Federated Webrings

[erlend-sh]

In the glory days of web 1.0, social websites would prominently link out to their digital neighbors via lists known as webrings. Fellow communities they could vouch for.

It was a time of greater connectivity between communal web spaces, each one serving as magical doorway into an expansive hinterland of digital villages.

We are bringing back the cozy vibes of the old web neighborhoods. Not by regressing to a bygone era, but by building the web1-and-a-half that should have been;

a Web of the People.

Discord has a rudimentary form of federation via its announcement channels that can be followed by other channels. However, it's very limited as a one-way feed; there's no two-way communication between channels to encourage cross-community bonding.

In addition to my own Discord community for Spicy Lobster studio, I'm on 15+ other servers dedicated to one or several Rust game developments:

Building on top of Matrix' federation features, we can poke holes in the information silos and build genuinely pro-social utilities for neighborly intermingling.

Channel Syndication

Many of the aforementioned servers have casual-speak channels like #offtopic, #code or #art which cover the same general topics, but in isolated spaces which can often go days or even weeks without updates in the smallest servers. This is a missed opportunity for cross-pollination, as these communities have several members in common who'd benefit from connecting more with peers.

Using spaces, Spicy Lobster's Commune instance could have a collection of shared channels, syndicated to fellow Rust gamedev communes that have opted in to host the same channels within their instance:

• #offtopic (rust gd)
• #code (rust gd)
• #art (rust gd)

Discoverability

When someone visits the Spicy Lobster space, they ought to be made aware of our friends across the Matrix-verse. Just like the webrings, blogrolls or ‘forum affiliates’ of old:

There are at least two straightforward ways to tie these related spaces more tightly together:

Curated matching: Whichever other communities have opted into a specific webring. Webrings are not mutually exclusive, so one community space can be part of multiple webrings.

Examples:

• Rust gamedev
• Open source gamedev
• Fediverse (ActivityPub)
• Coops

Algorithmic matching: Among users/communities that have opted into the highest degree of discoverability, additional suggestions for related spaces could also be made by looking at the overlap in users' space memberships. Similar to "since you read this book, you might also like..".

Incubation

On Discord, many new servers start out with just 2-3 channels and a few dozen members, of which only a small handful are actively participating. They'll go on like that for months until either (1) they build enough traction and expand in size or (2) activity dries up and the server goes defunct.

Alternatively, some upstart communities begin their life as a single channel within an existing server.

This is a great way to circumvent the ghost town factor of a new community, because new channel activity will be noticeable by a larger community of peers. It's like a shared co-working space. The downside is that if the channel is successful enough, it'll eventually want a dedicated community space of its own, and Discord won't let you uproot your channel and move it elsewhere.

With Matrix/Commune however, you can! A channel can start out in one space and later be moved elsewhere, either as a clean break or as part of a syndication. Thus making the single-channel incubation approach a low stakes way for up-and-comers to get their community started.