Ondřej Pokorný
For everyone confused by the whole federation thing, trying to compare it to Twitter... Forget Twitter. Think e-mail. You can choose between different e-mail providers on different domains or even host your own server instance. Then you can communicate across those instances with other users on them.
No, it doesn't make sense to "claim" your nickname everywhere. Yes, you should choose the server wisely because all your data reside on that server without an easy way to migrate them...
Apr 5, 2017 at 5:57pmWeb
Show threadExorionApr 5, 2017
@unextro Pour tout les confus par le fil Global, et qui essaye de comparer a Twitter; oubliez Twitter. Pensez e-mail. Vous pouvez choisir parmi les fournisseurs (gmail, outlook) dispos, puis vous pouvez communiquer avec tout le monde, peu importe le fournisseur. Non, on ne réserve pas un pseudo/email partout. Oui, il faut choisir son fournisseur avec attention parce que toutes vos données lui sont confiées sans pouvoir migrer facilement.
Show threadJaron Kent-Dobias 👶😳Apr 5, 2017
@unextro there's a super easy way to migrate—go to Preferences -> Data export, download your data, then Preferences -> Import on the new instance
Show threadpettter ✅Apr 5, 2017
@unextro NB depending on the instance migration may be anything from "not that tricky" to "need to do everything from scratch", but it's also a known problem admins and developers fully intend to work on, for many different implementations.
Show threadINACTIVEApr 5, 2017
@unextro I actually wrote about this concept in detail a while back: https://medium.com/we-distribute/we-distribute-part-i-the-road-to-federation-207b61daa38
Show threadFinn ☕️Apr 8, 2017
@unextro Hey, thanks for your explanation :) So that being said, my Mastodon "identity" is coupled with the server and if the server shuts down, the identity is gone as well?
Show threadOndřej PokornýApr 8, 2017
@Finn You're welcome. :) Yep, that is exactly how things are. Once the server is gone, your account goes with it. Again, similarly to e-mail or basically any (even non-federated) social network for that matter.
Show threadMichael_SpencerApr 8, 2017
@unextro For anyone familiar with MORPGs, it "feels" like guild chat vs overland chat basically. Given the number of gamers here, I'd have to say it's pretty native to some of us.
Show threadYuya Peco TakedaApr 14, 2017
@unextro How do you tell which server you are on? I signed up from mastodon.social. Does that mean I am on their "central" server? (I know they are trying to be decentralized, but)