So location is by instance and not by user?
That seems an odd (and kind of problematic) design…
Comment on flohmarkt a federated alternative to ebay and facebook marketplace
poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 days agoBy default Flohmarkt recommends to set a location and only federate with instances in a certain geographic location. So if you only see far away ads, then you are either using the wrong instance or the instance is misconfigured.
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 days ago
poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Why? To me that makes a lot of sense and this is also how similar popular platforms work (minus federation of course).
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 days ago
Because we are talking about physical items.
The distance I would go to pick something up is relative to me, not relative to the server I’m connecting to. Shipping I may want to limit by country of origin/destination due to taxes or available shipping services.
It also means the issue of the user above - no one from North America even has a server option, which limits use. From a physical goods perspective, there is not a single option I’m aware of that limits region by server location.
Its always by user location.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
No? The instance covers a certain geographic location, for example a city. So what you want is already included in that. Federation adds nearby city instances to the mix.
LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
I have no clue where Facebook marketplace servers are. That has never been relevant to me. Kijiji is a popular online marketplace in Canada, and it let’s you pick location or have it choose automatically based on your location.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Craigslist has server specific locations. I am not familiar with how Facebook market works, but even ebay has country specific servers, which in Europe often means very location specific due to small countries.
bob_lemon@feddit.org 2 days ago
It should support both. On the instance side to limit a region/country matching the instance, then client side to set your actual reachable area.
non_burglar@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It"s one thing to limit searches bases on geographic location of items, but I should be able to change that to look up items at a destination to which I’m travelling, or just to compare to my area.
Plus, I might be more willing to travel farther to get a used car than a loveseat.
This is def bad design.
Arcka@midwest.social 1 day ago
Agreed. I’ve made a day trip to the neighboring state to buy a used car from a CL listing, but I probably wouldn’t travel to the other side of the country for it.
Similarly, for many things I wouldn’t travel more than an hour to get them.
The distance radius really needs to be adjustable per search to be useful outside of densely populated areas.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
This is why it federates, you can find offers from other instances that are further away just fine. However to make curation easier and lower the server load the admin can limit the geographic distance of federation so that for example it doesn’t have to federate thousands of posts from Japan that few of the users of their location specific instance are likely interested in.
I really don’t understand why that is so hard to grasp conceptually and this is definitly good design.
Auli@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
No it isn’t I get to set the location and distance u want when searching. I’ve never had something search where the servers are.
rumba@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Wait, you mean it actually won’t let you set your location and search for local ads?
If someone is going to build a site for selling things, that’s ‘kind of’ the most important part of the site. Having it be federated makes that a thousand times worse. Now I’m supposed to find other local federated services in my area?
That is so against how any of this works.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
How are you so widely misunderstanding how it works? There is an location specific instance that you join when you are interested in classified ads from that location.
This isn’t a side like Alibaba for global sellers to market their products. It is a location specific classified ads page and works exactly like most of them do.
rumba@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I’m just going by what’s said here because i’m not about to go through installing it to find out.
So every town that wants to sell things needs to host their own instance? And make sure that their instance doesn’t federate with other towns that are ‘too far away’?
poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Yes that is the explicit design goal of Flohmarkt and a vital prerequisite for a decentralized system. The only nearby federation is a default setting that is very easy to configure in Flohmarkt.
Lemmchen@feddit.org 1 day ago
Okay, so you’re saying this will never be broadly used. Got it.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
This is like all the popular classified websites work. This isn’t aiming to be a replacement for Amazon or Alibaba, but sites like OLX or Craigslist that are very location specific, just like Flohmarkt.
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
This is like all the popular classified websites work.
You would be better off describing this like newspaper classifieds.
Flohmarket does not, in any way thats relevant, work the way that Craigslist, OfferUp, eBay, etc work. There is no region locking with those services by server location.
Lemmchen@feddit.org 1 day ago
Then you’ve never used the German Kleinanzeigen.de.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Which is location specific for Germany, no? But yes I have never used it.
artyom@piefed.social 2 days ago
I only see far away ads because there are no public instances on my continent, as far as I can tell.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
😆be the change you wish for
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Brb, setting up tons of instances for my area so it looks popular