this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy

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Is Lemmy's growth good and what federation will look like? (self.asklemmy)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by caephi to c/[email protected]
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i've seen the sentiment that most of the growth being on lemmy with .world taking on the large share of users isn't necessarily positive. other than the fact that the point of federation is decentralizing, what kind of issues arise from congregating heavily in a single instance?

i know even in just .world there a few redundant communities and i imagine that this is compounded in other instances. i don't suppose i should expect or even want monolithic communities at the whim of just a few moderators or admins, but i don't want to miss out on discussion and content for communities i'm interested in.

i guess i'm just curious what the development of communities and their interaction should look like with federation, and how browsing and engaging with these disparate but related spaces is going to work for the average user.

apologies if my questions about federation are basic or these questions are well known and understood for those who have been a part of communities like this for longer than i have.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (5 children)

@[email protected] more of a pro than a con; large instances are less likely to be defederated, for the same reason that no email provider would ever block "gmail.com".

[–] caephi 5 points 2 years ago

i think my concern comes from the idea that large instances could set the pace for how other instances operate. if admins for lemmy.world wanted to enact certain policies the fact that they have the largest userbase would encourage other instances to fall in line since they wouldn't want to defederate from the largest instance.

i should also admit that i'm not completely aware of the process through which instances federate and defederate from each other. i assume it's up to the discretion of the admins of each instance, and then once many begin to federate together the admins of each have their say on who can be included, with defederating occuring if there is no longer alignment between an instance and it's federation. correct me if i'm wrong, but if this is correct, large instances like lemmy.world would hold an unequal share of bargaining power in these circumstances.

[–] B4tid0 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah that makes sense , if lemmy and the fediverse were a for-profit / corporation managed then I would say yes the gmail analogy would be the most probable way things would work here but I am hoping that isn't the case since there is no profit to be making here , at least that's not the state of things yet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

and yet.

[–] nieceandtows 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah the other day I went to Walmart, and their wifi is blocking Lemmy.world because it’s a new server. Lemmy.ml was accessible though.