I'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 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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 exclude that potential market by default.

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Wouldn't the UK potential new joiners register on feddit.uk anyway?

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/45919699/19198390

[–] Quicky@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Which instance would you use instead of lemmy.zip?

From another post

Lemmy.world is too big
sh.itjust.works names contains "shit", which can deter users
lemmy.ca is Canadian-centric
feddit.org, is German-centric, but technically English speaking too
dbzer0 federates hexbear
programming.dev is topic-centric
blahaj is queer-focused
discuss.tchncs.de has a difficult name
lemmy.sdf.org does not defederate anyone
beehaw defederates LW and SJW
infosec.pub is topic-centric
aussie.zone is country-centric
midwest.social is region-centric

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37336391?scrollToComments=true

https://lemmyverse.net/?order=active_month

There's a reason lemm.ee was the previous default instance.

[–] Quicky@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Haha don't put it on me, I'm merely a consumer!

You've already suggested feddit.uk, why not use that for UK Voyager installs? Anything that isn't an instance that they can't actually use would be good.

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I was trying to show that it's easier said than done.

Same for the region choice, we all learned that Lemm.ee was closing 24 hours ago. The Voyager dev made the best choice with the small timeframe, he'll probably revisit down the line.

[–] Quicky@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah, and that's fair enough. I hope it does get revisited.