Comment on flohmarkt a federated alternative to ebay and facebook marketplace
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks agochosing the instance that covers the geographic location you are interested in, just like you chose the location of the server in Craigslist.
No, I can’t.
Because as you just said, the server is limiting the region. Making it server and not user.
There is no server for my region (or continent), so its not something I can use without standing up my own server.
I would not consider that a good design. Its extremely limiting to adoption and expansion.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
There is no server yet. Just like Craiglist doesn’t have a server for any place outside of the US afaik. Flohmarkt is very new and apparently more popular in Europe otherwise it is the same.
I think you are confusing Flohmarkt with an online retailer market like Amazon or Alibaba.
Classified listings have always worked by being location specific, and that is their main appeal and why they are popular. Flohmarkt is copying that exact tried and true design and just expands it a bit with region based federation.
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks ago
There shouldn’t need to be is my point. Its an arbitrary limitation.
Thats a business decision, purely. They charge for certain types of postings.
Its really not though - there is no technical reason to lock a user to a region or business reason like with Craigslist. It was a design decision.
One that limits use and adoption.
I’m glad its working out well in Europe! I, as an american, can’t use it without standing up a server and then being host to all of the United States (or North America? No idea).
Not “don’t want to” but “can’t”.
All of my earlier examples are direct comparisons. I’m not confusing it with anything.
I just think it wasn’t a well thought out design.
Not based on where the server is set to. Based on where the user or item is.
I would say they are copying hyper-localized newspaper classifieds, including the hyper-localized aspect, which caused newspaper classifieds to stop being used by the overwhelming majority of people when alternatives like Craigslist, eBay, and even Facebook market came about.
Tried, yes. True… Well, I’d have to disagree.
non_burglar@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Good reply, I was coming to that conclusion based on the same response from them on my example of buying from another area. It is very odd that anyone would place such limits on functionality on an internet-bound platform.
I’m having trouble understanding if this person is representative of flohmarkt or not, but either way, I don’t think they understand any of our questions or arguments.
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks ago
And a federated one at that! Creating silos like this is… Counter intuitive.
They admin slrpnk.net, no idea of their involvement with flohmarkt.
I think its safe to say they don’t understand or don’t care about any concerns though, agreed.
Auli@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Yes but I can hi to Facebook market place Kijiji whatever and say search here at this distance. I’m not limited to searching Sweden because I joined a Swedish server.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
Well, that is the difference between a centralized system like Facebook and a decentralized system like the Fediverse.
But why would you not join a Swedish instance that lists only Swedish offers when you live in Sweden and are interested in offers near you?
Flohmarkt isn’t a social media site or a global market place for ordering cheap crap from China 🤷
non_burglar@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Decentralization is not the issue here. This is a design choice that doesn’t understand how the service will be used.
In the example of my country, Canada, let’s say I have two flohmarkt servers: east and west. To look for a certain make and model of car, I have to check my region first, then sign out, sign back into the other region?
Why would anyone continue to use this as a shopping mechanism?
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks ago
Lets say I live in the United Stats for 6 months out of the year, Spain for 2 months, Japan for 2 months, and Brazil for 2 months. Based on this design, I need servers to exist in 4 different regions.
Why?
If I’m on anarchist.nexus, I can browse lemmy.ca. I can make a local community on anarchist.nexus for my town. A user from feddit.dk can then browse and chat with me. Maybe they lived there? Maybe they’ll be back for a month in a few weeks! They can post about that in my extremely localized community.
If we switch that to items - that user from feddit.dk can’t post a listing to my local community, can they?
Why is it determined by a server region? Why isn’t it, for example, a server dedicated to listings about sports memorabilia? Do I care where the signed baseball I want to buy is? Do I care where the buyer is from that wants my tennis racket I’ve put up for sale?
What relevance is the region to the *server*? The relevance is to the *listing*.