tikliAsking people about their Mastodon accounts feels a bit like…
What… is your username?
What… is your server?
What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
The Devil@tikli I think I didn't (still don't) have a very good grasp of the server concept. I joined the one my friends were on.
Would you jump off a cliff if your friends did it?
Yes, yes I would.
@devilyouknow The server is just a place where your account “lives”, because it needs to be located SOMEWHERE.
On Twitter, we were all on the same, huge server. The rules and moderation policies were the same for all users (at least in theory 🙄).
On Mastodon, there are several servers, each having their own rules and policies. You have to follow YOUR server’s rules if you want to use it.
The servers form a network, so you can interact with accounts that are on other servers.
@devilyouknow It’s a bit like email. You can send email from gmail.com to hotmail.com, or someone’s work email address etc. Every email account has to be hosted on a server that runs the email “software” (protocol) that lets email addresses connect to each other.
Mastodon instances (like blorbo.social or mastodon.online) are servers that run the Mastodon software that lets users connect and communicate with each other, even when their accounts are not hosted on the same server.