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1. Nick @ The Linux Experiment (thelinuxexp@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:03:59 JST Nick @ The Linux Experiment

   Adding an easy way to create a Mastodon account on mastodon.social to the official app? Yes, please.

   I don’t understand the drama around this. Not like it’s removing other instances, or the ability to switch instances afterwards. It just gives an easier way in for people who don’t understand the instances concept.

   It’s a good thing. Anything that helps onboarding is a good thing, and no, it doesn’t mean the developer has gone evil or wants to centralize things. 🙄🙄

   • Nick @ The Linux Experiment (thelinuxexp@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:03:55 JST Nick @ The Linux Experiment

     in reply to

     • Deividas Paukštė

     @deivpaukst Except it would still be decentralized. It wouldn’t make other instances invalid. And it wouldn’t be a problem to have one instance bigger than the others, as the whole network isn’t locked down.

   • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think: (thatguyoverthere@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:03:55 JST Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     in reply to

     • Deividas Paukštė
     @thelinuxEXP @deivpaukst why even use the app? Is there any inherent benefit over a web ui?
   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:03:59 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     @thelinuxEXP For me in these kinds of scenarios it's worth thinking in the way that if I were a person who is a normal amount of tech literate and is coming from a different social media, they will firstly most likely go to the official app as they expect the best experience from it. Then when they get the app they'll see a highlighted button and most users will just click it without even thinking, because it even reads like it will just take you to the next step and...

   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:03:59 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     @thelinuxEXP ...whoops, suddenly we have the majority of people being directed to one instance and I don't know how that doesn't sound like centralisation. Even if it isn't deliberate. Let's also admit that most people don't like to do stuff until something no longer works and we then have people who were onboarded to the one instance who just want to use the app and not bother with moving. Doesn't that sound familiar? *Cough cough* Twitter.

   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:46:12 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     @thatguyoverthere @thelinuxEXP Mostly convenience, I guess? We've become used to having the world wide web accessible at any time and any place.

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   • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think: (thatguyoverthere@shitposter.club)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Apr-2023 23:46:12 JST Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     in reply to

     • Deividas Paukštė
     @deivpaukst @thelinuxEXP yeah but you can use a web browser to access any fedi instance, and I think several will even offer to "install" the webpage as an app in chrome based browsers.
   • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think: (thatguyoverthere@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:10:41 JST Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     in reply to

     • Deividas Paukštė
     @deivpaukst @thelinuxEXP yeah I guess it's not a widely known feature. Still the web interface is mobile friendly. I guess one thing having a separate app may do is make sharing from other apps a little easier. Perhaps that's what you mean by "more integrated experience". Either way you can sign up on any instance with open registration from their web frontend. I agree making "signup" part of an app that is supposed to be for a federated platform and directing all new signups to a single instance is probably not ideal. If nothing else the app should provide a list of a few instances to chose from. I'd say let the user pick any instance they want although that would never go over as I think more than one of these mobile apps have hard coded blacklists of servers you can't use them with (I don't know specifically about the Mastodon official app).
   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:10:42 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     @thatguyoverthere @thelinuxEXP Yeah, but honestly, I only found out that such a feature exists back when our government had the COVID passes and I assume a lot of people have still not heard of it. Apps still do provide a more integrated experience? I guess the issue is that a ton of people are used to doing as much on their phones as they can. Which includes social media and account creation on said social media and that's how we arrive at the discussed issue.

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   • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think: (thatguyoverthere@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:39:35 JST Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     in reply to

     • Deividas Paukštė
     @deivpaukst @thelinuxEXP yeah I use farside.link to find random privacy frontends for things like youtube or twitter. They aren't exhaustive but it's a good way to find instances. The good thing about a system that recommends more than one option (or a random from a pool) is that at least the federation concept isn't lost on the user. You can explain to them while they are signing up that no matter which instance they sign up on they can talk to users on the other instances. Unfortunately due to server level blocks this may not always be the case, but it helps to prepare people who probably aren't familiar with federated protocols for a multi-domain experience.
   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:39:36 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     @thatguyoverthere @thelinuxEXP I signed up a while ago through the web interface on my computer as I think the app which I used (Megolodon which is a fork of the main app with extra qol) just directed me to the web interface anyway, but I think it had some sort of list. But from what I've heard, the official list has been unmaintained and losing servers. As for the onboarding, I would be satisfied with a random instance from a curated list.

     Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think: likes this.
   • Nick @ The Linux Experiment (thelinuxexp@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:39:43 JST Nick @ The Linux Experiment

     in reply to

     • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:
     • Deividas Paukštė

     @deivpaukst @thatguyoverthere Yeah, a random general instance would do the trick

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   • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think: (thatguyoverthere@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:40:15 JST Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     in reply to

     • Deividas Paukštė
     @deivpaukst @thelinuxEXP you could negatively weight larger instances in the random selection so that they are picked less frequently.
   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:40:17 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     @thelinuxEXP @thatguyoverthere Also perhaps some kind of equity tool behind the scenes could be used that tries to elevate smaller instances that are able to grow but just aren't getting the coverage they need. It would once again require a lot more communication between people, but isn't that what we're trying to achieve?

   • Deividas Paukštė (deivpaukst@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2023 00:45:12 JST Deividas Paukštė

     in reply to

     • Disinformation Purveyor :verified_think:

     @thatguyoverthere @thelinuxEXP Growing more as a whole instead of just one instace. :ablobcatreach:

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