Q: What's this "Federation thing?"
A: A bunch of communities, on different servers, sharing /some/ but not necessarily /all/ of their traffic. Or, in some cases, none. It depends.
The User Guide has a good section:
https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/docs/Using-Mastodon/User-guide.md#decentralization-and-federation
Q: It sounds as if that's complicated. Do you have a picture you can share?
A: @vhf made one: https://techn.ical.ist/users/vhf/updates/102
It misses a few edge cases, but mostly, that's how the spice flows. Er, toots.
Q: What about descriptions of associated networks, Stats / Nodes / Instances / Hubs, etc?
A:
* diaspora, friendica & hubzilla: https://the-federation.info/
* gnusocial & postactiv: http://www.fediverse.org/
* mastodon: https://instances.mastodon.xyz/
Fediverse visualization: https://kumu.io/wakest/fediverse
Doc Edward Morbius ❌
Mitchell