Elizabeth GaddCan anyone explain this to me? 🤔
Matt Hodgkinson@lizziegadd I think that's because the official list is only those they've formally approved as meeting certain criteria. It's a very shortened list of those available to join. I found https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/ useful to see the servers my Twitter connections are on, many scholarly. #FediTips #AcademicMastodon
@mattjhodgkinson A another rookie question, but does it matter which server you’re on?
@lizziegadd I'm a rookie too! Yes and no. There's a local feed of your server, so picking one tailored to your interests makes that more, well, interesting. Some have specific moderation policies, e.g. scholar.social seems to be quite strict. Some require CW for particular posts, some like mine require alt text for pictures. Server mods can block other servers, which means you won't see people on those servers - that's good or bad, depending on your view of those servers. [1/2]
@lizziegadd Some servers have joining requirements, e.g. fediscience.org is for active researchers. Others have waitlists or are invite only.
However, you can follow & interact with people on other servers (if they're not blocked), so the experience is similar to birdsite for your main feed, boosting, replies. You can have accounts on different servers or swap server: you can take your followers (but not your toots) with you & the old profile directs people to the new one. [2/2]
Janne-Tuomas Seppänen@mattjhodgkinson @lizziegadd the way I understand this so far, is that the community nature of different servers (and thus the relevancy of the "Local" feed) was maybe more pronounced and salient before the #GreatMastodonMigration: communities that grew gradually and organically around shared interest. That is a different thing entirely, more like the ancient usenet groups than what the birdsite is/was.
@mattjhodgkinson @lizziegadd But your Home feed is posts by, or boosted by, your own network across the federated server universe. Much like the birdsite, except without secret algorithmic biases designed to manipulate your anxiety and serotinin levels, and without ads, and in chronological order. So, like Twitter should have worked.
@janneseppanen @lizziegadd It's how Twitter used to work, though without the specific communities - they developed hashtags like #ScienceTwitter to organise.
I believe your Home feed is toots and boosts by the people you follow, in chronological order. There's also a server feed, akin to a Twitter list for your whole server, and then the global firehouse across all servers that yours has federated with.