Copied from https://pluspora.com/posts/83732
I thought this would illustrate why you are better off joining a well populated diaspora pod such as pluspora rather than setting up your own at first
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For #gplus refugees and new #diaspora users i thought I'd post an explanation of how diaspora federation works from a comment to a post on another pod:
In Diaspora, you can only see those posts, that are present on your pod. If you follow someone, you get the (new) posts of that account send to your pod, including reshares.
Example:
Pod1 has the Users A, B and C
Pod2 has the Users D and E
Pod3 has the Users F and G
Pod4 has the User H
A follows B and D
B follows G
D follows F
If A writes a post, that post is visible for B and C, but only show up in their stream if it contains a hashtag they follow.
If B writes a post, it pops up in As stream, because A follows B.
These posts are not visible for D-H, because the posts are only on Pod1.
If D writes a post, Pod2 automatically sends a copy to Pod1, because A follows D. It pops up in As stream and can be found by B, C and E via hashtags. It is still invisible for F, G and H.
If F writes a post, it is sent to Pod2 because D follows F. It is in Ds stream and may be in Es and Gs Stream via hashtags. If D or G reshare this post, it will be distributed to Pod1 too, because D and G have followers on Pod1.
A post from Pod1 will not be able to reach other Pods though, because the people on Pod1 don't have followers on other pods.
Pod4 is completely shut off and is not able to communicate with other pods. H is not able to find other users without looking for them over other channels than diaspora
https://pluspora.com/posts/83732
I thought this would illustrate why you are better off joining a well populated diaspora pod such as pluspora rather than setting up your own at first
-----
For #gplus refugees and new #diaspora users i thought I'd post an explanation of how diaspora federation works from a comment to a post on another pod:
In Diaspora, you can only see those posts, that are present on your pod. If you follow someone, you get the (new) posts of that account send to your pod, including reshares.
Example:
Pod1 has the Users A, B and C
Pod2 has the Users D and E
Pod3 has the Users F and G
Pod4 has the User H
A follows B and D
B follows G
D follows F
If A writes a post, that post is visible for B and C, but only show up in their stream if it contains a hashtag they follow.
If B writes a post, it pops up in As stream, because A follows B.
These posts are not visible for D-H, because the posts are only on Pod1.
If D writes a post, Pod2 automatically sends a copy to Pod1, because A follows D. It pops up in As stream and can be found by B, C and E via hashtags. It is still invisible for F, G and H.
If F writes a post, it is sent to Pod2 because D follows F. It is in Ds stream and may be in Es and Gs Stream via hashtags. If D or G reshare this post, it will be distributed to Pod1 too, because D and G have followers on Pod1.
A post from Pod1 will not be able to reach other Pods though, because the people on Pod1 don't have followers on other pods.
Pod4 is completely shut off and is not able to communicate with other pods. H is not able to find other users without looking for them over other channels than diaspora
https://pluspora.com/posts/83732
Is there a diagram?
ReplyDeleteShaun Griffith no but I think that would be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteMany people joining a popular pod goes against some of the promised benefits of a federation. You are now once again centralizing your data and putting your personal information at risk on the whims of the pod host(s).
ReplyDeleteExactly the scenario many would hope to avoid when going to a federalized network.
There are several risks with it though there's no space to cover them here in detail (backups, mirroring for failover, data abuse, data theft, denial of service attacks, lack of data migration, etc, etc, etc).
The fact that this becomes a recommended practice on diaspora can be seen as its implementation, and to some degree, architectural flaw. See the implementation rationale of other federated systems, for example Hubzilla, which were created to address these same flaws.
Juha Lindfors There are proposals to address this in Diaspora. Two options being looked at are pulling hashtags from known pods or having relay hubs which propagate hashtags between pods
ReplyDeleteTandava Nadesan Yes I am aware. Since 2011.
ReplyDeleteIt feels as though fundamental pieces of distributed systems in diaspora are missing; entire new systems have sprung up in the meantime to address these shortcomings. One such example is scuttlebutt:
twitter.com - André Staltz on Twitter
That diaspora is missing these architectural constructs prevents it from fulfilling all the benefits a distributed social network could have. Federation only brings it half way to the goal.