyone@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org

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I'm a fairly new users, but I feel that navigating around the fediverse is a bit cumbersome, maybe the wrong word for it. But there is a lack of overview in a way. I enjoy being on this server, but I also like to follow other communities. Lots of different topics, everything from cars to Linux to architecture.

Right now there are 10 (that I could find on browse.feddit.de) instances named Linux on different server. So the small number of Linux users using some fediverse instance is spread around over many servers. Coming from reddit, things were far from perfect over there, but there is only r/Linux. It's a shame users are spread so thin all over the place.

I used Linux as an example, I've seen the same "problem" for other topics as well. Anyways, just my perspective as a new users. Hope this wasn't too much of a rant, maybe we can look at this as an issue where the fediverse can improve.

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[–] jursed@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

I'm sure a lot of folks came in saying that its better than centralization and I do agree with it. Centralization is simply easier to consume a lot of content mindlessly but I don't think thats how the fediverse works nor is it how it should be.

(Also sorry for using the terms incorrectly I'm not really a tech person. Also obligatory these are just my thoughts)

Centralization means that people usually get buried. Bigger instances are also harder and more expensive to host (from what ive heard). Perhaps we'll see the same issue when a certain instsnce gets bigger and more dominant, but the nice thing about different communities is if we dont like one we can move to another. And the cool thing about federation (ideally) is that we aren't completely disconnected from the fediverse if we decide to move instances.

While if its like with twitter, discord, reddit if we dislike a main rule or aspect we would be stuck with it because of the network affect. Even reddit has many different subreddits for the same topic because people have issues with how a subreddit is ran. For example r/childfree spawned r/truechildfree because people disliked how it became a child bashing forum.

But I do see how the fediverse can be seen as being too spread thin at times. But I hope that with welcoming communities it can seem more alive because people are more likely to participate. Its what will need to happen with a smaller community.