Jo Wood

I have a fediverse question:

Assume I am a member of instance X that has a rule "never mention Apples", and I follow someone from instance Y that has no such rule.

If I reply to someone from Y with some apple talk, who gets to see my response? Am I breaking X's rules or is it only people on Y and my followers who see it?

Following people from different instances each with different rules makes it hard to know what etiquette to adopt.

Nov 22, 2022 at 7:26amWeb
Show threadJo WoodNov 22, 2022

I should clarify. I am not referring to obvious bad behaviour rules (racism, homophobia etc.). But more subtle ones, for example, here on vis.social, not showing AI generated images, that could legitimately vary between instances.

Ideally, when I see posts in my timeline, I'd like not to worry too much about checking the instance of the poster in order to know how best to reply.

I think perhaps my mental model of how people's timelines are fed is wrong.

Show threadkeeps vis.social runningNov 22, 2022
@jwolondon there is a whole world of unlisted, and only-followers, and CW that you can explore.
Show threadSamNov 22, 2022

@jwolondon You can always make your reply "unlisted" so it won't show in public timelines, or "direct" so only the person you're replying to will see it. That would ensure you don't break the rules, but doesn't really address the heart of your question:

Do replies to people on other servers count as content on your server? Like even if it's "direct", your server is still hosting/passing around that content. Feels like something that should be clarified in server rules.

Show threadAnkeNov 22, 2022
@jwolondon It depends on the privacy setting of your post.
"mentioned people only" shows it to people whose handle is in the post only.
"Followers only" shows it only to people following you.
"Unlisted" means it also shows up on your profile, and it can be boosted so it spreads farther, but it doesn't show on any instance's Local or Federated Timelines.
"Public" shows on the Local timeline of your instance, and the Federated timelines of instances where you have followers.
Show threadAnkeNov 22, 2022
@jwolondon I'd think on "Public" you'd definitely break your instance's rules, with the other settings it depends on interpretation, so it would be good if the instance rules were clearer.
Show threadAnkeNov 22, 2022
@jwolondon PS, I suspect that "Followers only" posts that include someone'S handle also show up for the person mentioned even if they don't follow you.