rocshotSo wait, Mastodon is broken up into loads of different boards?! Just cos I've signed up to .network doesn't mean I am on other parts of Mastodon?
Pseudomichael 🍺@rocshot it's like email. You can email people who have accounts at other providers. So, anyone from another instance can follow you (and you, them). And "federation" means that your public posts will be visible to them.
@pseudomichael Thanks you. So there isn't a timeline of all toots from all instances? Is there an advantage in signing up to other instances?
@rocshot again, like email, different providers may eventually provide attractive features (e.g. Gmail vs. Yahoo vs. running your own personal email server), but right now they're all pretty much the same. It's early days.
But you are trusting your timeline/data to whoever runs the server you joined. I imagine someday I'll migrate to something I trust more, but for now in early days I'm not worrying about it much.
@pseudomichael Thank you very much. Last question.. Is my username mine forever, and nobody else can have the same one, on any instance?
@rocshot nope, also like email (sensing a pattern?). Just because you got [email protected] doesn't mean you have [email protected]. Separate servers, separate accounts.
@pseudomichael Cheers. Sounds like a great idea. Hopefully it takes off
@rocshot I agree!
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK@rocshot it is to an extent, but unless stated otherwise the boards (or instances) are "federated".
This means they can exchange messages with one another.
I am on social.tchncs.de but can still see your messages, follow you etc.