When searching on #mastadon, does it search all the different instances/servers? Or just the one you’re currently on? The instances/servers is the thing that’s confusing me the most about this new platform for me.

#TwitterMigration

@rileyharden I believe it will search all the instances your server is federated with. Because there's no central server, there's no one place for that kind of indexing. Most servers are not federated with every instance available (I would wager no servers are but I don't want to be fact checked), so you'll only see what other instances have. This is why boosting is important

@juddium okay that sorta makes sense. So boosting helps others from different servers see the post even if they aren’t federated with that particular instance?

Or am I way off? I think I understand, just don’t know if I phrased it correctly.

@rileyharden that's correct. If you boost a post, an instance that is federated with your instance with but isn't federated with the instance you boosted from will see it.
@juddium okay I think I’ve got it! Thanks!!