this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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We don't, though. We get whatever content people on our chosen instance have subscribed to. Even without blanket server bans, there are Lemmy-based websites that your host has never heard of, hosting content you do not have access to. Someone from your server has to introduce those sites, and subscribe to the communities on those sites, for your server to have their content.
The fediverse is subscription based. Shit doesn't get sent around unless it's specifically asked for.
some instances pre-subscribe to new servers/communities across the verse using bots to 'pre-load' the /all/new for new users to be able to see locally to subscribe to
https://moist.catsweat.com/all/newest
They still need to know about the servers, though. There's no centralized index of servers. If you set up a lemmy-based website today, and you do nothing to make contact with the rest of the network, the network's not going to find out about you.
There's no home to phone to.
There's no canonical whole that we all have access to.
Check out https://lemmyverse.net
thats kind of on the admins though.
definitely a pitfall for users joining a shitty instance
Being subscription based is what makes it feasible for smaller instances to exist on the fediverse. If every instance had to be a full mirror of the network only a few small groups could afford to host instances.
It also points to what the best use of a federated content sharing network is, and it's not "create something that looks like it has unfettered access to some canonical whole". It's small networks of users with related interests having the majority of their discussions with each other, while also being able to pull content from other interest groups they may be interested in.
Like, a... to re-use a random example I pulled out of my ass in some other thread... Mazda enthusiast forum, where most people are talking about their Mazdas, but also one person's really into the New York Yankees, and another also cares about their Dodge truck. The usage case is 80% local discussion, 20% off-site.
The currently attempted model is "everything is general interest, and you have to search for your niche, and it could be anywhere", because that's how it works on Twitter, or even on Reddit (subreddit squatting, subreddit splits, and early millennial internet humour come to mind). But it's all being done to disguise what the fediverse is, and make it look like what already exists, rather than trying to usher in something different. And it just... can't compete that way.