Which server should an new user choose?
Eugen, the creator of Mastodon and admin of the biggest Mastodon server, mastodon.social, talks about the challenges new users might face when they want to register a Mastodon account. In fact these problems aren't limited to Mastodon.
Every user planning to create an account somewhere in the #
Fediverse has to make several decisions first:
1. Which platform?Do I want to settle on #
Mastodon, #
Diaspora, #
Friendica, #
Hubzilla, #
Pleroma, #
Socialhome or one of the more specialised choices? Given that most of these platforms differ in features, chances are high that I can make a choice based on technical facts. Maybe I already know some accounts I want to follow, which might narrow down the list of choices since not all networks are connected (most notably Mastodon and Diaspory can't see each other, so I can either use the one I need or one of the multi-protocol platforms). Even if I can't decide yet, I'll just register one account for every platform.
2. Which server?Now this might be the harder question. Let's assume I picked a platform and now want to register my account. Which server should I chose and why? For some platforms there are servers that are specialised on single topics, so if, for example, I am an English speaking Open Source evangelist and want to use Mastodon, there is a server that is just right for me.
But what If I have several main interests? There is no special community for people who like knitting and fishing. Or, more likely, what if I can't even decide on my interests right now? See, I'm interested in many things, nothing special though, just want to talk about things. Where should I register?
Of course there are many servers in every network that aren't limited to any set of topics. So I'll just choose the one that most other people already chose, right?
Well, nearly. And that's exactly Eugen's problem here. As a user, you want to use a server that
- is well maintained and is here to stay.
- has some more users so its public timeline isn't empty.
But from a technical view it would be great if users would spread equally over all servers. So I'll just choose the one that has the least users, right?
Well, nearly. Maybe a compromise is the way to go. It could look like this:
- Look for a server with more than one user.
- See if it exists for more than, say, three months.
- Look up the admins, see what they post, ask yourself if you like them.
- Have a look at the server's public timeline.
These tools might help answering a newcomer's questions:
-
https://the-federation.info/-
https://fediverse.party/-
https://podupti.me/But the main question stays: how do you explain this to a passer-by who just wants to quickly create a Fediverse account? Could a landing page featuring a
"I'm feeling lucky" button that will automatically pick a random server help?
♲ Eugen -
2019-03-20 22:00:40 GMTThe role of mastodon.social in the Mastodon ecosystem
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/03/the-role-of-mastodon.social-in-the-mastodon-ecosystem/
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