i thought i wanted to write a blog post but i think really the core ideas i’m trying to get at is that

• there is a heavy conflict between mastodon development & many (often either potential or now ex-)users, and most of the current userbase, over whether the goal of mastodon is to create a One Big Fediverse; and
• mastodon development is only finally conceding to those who want community features by allowing it in a way that does everything it can to make instances indistinguishable, in service of the One Big Fediverse-
• i think trying to create the One Big Fediverse, even if it was possible to achieve in the past, is long past possible to achieve, as the software necessarily requires the fediverse to be developed by people who are, socially, entirely uncooordinated; at a technical level the fediverse has always been, and will continue to be, encouraging fragmentation
• fragmentation is not inherently a design flaw! we of course need to be conscious of the trade-offs (which the constant complaints of non-users have long made obvious), but of course all design is about navigating contradictions these trade-offs; imo the best future for the mastodon-compatible fediverse would involve doubling down on everything that is interesting about fragmented and non-identical instances that are technologically capable of enabling communiciation across those instances

@aescling *nods!*

I wonder if we'll end up at a point where we need different terms for different regions of the fediverse

- 🎒 💭

@packbat we probably would already benefit from that

@packbat e.g. there’s already awoospace