One of the most confusing aspects of the Fediverse is well, the fact that it's decentralized. You don't (and shouldn't) have to open an account at a Fediverse website to interact with the site. And with the rise of Fediverse servers, or instances, pods etc., people may afraid of impostors using their same usernames between servers.

What do Fediverse servers name themselves?

Most of them call themselves as instances, a term that could be too object-oriented for people who are not keen in computer programming. In fact, Misskey, Peertube, and Pleroma, called themselves as instances. So no need to disagree, "instance" has become a de-facto term of the Fediverse.

But sure, there could be some alternative names, right? Diaspora explicitly mentions them as pods. Again, this could confuse people who are not familiar with the term (unless if you're a fan of Solid).

And of course, the classic term "server" has also been used, like in Hubzilla, Mastodon, and Pixelfed. But others like Funkwhale interchangibly used these three terms.

So, I'm confused. And I bet you, too. But well, we have another good candidate to fix this: clans, and we're gonna explain why on this blog post.

But first, please just don't use "servers", Discord people are having a discord with the Fediverse.

Many people's minds of the Fediverse have been ruined by the Discord's definition of "servers". Because in Discord, people can create a server for free. But I have to pay $12 per month just to create a fresh new server on the Fediverse, but in Discord, it's $0!

Meanwhile, some Fediverse servers and communities are great for things which are also great in Discord. There's a dedicated server for gaming, community projects, and even for things like fans and kayfabes.

However, Discord's so-called "servers" ruined the perceptions of these people whou would try to experience the world of Fediverse, like:

• One account can join multiple servers. Big no. In the Fediverse, one account only belongs to one server, so to join another one you have to create another account on that server.
• Wait, I thought I can interact with the rest of the servers in the Fediverse. For those who don't know, users who joins a Discord "server" cannot view the rest of the chatrooms available in other servers (which they haven't joined). This concept is definitely different than the Fediverse where one account can interact with the rest, but the previous misconception just made this understanding even worse.
• You can create a new server for free. Yeah but you also need to take care of operational bills and exposing your server to the Internet. (Note for Discord fans: Discord handles all of that and for free because of Nitro)

These are just few of the misconceptions they have between Discord and the Fediverse, not to mention terms like "server boosting" because "boosting" has another meaning in the Fediverse, especially Mastodon.

So please, just don't use "servers" for the Fediverse. It might still be good for other decentralized-federated communication projects like Matrix, but if you want more and more Internet communities to migrate from one of the largest closed-source community hubs in this world, please don't.

Instances are too Object-Oriented, and we're not all programmers.

In Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), there's such things as Objects, Class, as well as Instances. Let's assume that you've been familiar with the term "object", hence Class is the common characteristics owned and shared between these Objects, and Instances are just Objects who happens just to inherit the characteristics of a specified Class.

In the world of Fediverse, we often call these servers as "instances of Mastodon", "instances of PeerTube", and so because they all similar, uses Mastodon (and PeerTube, respectively)'s software to run the federated communication platform we know and love today. Mastodon and Peertube's software here can be considered as Classes, but those servers will just be called as Instances.

The Fediverse and their servers were initially developed by technical people who just really wanted to have a decentralized, open source, self-host friendly, and privacy-respecting alternatives to proprietary social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

But for the rest of the people who aren't technical and object-oriented enough, introducing these servers as "instances" could just make them more confused.

So... we have a suggestion.

No, actually we have two, houses and clans. But we eventually preferred the latter because "clan" is more universal for people who only understand "house" as a physical place.

If we have the powers to rewrite all the history and user documentation of the Fediverse, we'll be:

Welcome to the Fediverse, a place like you've never visited before. Yes, it's the Metaverse but without all the video game-like graphics as well as crypto and NFTs, but the Fediverse has become one of the largest Internet communities which you might unheard of, because they are everywhere.

Every user on the Fediverse is affiliated with a Clan, something which is not commonly found in social media. Don't worry, you can join any clan on the Fedivers on the Internet to be able to chat and participate in this world.

To get started, you don't need to buy an expensive VR gear, or physically suck your wallet into that sketchy "Connect Wallet" button on the top-right corner. It's just something that the Fediverse is not meant for. Everyone can conveniently join these clans through websites and mobile apps.

Then, to get started, you will need to either join a clan or create another one. Note that each clan requires a dedicated server (which is a physical computer device directly connected to the Internet), and they have to maintain the physical device at all costs so they can still keep connected to the rest of the Fediverse.

That's why, for most people, joining a clan is the most easiest way to join the Fediverse. Note that one account can only be associated with exactly one clan, but don't worry, you can still create new accounts on other clans, and even move all your posts and data from one clan to another.

Well, that sounds enough for copywriting, and from there we can combine the textual description of these clans with this official illustration of Mastodon. I think I just leave it here because they are beautiful.