Scott MatterNov 24, 2022
Electronic mail is so confusing. Why do I need to choose a provider and how do I even decide? And once I have an address, how do I find my friends’ addresses and send them letters? Will I only be able to send letters to people using the same provider?
Show threadJeffNov 24, 2022

@scottmatter

Literally stuff people said back in the day. Blame the UX for bad conveyance.

People like to say that the instance you choose doesn't matter, but it does.

Your local instance affects discoverability—this isn't a big issue with email because we don't _want_ discoverability—and it affects the type of content you'll see in your local and federated timelines.

Those factors will play a big part in your initial period of exploration of the fediverse. Social media is only _partially_ following people who you already know. That's not so much the part that is throwing people off.

Show threadJeff

@scottmatter

The federated timeline isn't "everything on the fediverse", it's "posts from people who locals follow". If you join a biology community server and look at the federated timeline it's going to look very different to the federated timeline of community server for classical music, or breadmaking, or general interest.

When you don't yet know _who_ to follow, you rely on your local and federated timelines and both of these can be very from one server to the next.

Nov 24, 2022 at 12:52pmWeb
Show threadPatrick LaForgeNov 24, 2022
@scottmatter @jeffalyanak This is why i am telling my fellow Twitter refugees to follow and boost generously, especially people and things they like on other servers. I have also been using Toot! on iOS to browse the local and federated feeds of other instances
Show threadMrCopilotNov 24, 2022
@jeffalyanak @scottmatter Sort of, in that each instance admin controls whom they federate, but your description fits the Local tab not the federated tab, not all clients expose both.
Show threadJohann-Tobias SchägNov 24, 2022
@jeffalyanak @scottmatter and that's a feature.
Show threadCyper BunkNov 25, 2022
@jeffalyanak @scottmatter I had a discovery journey on birdapp too. And when I made new alts or bots the network that surfaced was usually quite different.