Hey there new people!

If you've just joined here, you may be wondering if you need to sign up on multiple servers?

The short answer is no! One account on one server is enough 👍

Longer answer:

The servers on here talk to each other through a process called "Federation".

This might sound complicated and technical, but it's really not. You already use federated networks every day, and so does pretty much everyone in the world, even your grandparents.

When you phone someone, you don't need to be on the same provider or even in the same country, because the world's phone networks are connected together through federation.

When you email someone, you don't need to be on the same email provider, because the world's email providers are federated together.

Servers on Mastodon and the Fediverse are federated together in the same way phones or email are. One account on one server lets you seamlessly interact with people on other servers.

#FediTips #Fediverse #MastoTips

@feditips So if I have only one account and it is on mastodon.social what happens to all the content I posted if mastodon.social gets taken down?

@raven9

If a server disappears, you lose the content you posted. That's a fair point. You can't move posts from one server to another, though you can move accounts.

The original post was aimed more at people who think they need to have an account on each server they want to interact with.

(Incidentally, mastodon.social specifically is unlikely to disappear as it's been in existence since 2016 and is owned by the developers of Mastodon.)