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1. Embed this notice
   FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 23:25:13 JST FediTips has moved!

   Many, many people have asked about error messages when using mastodon.social.

   Mastodon.social is far too large. Its massive size causes errors, and threatens the long term safety of the whole Fediverse.

   I strongly encourage people on mastodon.social to move their account to another server.

   You can find reliable servers on the official site at https://joinmastodon.org/servers or my own recommended list at https://fedi.garden

   Here's a step-by-step guide for moving: https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/

   • Embed this notice
     Kyle Judd (vanhalbgott@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 23:52:02 JST Kyle Judd

     in reply to

     @feditips Personally, I don’t get error messages on my server and moving to a new server feels like a chore, but that’s me.

     Am I allowed to keep my server if I don’t have this issue already or should I partake moving?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 23:52:02 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Kyle Judd

     @vanhalbgott

     It's totally your decision, but it will have a small negative effect on the rest of us by centralising the network a tiny bit.

     A very large number of those small decisions then accumulate.

     It's a bit like any threat to an environment, decisions have small effects but big threats are an accumulation of small decisions.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 23:54:40 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Kyle Judd

     @vanhalbgott

     It's totally your decision! Feel free to ignore me, I'm just some random person on the internet.

     I'm just trying to raise awareness that alternatives exist, and that mastodon.social's size is causing problems.

   • Embed this notice
     Kyle Judd (vanhalbgott@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 23:54:41 JST Kyle Judd

     in reply to

     @feditips So it would be better if I switched servers then? I think so myself.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:03:41 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Cameron

     @bitflipped

     Not just that, but the official app and website are openly telling people to just sign up on mastodon.social.

     I get that they want to keep things as simple as possible for users who don't understand federation, but they could have recommended a server with a long track record that isn't quite as large.

     But they didn't.

   • Embed this notice
     Cameron (bitflipped@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:03:42 JST Cameron

     in reply to

     @feditips indeed. They really should have capped the number of users, and better directed them to other instances. It seems like growth at the expense of vision.

   • Embed this notice
     Nini (niniotter@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:07:08 JST Nini

     in reply to

     @feditips I'd move to another instance for sure, just that there's so many issues and caveats that come with moving that I'm honestly put off the idea. Portability remains a problem for Mastodon and it's hard to encourage moving when doing so is like leaving several boxes of your possessions at your old place.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:07:08 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Nini

     @niniotter

     The posts from your old account don't disappear, they remain on the previous server and people who click on the name of the post's author will be redirected to your new account.

     Also bear in mind that no server on any service will keep your posts forever:

     https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/

     The only way to keep posts online indefinitely is to own your own service (which is what I encourage at https://growyourown.services).

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:36:17 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Cameron

     @bitflipped

     "There isn't really a way to "migrate" to another server in any meaningful sense either, "

     Keeping your existing followers and follows, bookmarks, lists, blocklists etc and redirecting people to your new profile from your old posts/profile is very meaningful.

     None of these are possible on centralised networks.

     It's not an "all or nothing" thing.

   • Embed this notice
     Cameron (bitflipped@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:36:18 JST Cameron

     in reply to

     @feditips Exactly, and so what we've ended up with is a data silo that's a core/integral part of the fediverse, or at least the Mastodon part of it.

     There isn't really a way to "migrate" to another server in any meaningful sense either, so I can't see many people actually doing it.

   • Embed this notice
     Jay #FBPE 🇳🇱 🇪🇺 (Free 🇵🇸) (jaybhatt@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 00:38:35 JST Jay #FBPE 🇳🇱 🇪🇺 (Free 🇵🇸)

     in reply to

     @feditips Is there a politics instance? Many thanks in advance

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:37:51 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Richard Grant

     @richardgrant

     ". But they also, being larger, can field a well-trained moderation team. "

     I don't follow the logic there?

     Why would moderation on a server with a million users be better than on a server with a thousand users?

     If anything, going by experience of the Fediverse, the moderation on massive servers is much worse. The ratio of staff to users tends to become lower as a server grows, which leads to lower quality moderation.

   • Embed this notice
     Richard Grant (richardgrant@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:37:52 JST Richard Grant

     in reply to

     @feditips

     Moderation cuts two ways. Yes, bigger servers have more posts and more posters to moderate. But they also, being larger, can field a well-trained moderation team.

     With small servers, what you've typically got is one admin and maybe a couple of (volunteer) helpers. Maybe they are good at what they do. But maybe they're erratic, distracted, or just not suited to the task. It's quite difficult really, and more complex than one might think.

   • Embed this notice
     Richard Grant (richardgrant@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:37:53 JST Richard Grant

     in reply to

     @feditips I question whether you should be editorializing from the Fedi.tips account. Many people have come to rely on you for understanding how to use mastodon (and the fediverse generally), and will assume you're speaking in some official capacity.

     But what you're doing is advocating for a particular view of the fediverse — which I consider alarmist and, at the very least, open to debate. There's no objective standard by which a server can be declared "too large." Why stoke this conflict?

   • Embed this notice
     Richard Grant (richardgrant@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:37:53 JST Richard Grant

     in reply to

     @feditips If you *are* going to push people toward smaller servers, at least acknowledge some of the problems that may arise.

     The admin may get overwhelmed, depressed, or fed up — and just quit, with minimal notice. The server then ceases to exist. This happens all the time.

     The admins of small servers often feud with one another, and with larger servers, which leads to impulsive defederation, which messes up the user experience. There's no easy way to foresee which servers will be affected.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:41:23 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Richard Grant

     @richardgrant

     "With small servers, what you've typically got is one admin and maybe a couple of (volunteer) helpers."

     It's not the numbers that matter, it's the ratio.

     If a server has a thousand people and one moderator, that's 1:1000.

     For Facebook to match that ratio they would need three million moderators, which they clearly don't have. Meta's entire employee count is only 70,000.

     That's why massive networks depend heavily on automated moderation, they don't have enough people.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:44:33 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Richard Grant

     @richardgrant

     "If you *are* going to push people toward smaller servers, at least acknowledge some of the problems that may arise. "

     If you read the links I suggested people find servers from, they are all required to have at least two admins, give three months warning if they are closing down, take daily backups, moderate against specific kinds of hate speech etc.

     I'm not recommending random servers but very specific lists.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:52:22 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     Just to clarify, I am not suggesting signing up on a random server with no track record.

     The links in the above posts are to lists of servers that have very specific requirements to be listed (https://joinmastodon.org/covenant and https://fedi.garden/about-this-site/).

     Also, many of these servers have been going for years without problems. You can browse the servers on fedi.garden listed by year of foundation:

     https://fedi.garden/servers-sorted-by-founding-year/

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:56:20 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Battle Masker

     @Battle_Masker

     I would be careful there, instances.social don't screen the servers they list, there's no way of knowing if they're reliable?

   • Embed this notice
     Battle Masker (battle_masker@mstdn.party)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 02:56:21 JST Battle Masker

     in reply to

     @feditips another good tool is instances.social

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 06:50:21 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     The links in the original post provide suggested servers and a complete explanation of what is transferred and how.

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 06:50:22 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips if I want transfer my account, what are some suggestions? Mostly asking because I've heard not everything is transfered

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 06:53:21 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Erik “Lacraia” Magnusson
     • nellie-m

     @nellie_m @lacraia

     It depends what you are using the instance for. Most of my accounts are on a single user instance at social.growyourown.services and it works fine as my accounts are mainly information/announcements rather than personal.

     The blocklist updates should hopefully get easier if the planned blocklist subscription system gets implemented, but for the moment you can mitigate it by using ready-made blocklists. More info at https://fedi.tips/importing-ready-made-server-blocklists-on-mastodon/

   • Embed this notice
     nellie-m (nellie_m@autisticpri.de)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 06:53:31 JST nellie-m

     in reply to

     • Erik “Lacraia” Magnusson

     @lacraia @feditips

     I’m on a single user instance, and I don’t recommend it. Especially not for someone coming from the biggest instance there is. You’ll be shocked to find yourself on a desert island. The lack of backfilling makes it a very frustrating experience, and yes there are workarounds, and yes it takes dedication to implement them and keep your blocklists up to date etc.

     Go find a nice medium sized instance and give its admin a fiver a month. Much less hassle and better federation.

   • Embed this notice
     Erik “Lacraia” Magnusson (lacraia@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 06:53:32 JST Erik “Lacraia” Magnusson

     in reply to

     @feditips what do you think of a single-user server? I’m considering it. I have the domain already registered and thinking about paying for a managed instance.

   • Embed this notice
     Silver Huang (silverhuang@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:02:09 JST Silver Huang

     in reply to

     • David O'Brien

     @iamdavidobrien @feditips Maybe consider a general server rather than topic-specific ones? Based on my (limited) understanding, general servers (like mastodon.social) are open to a wide variety of topics so long as they abide by the server’s rules and country’s laws.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:02:09 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • David O'Brien
     • Silver Huang

     @silverhuang @iamdavidobrien

     Yeah, just go on a general server! 👍

     There are lots of them in the lists at https://joinmastodon.org/servers and https://fedi.garden

   • Embed this notice
     David O'Brien (iamdavidobrien@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:02:10 JST David O'Brien

     in reply to

     And I also get that I can follow these topic (and accounts) from any server.

     But if I'm on a web tech server posting politics stuff, I annoy people.

     And vice-versa.

     So what's the solution?

     @feditips

   • Embed this notice
     David O'Brien (iamdavidobrien@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:02:11 JST David O'Brien

     in reply to

     OK, I get that; but my interests are very broad:

     • web design/development
     • tech
     • politics
     • science
     • art
     • photography
     • news/current affairs

     Which is why I opted for a 'generalist' server.

     @feditips

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:34:25 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • FediFollows
     • lerekofatwgo

     @lerekofatwgo

     Yeah... that would be nice. It does mean something to have that date on there.

     One workaround is to have a birthday emoji and the date you originally joined on your first account (for example that's what I have at the bottom of the @FediFollows profile).

   • Embed this notice
     lerekofatwgo (lerekofatwgo@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:34:26 JST lerekofatwgo

     in reply to

     @feditips

     Maybe it's a silly nitpick nowadays, but I wish account age could be migrated as well.

   • Embed this notice
     lerekofatwgo (lerekofatwgo@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:58:17 JST lerekofatwgo

     in reply to

     • FediFollows

     @feditips @FediFollows

     Yeah, it's silly because if one weighs what's more important a good instance or the account age, the answer is obvious. 😂

     But for some reason I always get hung up on it. I need to stop caring and just move on.

     That's a great idea, by the way. I will apply it. Thank you!

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 07:58:17 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • FediFollows
     • lerekofatwgo

     @lerekofatwgo @FediFollows

     I wasn't being sarcastic, it does mean something! 😀

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 09:40:19 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     Try putting an @ at the start of the handle, see if that makes a difference? (I know the example doesn't do this, it should perhaps.)

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 09:40:20 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips Alright, thanks!

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 09:40:20 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips yeah I'm having some issues with transferring (I can't set up a redirect either), is this normal?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:20:51 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Richard Grant

     @richardgrant

     "I question whether you should be editorializing from the Fedi.tips account ... what you're doing is advocating for a particular view of the fediverse "

     If you go into a library, you will find people are very strongly opposed to book burning.

     That's not editorialising or advocating a "particular view", it's simply people who value the place they're in and want to protect it.

     The entire point of the Fediverse is to be spread out on many servers:

     https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers/

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:50:54 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     Hmm... that's weird.

     Just tried to find similar bugs on Mastodon github but nothing that fitted this exactly...

     Did you do all the transfer steps in the order listed on the guide? (https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/)

     You have to first do the alias on the new account and then wait some time for the new account's server to set up the alias. (Steps 1, 2 and 3 on the guide.)

     After you've waited for some time, you can move on to step 4 on the old server.

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:50:55 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips sadly doesn't seem to work

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:55:29 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     I'm sorry I can't help more 😞

     Maybe try asking about it from your admin on vivaldi, and if they can't help then admin on mastodon.art?

     (The only similar issue in github was a misconfigured server, but such large servers would probably have noticed such a problem before now.)

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:55:30 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips yeah I've set the alias on the new account hours ago, it's pretty weird

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:56:05 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips I've made a post on the Vivaldi forum to see if there's a solution. From what I can tell, Vivaldi's instance is unable to find my new account at all (even setting a redirect doesn't work)

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 10:56:05 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     Can you find the new account on Vivaldi by entering it in the search box? Just to make the profile appear, I mean.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 11:10:55 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     Are you able to make other m.a accounts appear using URL on vivaldi?

     Is it just this one account that you cannot get to appear?

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 11:10:56 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips putting the URL of the new account in the search box on Vivaldi's instance also yields a “account can't be found" error. I'd normally suspect a federation error, but I follow a lot of people on Mastodon.ART here. It also doesn't seem like Mastodon.ART has blocked Vivaldi's instance or vice versa

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 11:13:53 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     Are you still following m.a accounts on Vivaldi or have those disappeared from your follows list?

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 11:13:54 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips seems like I can't view any mastodon.art accounts on Vivaldi, weird

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 11:16:10 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips nope, they're still there and their profiles appear when I click on them

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 11:16:10 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     Weird... Maybe some temporary federation glitch then?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 20:38:50 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Orca? | ??️‍⚧️
     • StandingPad

     @Orca @StandingPad

     Yeah, I did wonder that but vivaldi isn't listed on the blocklist.

     And the user is still following people from mastodon.art on their vivaldi account, which wouldn't be possible if mastodon.art had blocked vivaldi.

     This seems more like some kind of federation bug rather than a deliberate block?

   • Embed this notice
     Orca? | ??️‍⚧️ (orca@nya.one)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 20:39:08 JST Orca? | ??️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad@social.vivaldi.net @feditips@mstdn.social
     mastodon.art defederated a lot of servers, is it possible that you happened to be initiateing account migration from a server that's blocked by it?
     
     Check moderated server list here:
     https://mastodon.art/about

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 20:47:24 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Mensch, Marina
     • Nextcloud ?☁️?
     • Cameron
     • Nafeon :verified_solarpunk:

     @energisch_ @NafiTheBear @bitflipped

     That's how @nextcloud suggests nextcloud servers to sign up on for new users, and as someone else pointed out online games do this with server suggestions too.

   • Embed this notice
     Mensch, Marina (energisch_@troet.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 20:47:27 JST Mensch, Marina

     in reply to

     • Cameron
     • Nafeon :verified_solarpunk:

     @NafiTheBear I like that "random" idea. So non of the suggested servers would get too crowded @feditips @bitflipped

   • Embed this notice
     Nafeon :verified_solarpunk: (nafithebear@bears.town)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 20:47:28 JST Nafeon :verified_solarpunk:

     in reply to

     • Cameron

     @feditips @bitflipped they could've even provided multiple servers and you get to one randomly when you sign up, but they did nothing.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 23:04:52 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • StandingPad

     @StandingPad

     I don't think that is a factor?

     Full text search is an opt-in feature on all servers, it's off by default on all servers.

   • Embed this notice
     StandingPad (standingpad@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Thursday, 05-Oct-2023 23:04:53 JST StandingPad

     in reply to

     @feditips Looking it into further, perhaps it could be related to the new Mastodon update? It seems like all Mastodon.ART accounts are by default not searchable.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 06-Oct-2023 20:04:34 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • JimmyB (he/him)
     • slyborg

     @JimmyB @slyborg

     It's a central fact about how the Fediverse works.

     If we congregate on a single server, it becomes much easier for the Fediverse to be bought out as Twitter was.

     The more spread out we are, the safer we are from Musk-type scenarios.

   • Embed this notice
     JimmyB (he/him) (jimmyb@mas.to)'s status on Friday, 06-Oct-2023 20:04:35 JST JimmyB (he/him)

     in reply to

     • slyborg

     @slyborg
     Please stop with this nonsense

     @feditips

   • Embed this notice
     slyborg (slyborg@raru.re)'s status on Friday, 06-Oct-2023 20:04:43 JST slyborg

     in reply to

     @feditips > threatens the long term safety of the whole Fediverse

     Please stop with this nonsense.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 06-Oct-2023 23:58:44 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • JimmyB (he/him)
     • slyborg

     @slyborg @JimmyB

     "Fediverse in toto is far too puny to be monetizable, it’s ludicrous to speak of billionaire buyouts of a thing that is literally 0.1% of Xitter’s current size. "

     It's not just billionaires, it's also smaller scammy companies that take over open projects and start it with privacy-busting trackers etc. This has happened countless times and caused so many forks to happen.

     1/2

   • Embed this notice
     slyborg (slyborg@raru.re)'s status on Friday, 06-Oct-2023 23:58:52 JST slyborg

     in reply to

     • JimmyB (he/him)

     @feditips @JimmyB So, two points.
     1) Fediverse in toto is far too puny to be monetizable, it’s ludicrous to speak of billionaire buyouts of a thing that is literally 0.1% of Xitter’s current size.
     2) If you believe in federation as a concept, then it shouldn’t matter how big an instance is. It gets bought out, you defederate it, anyone on it that cares moves. This is literally the whole point of it.

     My feeling is that a large part of the anti-mastodon.social animus is driven by dislike for Eugen, who, you know, started this whole thing. If you don’t like Gargron, then beat him at his own game, build a better instance and drive signups there. Mammoth is actually doing this.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 07-Oct-2023 00:01:18 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • JimmyB (he/him)
     • slyborg

     @slyborg @JimmyB

     "If you believe in federation as a concept, then it shouldn’t matter how big an instance is. "

     That's the opposite of the truth.

     The more a particular instance dominates the network, the harder it becomes to defederate from it because so many of the connections people have will lead to that server.

     "anti-mastodon.social animus is driven by dislike for Eugen"

     No, that's not the case for me.

     "Mammoth is actually doing this."

     VC funding has always ended in disaster.

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     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 07-Oct-2023 00:10:11 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • JimmyB (he/him)
     • slyborg

     @slyborg @JimmyB

     p.s. We know Mastodon has already had multiple offers from VC because Eugen told us about them:

     https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/29/twitter-rival-mastodon-rejects-funding-to-protect-non-profit-status-18011457/

     "Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon told the FT that he had received offers from more than five US-based investors to invest ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ in backing the product."

     I'm really glad Eugen turned them down, it's a really good sign, but it is dangerous to build a network that relies on one person regularly turning down money.

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     in reply to

     • Manyverse
     • Walop

     @Walop

     Unfortunately this is true for any online service, even the biggest and most stable sites will sometimes go nuts and do weird things (https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/ and https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-loses-all-content-uploaded-before-2016).

     Ultimately the only absolute guarantees are if you run the service yourself (which I try to help people with on https://growyourown.services) or use a distributed social network like @manyver_se where the data is stored on your phone or your computer.

   • Embed this notice
     Walop (walop@sauna.social)'s status on Monday, 09-Oct-2023 03:22:09 JST Walop

     in reply to

     @feditips It is really hard to assess the reliability of servers. The first I signed on had been running for few years, had the covenant, had very sensible and agreeable rules. And a month after I found out the administrator had been having heated arguments for a while and suddenly just removed the covenant and rules and announced the instance will be shut down in a few weeks.

     I don't blame people choosing the largest ones because they don't know about or can't make sense of the alternatives. It's like the early days of webmail, when I had to make a new account yearly because the previous one shut down. Except now migrating is a lot bigger deal because there's more value in the content you're leaving behind and you have shared the account to more places.

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     in reply to

     • CatsSimsBooks

     @CatsSimsBooks

     Um... this isn't really a scaling issue?

     The risk to decentralised federation caused by a dominant server is always there whatever protocol you're using. The danger comes from a network that is so dependent on one server, that the server can start to dictate terms to the rest of the network.

     The only way round this is to keep the network spread out and avoid any dependency on a single server.

   • Embed this notice
     CatsSimsBooks (catssimsbooks@mastodonapp.uk)'s status on Monday, 09-Oct-2023 03:33:11 JST CatsSimsBooks

     in reply to

     @feditips So basically, and considering that to my understanding everything liked, replied to or boosted on remote servers has to be mirrored locally instead of just retrieved, they didn't design their facebook and twitter killer social network with scalability in mind? The dogma of decentralisation was more important than practicalities?

     Although scaling to large size is HARD, to me it seems early design decisions are making that much harder than it should be.

     ED clarified

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     in reply to

     • Steven Roose
     • Fedi.Garden ?

     @stevenroose

     Could you message me on my @FediGarden account? It's easier for me to keep track of things that way.

   • Embed this notice
     Steven Roose (stevenroose@x0f.org)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Oct-2023 20:28:26 JST Steven Roose

     in reply to

     @feditips
     Where are the "activism" or "politics" categories in fedi.garden? :)