this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2023
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Do you think "instance" is a bad word to use for the different Lemmy servers? My wife thinks so, but I'm not sure what a better word would be to use other than maybe just "server", but that also feels too techy. I do think "community" is a good non-technical word to use for the equivalent of subreddits.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not the guy you replied to, but to me personally the word instance comes across as technical, considering how its used in programming

Not too sure if there's a normal sounding alternative, defo could benefit from a non-techie perspective here 🤔

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ha we had the same thought tho

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

"Server" has been pretty normalized (albeit abused) by discord especially, so it seems accessible to me?

"Instance" does seem vague and overly techy to me, it's an oop/code term (think "instantiate the class") that's been borrowed for casual use.

"Community=subreddit" sounds pretty good, but runs the risk of being misinterpreted as more of a "community = discord server" thing...

I'm also fond of matrix's "homeserver", a server that (while your home) isn't your only location, but that might be entirely foreign to new users too.

Definitely a tricky problem