• Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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    2 days ago

    Not even big instances, but big platforms I would say. Like, if you’re lucky someone might have heard about Mastodon, but that’s pretty much it.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Service provider, server, or website as another suggested.

          A typical sentence might be, “Do you use Gmail, Yahoo, or proton as your email provider?” There have been dozens of popular services over the decades but only Lemmy used a new word to mean the same thing.

          • StJohnMcCrae@slrpnk.net
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            1 day ago

            I just tell people it’s a network of websites that you can use one login for. Like using your Google account to sign into pornhub.

            No follow up questions.

            • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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              1 day ago

              It’s so simple I wish I had been describing it this way all along instead of trying to explain instances.

              • StJohnMcCrae@slrpnk.net
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                1 day ago

                I may be too dumb for web development, but I’m just smart enough to explain it to the other dummies.

          • green@feddit.nl
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            1 day ago

            Can we make it okay for humans to use their brains again?

            The term “instance”, in this context, means exactly what it says - it is one existence of many. How is this gatekeeping or jargon?

            This implies to me that the “gatekeeping” you are referring to is reading comprehension and basic vocabulary; and frankly, if we’ve stooped that low, keep them out. There is nothing to be gained from a group that refuses to learn the basic definition of the word “instance”.

            P.S. “provider” is a good (and correct) term as well.

            • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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              23 hours ago

              Why don’t you call it an email instance too? It’s one of many. News instance? Instant messenger instance? They are all the same as Lemmy but with different data formats that are exchanged.

              No one outside of Lemmy uses that term for a public server providing a service. That’s what makes it gatekeeping jargon.

        • Elle@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Website? That’s what they are, and I think many people would be more familiar with that than “instance”.

          And if they follow up with questions about apps you can mention whatever your preference may be.