It’s hard to search and find messages across the Fediverse.
This is a good thing.
The more I read about Altman’s World project (you know, the orb that scans people’s eyes) the more important I feel the Fediverse is.
I can get somewhat excited by the Atmosphere (Bluesky and others) as well at times, and projects like Leaflet that appear decentralized, but I certainly am not as safe/independent in that environment, even if I run my own PDS (personal data server).
The feature that the Fediverse brings is that it is unpredictable, messy and hard to nail down. We don’t see the edges of it, it’s not intuitive, and often impossible, to search for content across instances, and it’s not really feasible to have truly accurate figure of how many people are reachable on a Fediverse address. It took me a while to realise that this is something to embrace, not criticize it for.
Staying safe from bad actors requires messy. It requires unpredictable. The single database containing all humans on Earth (Altman’s World) is the nightmare.
My pro tip to beginners: If you like a post on the Fediverse, bookmark it with some other tool or send it in a message to yourself. That’s your searchable archive. Emphasis on your.
There are certainly lots of usability issues with Fediverse software. Like the landing page for any instance and how it’s often incredibly hard to understand for novices. Like ”where even am I?”
Honestly, though, I’d like to see more tiny instances. I dream of things like VPS providers providing 1-click installs of Snac for a couple dollars per month. Or even a tiny hardware box that you buy (no monthly fees), plug into your network and go through a wizard to set up your presence. I know people do similar things already… I mean for anyone.
Anyway, this was just a long-winded way of saying that the Fediverse plays a hugely important role in resistance to authoritarianism, and that many of its perceived weaknesses are its strengths.
And I’m sure we can come up with more weaknesses in the future that turn out to be strengths. 😁
