@laurenshof @thenexusofprivacy @julian @FediTips Laurens, can you say more about this?

@thenexusofprivacy @laurenshof @julian @FediTips the fact that there are no new largish instances makes it seem like an opportunity to create a “starter instance” that could combine tight moderation with friendly people willing to help newcomers around…

@julian @laurenshof @thenexusofprivacy @FediTips this is the kind of situation this new Mastodon service is aimed at, no? https://joinmastodon.org/hosting

@FediTips @julian @thenexusofprivacy Here is the reasoning behind a tutorial server/paddling pool. Servers matter, they do matter and they should matter and I think we all, in this discussion, agree that fedi’s strength is the ability to build around communities. So we should, I think, start by telling people that; not by telling them they need to make a choice that doesn’t matter when it does. If you already know what a server is you should of course have that option “Pick your own server”. The other option would be “Get started here and pick one later”.

@julian @thenexusofprivacy @FediTips very much yes to the tutorial server idea (I think of it in terms of a paddling pool…) and the idea would very much be you get funnelled out if it once you’ve got a basic understanding of what choosing a server actually entails and to what extent it does (and doesn’t) matter.

(but if all we have is a default server then it would still be better they rotated, and default servers should also be exceptionally well moderated to qualify…)

@julian @FediTips I guess I feel like the main difficulty *is* the difficulty of deciding on a server when one cannot yet have any idea of the consequences of that decision…
beyond that, people understand that email can come from different providers, as can their sim card, as can their broadband as can they cable tv. I don’t see anything anything fundamentally more complicated in “remembering one’s server” beyond that that couldn’t be solved with appropriate explanation (“your server is your access provider, you will need to hold on to these details…”), but I could be missing something here…

@julian @FediTips much of this could be solved if the “default server” for sign ups rotated….

new meta-analysis on the question of whether prebunking manipulations against misinformation simply make participants more skeptical overall or actually enhance discrimination abilities
… a signal detection analysis supports the latter

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X25002076