It would tie in better with the email analogy, and it could show that they all just provide access to the same network.
What do you think?
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would confuse me because when I hear “provider” I think ISP before anything else
I’m afraid that when I say „my Lemmy provider” people will think I’m referring to my drug dealer.
“Psst… Hey, you. Wanna buy some SoMe?”
I just say server hosts
I think instance is okay as a term, but defining it as a provider could be helpful. I don’t think the fediverse is that complicated anyway, it could be summarized in a paragraph for a baby
I agree, let’s make it more friendly to people wanting to start a fediverse provider as a business so a big company can’t come in and gobble up everyone
I was thinking the same. Provider is easier to understand, and used in daily life contexts.
- I changed my Internet provider
- This electricity provider offers better service
Yes, thats what I was thinking.
I was thinking about other decentralised networks people may use, and they all seem to use the word “provider”:
- Email provider
- Internet provider
- Usenet provider
How would the word be used in our context? The Fediverse provider?
But I think I associate the word with money related activities and I’m not a fan of that.
I would think the jargon would be “I chose fedia.io as my Lemmy provider,” or similar for other federated platforms.
Oh god no. That’s like “I chose Burger King as my McDonald’s provider.”
Not really. In that metaphor it’s more like, “I chose the McDonald’s down at the corner to get my Big Mac instead of the one across town.”
But Burger King and McDonalds are the same type of entities.
Fedia.io and Lemmy are different. Your example would be “Lemmy as a Piefed provider”, or “Feddit.org as a feddit.uk provider”
Yeah it’s even worse than that.
fedia.io is a specific “provider” in this context. fedia.io runs on mbin. Lemmy is analogous to mbin. Many “providers” run on lemmy: lemmy.world, lemmy.dbzer0.com, lemmy.wtf, etc.
What is being provided is fediverse access. “Fediverse” is not my mostest favorite term, but it’s the one that’s most accurate.
What is being provided is fediverse access. “Fediverse” is not my mostest favorite term, but it’s the one that’s most accurate.
There’s a discussion on [email protected] about a name for Lemmy/Mbin/Piefed, as they are actually compatible. Mastodon and the others always feels a bit finicky. Feel free to contribute.
Fine, “I choose Burger King as my hamburger provider but I expect to be able to access a Big Mac from Burger King unless they are defederated.”
“I use Vodafone as my phone provider. Can’t call people in North Korea because they cut that connection. I might have to choose another provider that still allows me to call there”.
I associate the word with money related activities
That’s a good thing. It costs money to provide services to people. The Fediverse is no different.
Provider has the connotation of being a paid provider for services. While it’s a technically accurate analogy, I prefer the more abstract comparison of considering the fediverse a meeting place rather than a paid service since it’s a mostly volunteer and self hosted network compared to email.
I disagree. Gmail is my email provider. I don’t pay for it. (Yeah I know they are taking advantage revenue.)
Instance is unnecessary jargon.
I like it. The reasoning’s good.
I hate the term “instance”. It’s hopelessly geeky (it derives from object-oriented programming). It brings to mind nerds and gamers in basements.
I thought it was just an instance of the lemmy software, for example?
Servers are a better word for it imo. It is what it actually is and average people already understand servers from discord
Servers are a better word for it imo.
Agreed. When I explain Lemmy to my friends I describe instances as “servers.”
FSP = Fediverse Service Provider
That doesn’t sound too bad ngl.
I wouldn’t even mention anything about servers or how it works, since most anyone I would even tell about Lemmy won’t understand the technical details, nor would they care. It would only confuse them and push them away.
Just hook them up with an instance they will fit into, and have them use the site. I really think that a lot of the other tech nerds here are overthinking it and trying to get non-tech minded people to switch by giving them technical details that do more harm and cause more confusion than simply having them use the site without knowing jack shit about it other than “it’s like Reddit but not shitty.”
That’s really all you gotta tell most people; “it’s like Reddit (or Twitter if you’re trying to talk up Mastodon), but not shitty.”
Sure, but then questions like “why do these subreddits have an @ symbol?” happen, or the dreaded default “local” sort causes problems.
I use this approach sometimes and it really works. Provided it’s the erm… simple type of crowd that doesn’t ask too many questions lol. They’ll wander around and figure it out. If they do, congratulations😂
It’s probably too late for that now, but I do think that’s a better name
