When illustrating the Fediverse as a network, what should the nodes be?

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan I'm a fan of making diagrams information-dense, so I'd want to try to illustrate (or even better, animate) all of the above. Have instance nodes be their software logos but labelled with their domains. Show people connecting to their own instances using phones or PCs. Show them creating posts, animate them flying across the fediverse. Show hashtags being used. Show different software instances interacting. Maybe try to animate a whole follow post sequence for individuals and hashtags.

[jamesmarshall@sfba.social]

@evan depends on what the illustration is being used for. For a generic usage, I would say people and instances. I chose "people", since ultimately that's the point.

[stefan@stefanbohacek.online]

@evan @andypiper Same here, definitely prefer "servers" to "instances", but my favorite is "communities".

[terryhancock@realsocial.life]

@evan
(Instances)
Of course, the answer is always really going to be "It depends on what you are illustrating".

If the point is interoperability, then "software" makes sense, for example.

[catmisgivings@stranger.social]

@aeva @evan so much this. People are the "what" or the "who"; instances are the "how".

Although you could do both, it is very much more important to me to draw how I know Ben than line-trace wires from one instance to another.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@mayintoronto that's the question!

[mayintoronto@beige.party]

@evan oh I see!

[mayintoronto@beige.party]

@evan In that case, I'd argue the nodes are clusters of people who eventually end up following each other due repeat interactions.

There are probably identifiable individuals who would be central to several nodes of people who gather around central interests!

[deborahh@cosocial.ca]

@mayintoronto @evan so, I was thinking in terms of visibility and moderation.

But in terms of function, I'm with May. It's a social-graph isn't it?

[miblo@mas.to]

@evan [Instances] I think this maps onto the idea in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node_(networking) that "many physical network nodes are host computers", in the sense that both a host computer and an instance is the bit on which people have their accounts.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@stefan @andypiper Servers would have been better. Can we live with instances?

[stefan@stefanbohacek.online]

@evan

I mean, I can definitely live with it. I just wonder if it's an additional concept that will need to be explained when talking about the fediverse with a more general audience.

I feel like I'd probably be saying "instance, also called server" a lot, same as when I sometimes say "Mastodon and the larger fediverse".

Although, admittedly, I'm relying on personal and other anecdotal experience when I assume that less techy people are familiar with "servers". (Eg. Discord using the term, my own conversations at work with non-developers, etc.)

@andypiper

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@stefan @andypiper I meant, can we live with me leaving it on this poll? Actually, I shouldn't ask; I really rarely change polls once they've started.

[stefan@stefanbohacek.online]

@evan Ahh, got it. Yes, changing it would just reset the votes, so definitely best to keep the current options.

@andypiper

[gnomon@mastodon.social]

@evan

Critterball

#monsterdon

[sberson@app.wafrn.net]

@evan@cosocial.ca @gaditb@icosahedron.website

I see illustrations like this of interconnected Fediverse platforms, kind of often, and from an end users point of view, it just isn't that true. E.g. I need a completely different user account for the "threadiverse" platforms (Lemmy/Kbin/Mbin/Piefed) versus all the blogging ones (Mastodon, Gotosocial, Wafrn, Pleroma, Misskey, etc.) and neither of those accounts get me logged into Mobilizon, etc. And claiming general interconnectedness & interoperability is way misleading to potential new users.

[jgamble@fosstodon.org]

@evan

Being a literal-minded person, I chose Instances (/servers) because that's what handles the data.

But an alternate graph might be best described with hashtags.

[andres@mastodon.hardcoredevs.com]

@stefan @evan @andypiper
When you say "server" I imagine hardware hosting different software so an ilustrated node would imply multiple instances and it doesn't sound right.
I'm in with the software option because it highlight the diversity in contrast with centralized solutions.
Communities is a great one too.

[Guest]

@evan I would try to use instances in different colors by the software used with different sizes depending on the amount of people using that instance.

[mcneely@indieweb.social]

@evan I think this is a sneaky good question actually. It reminds me of a blog post @laurenshof wrote a few months back about how communities form. I voted software which I interpreted as the type of platform (Mastodon, PeerTube, Pixelfed etc) but I think it could just as easily be any of the choices