Chris TrottierNov 18, 2022

Does joining a small instance affect your reach?

Will less people see your posts if you self-host your own instance?

No and no.

On my small single-user instance (atomicpoet.org), I sent this post 2 hours ago. As you can see, it now has:

* 784 boosts
* 354 favorites
* Too many replies for me to count

As I've now shown, size of an instance is no obstacle to spreading your message!

Show threadChris TrottierNov 18, 2022

And within 10 minutes, that post now has 926 boosts, 412 favorites.

Again -- this is a self-hosted instance. There's no reach disadvantage.

Also worth mentioning my follower count is low.

Show threadChris TrottierNov 18, 2022

Prediction: today, nothing I post on mastodon.social will reach as many people as what I post on atomicpoet.org.

That's is despite @atomicpoet having 7.3K followers and being on the biggest instance on Mastodon.

This is because what I'm posting about on @[email protected] is world-changing stuff, and what I'm posting about here right now just appeals to stats and metrics nerds.

Show threadSong Gao 
@[email protected] @atomicpoet I’m curious how the mechanism works. It seems hashtags are crucial to disseminating content. But when/how does my instance show me the posts tagged with a certain hashtag? Is having one edge between the two instances enough? What if there no edge in between — is there a separate discovery mechanism?
Nov 19, 2022 at 5:34amMetatext
Show threadChris TrottierNov 19, 2022
@songgao @[email protected] Hashtags might help on your instance but not really on everyone else's. Most discovery happens not by search but happenstance.
Show threadSong Gao Nov 19, 2022
@[email protected] @atomicpoet Oh, didn’t realize hashtags are entirely within the instance. It sounds like small instances still have a bootstrapping problem for new users who don’t have influential friends who can boost their content. Perhaps once you have maybe 100 active followers the benefit of discovery provided by large instances start to varnish
Show threadChris TrottierNov 19, 2022

@songgao @[email protected] But not really. Followers don't matter here. And whether you have a small or large instance, it doesn't affect your reach.

Most people here don't really use hashtags, not even on the big instances.

Everything that happens occurs either because it pops into your home feed or you were notified.

Show threadSong Gao Nov 19, 2022
@atomicpoet @[email protected] doesn’t “popping up in your home feed” part require either a follow or a boost from a following?
Show threadChris TrottierNov 19, 2022
@songgao @[email protected] Not really. In home feed, people can read replies to someone else—so they tend to join in.
Show threadSong Gao Nov 19, 2022
@atomicpoet @[email protected] that’s a good point