So I signed up to Mastodon a few months ago and I have only started to use it more recently, but I still don’t understand how it works. Or the server system on here.
Apparently I must have joined a server when I set up my account? I don’t remember joining a specific one (or even know how you join one 🤣)
If somebody could explain this to me in everyday English that would be great.
@Saraheboon Okay cool! So this is the diagram I had in mind.
It assumes that you know that the Fediverse is lots and lots of smaller websites ("instances") that can interact with each other. (As if you could follow someone's Instagram account on Twitter, for example. Or as if you could email someone on gmail from your Hotmail account, which you totally can. :D)
So they all connect up like Lego - each "instance" being one Lego brick? And they all build up together into one Fediverse. Each brick might be a different colour or size or shape, but they all have this specific design quality that they're made to all slot together even though they might look different. Does that make sense?
@cassolotl @Saraheboon can I ask you a question? In my home feed I’ll see people I follow, and under the search icon I have some options: posts, news, community, for you.
Are posts from my instance and community federated? Or what? Thanks!
@robotkitty @Saraheboon Okay so my instance doesn't have that tab, but I *think* those posts come from all the posts your instance knows about, so some of them will be "local" (from your instance) and some will be from instances your instance is connected to (federates with) - does that make sense?
And similarly, posts on your instance will end up on other instances' Explore tabs too sometimes.
Is that what you meant?
@cassolotl @Saraheboon yes, I think that’s what I meant! When I click the search icon, I have some different tabs up top.
Thanks for replying. I’m sure I’ll figure it all out eventually!
Sarah Boon
Cassian [main]
peaopoe