Comment on Voyager moved the default instance to lemmy.zip
Quicky@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoI’m not sure that the answer to a government’s regulation of the Internet should be an individual’s blocking of access for an entire country. Seems like 2 sides of the same coin to me.
greybeard@feddit.online 3 weeks ago
This is them, to the best of their ability, complying with UK law. If more people tried to comply, perhaps the UK government would realize how foolish their Online Safety Act is and do something about it.
Quicky@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s not actually complying with UK law, it’s removing it from the equation so it doesn’t have to. I don’t begrudge the decision though, it will have been a difficult choice to make. That said, it’s a sledgehammer approach to self-censorship, as a response to an inability to comply.
Like I say, I don’t have an issue with Lemmy.zip being unavailable in the UK. But I do think it is potentially damaging for Fediverse uptake to promote a default instance that is unavailable to such a large number of users.
For comparison purposes, the UK easily has the second highest number of Reddit users by country. It is a remarkable decision to isolate that potential market by default.
Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Wouldn’t the UK potential new joiners register on feddit.uk anyway?
lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/45919699/19198390
Quicky@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Speculatively, but it would assume prior research, which many people simply won’t do. If a de-facto app (say Voyager on iOS) offers a default option that’s unavailable for a selection of its potential users, it’s another hurdle within onboarding that is already the biggest barrier to entry. If we want to grow as a platform (more users equals more content), putting up a default wall saying “your kind aren’t welcome” to entire countries seems obtuse.
Yes, those potential new UK users can get around it by picking another instance, but the question is how many will give up if they can’t get over the first hurdle.
The suggestion of changing the default instance by region, where those instances prohibit specific regions seems logical enough to me.