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Why are people joining issue or specific Mastodon servers? I'm interested in many issues, and am curious about ones tied to #OpenSource #Sustainability & #Accessibility, but unsure how or why people choose.

Are certain instances going to be seen as being more legitimate? How will sustainability be managed as numbers grow? What happens if I move & that instance shuts down?

Some info here:
blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/06/…

How to migrate from one server to another

With the sad news that KNZK was shutting down we thought it might be useful for people to have a refresher on the features that Mastodon has built in that make moving instances easy and painless.
Official Mastodon Blog
#Accessibility #opensource #sustainability
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Mike Gifford
Mike Gifford
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@blindscribe Interesting. I haven't seen much commercialisation yet, but can totally see how with even 10k members a server would have a monetary value that might be worth selling.

Has this happened in the past?

I hadn't really thought about defederation. I do like the idea of supporting ($$) a server that is well maintained and tied to how I would like to identify.

@Robert Kingett updates
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Mike Gifford
Mike Gifford
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@blindscribe Like that this federated approach allows for both anonymous and verified accounts without any difficulty. Also allows for self-identified bots too!
@Robert Kingett updates
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Mike Gifford
Mike Gifford
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@jeff_schmidt Having the Local be a prioritized group makes sense to me. If it is associated with a community you care about, then that certainly helps.

Do you think there is an optimum size?

in reply to Mike Gifford

Torsten Knabe
Torsten Knabe
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I have two accounts on two instances - tech.lgbt and woof.group. Both are intentionally LGBT run and moderated so I know I won't have to deal with hate. Woof.group recently closed applications after hitting 1k active users. This makes it cheaper to run and able to be moderated as the mods collectively read every post. Choose an instance based on moderation and local timeline. Sustainable growth here is horizontal - more smaller instances.
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Mike Gifford
Mike Gifford
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@stevemccullough I had an account from the Before Times but there wasn't critical mass till now.
@Steve McCullough (he/him)
in reply to Mike Gifford

Michael Richardson
Michael Richardson
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in theory, in the "Local" tab, you'll have more stuff that is server specific, but historically, all the servers were below critical threshold, so it was empty. Now all servers are above critical threshold of people, but not of topics. Maybe it will sort itself out once the tide ebbs, or .something else.
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