Notices by Another Linux Walt Alt (lnxw37b2@shitposter.club), page 2

@Moon @feditips I think the danger this concentration presents is something that people are just now starting to recognize, but I think feditips’ focus on “Gargron could sell MastoSoc and bifurcate the Fediverse” is off-base. Neither time that the Fediverse bifurcated in the past was it because of a buyout, but because the person running the largest instance and most used server software changed protocols.

That said, YES, people should STOP recommending official Mastodon mobile apps and STOP calling the network as a whole Mastodon. I’m pretty sure the person behind that account won’t see this post, but they need to START recommending people use smaller instances, including instances that don’t run Mastodon software or its forks. And they need to encourage people to build more UNOFFICIAL instance-chooser sites that don’t focus only on one particular kind of server software and promote those instead of official sites for specific software. Trying to move people to smaller instances, including trying to get most new arrivals to start out with smaller instances, is the best thing for the network as a whole, but it isn’t good for any admin whose instance relies upon attracting donors.

Sorry I ruined your joke, Moon, but “main instance” concentration is a sore point with me. I saw it with Identica, with JoinDiaspora, with Jabber.org, with Matrix.org, and now with Mastodon.Social. In a federated network, main instance concentration defeats all the reasons and benefits of federation, leaving centralization and all the ills that come with it.