4 ms·

May i infer from your question that you have not experienced the fediverse (nor software like Mastodon) yet? If not, may i invite you to kindly give it a try.

May i infer from your question that you have not experienced the fediverse (nor software like Mastodon) yet? If not, may i invite you to kindly give it a try. Beyond the users of one's network and the local timeline, there is also what is known as the "whole known network". At some points, it is quite broad and doses not address the perceived shortcoming that you asked/commented on. At other times - because of how the different instaces and their relevant users are connected - it may in effect operate in a fashion that you noted. No offense to you, but normally, i would not go out of my way to invite folks to the fediverse...but it sounds like your question is legitimate so i really wish to invite you so that you can learn for yourself how deep the rabbit hole can go. Please visit https://fediverse.party/en/fediverse https://fediverse.party/en/fediverse Enjoy!

olah_1 6y ago
> May i infer from your question that you have not experienced the fediverse (nor software like Mastodon) yet? Thank you for the kind reply, but I think that would be an incorrect inference, because I actually provided you with a more natural solution to “branching out” than a server timeline. Use a user’s own social graph to discover new content. I don’t want to be associated with a movement, hobby, or niche club. I just want to be myself.
- mxuribe 6y ago
  I understand now. Well, in that case you could try what I do: I run my only instance where I'm the only user; my interactions depends upon only my social graph. This avoids the niche/club/hobby issue. The only challenge that remains is discovery. But I don't discover folks to follow through my instance but through other means.( So not an issue for me.) Though my approach requires committing either time (managing my own infrastructure) or money (having someone else my instance for me) - so perhaps not suitable for everyone. Not so different from having one's own domain for conventional email. Either way, my approach is probably not ideal for folks only trying to get a taste of the fediverse.
  - WorldMaker 6y ago
    > The only challenge that remains is discovery. The Fediverse has a similar "friend of a friend" discovery method as Twitter in that you see the users that often get boosted (Mastodon retweet), and the users that often have interesting replies to toots that you follow, and can follow them directly (and then discover who they boost and who replies to them, etc). (I'm also a solo user on a personal instance, and while I bootstrapped from the Twitter bridge early on, probably most of my follow expansion in the last several months has been through boosts and replies.)
    - mxuribe 6y ago
      I'm running pleroma not mastodon but experience here (if I recall) is the same. I think the friend of a friend is a manifestation of "the whole known universe", unless I'm not remembering correctly.The discovery challenge I reference is very much an initial thing before following that person who then trigger the friend of a friend cascade. At least as I recall. (I went directly from Gnu Social to pleroma so memory is nebulous.)
      - WorldMaker 6y ago
        The person above you asked if friend-of-a-friend was even possible, and it definitely is. The discovery tools of boost/reply aren't always perfect, but they are a somewhat naturally formed friend-of-a-friend discovery protocol honed from much Twitter experience. Anyway, yes, the initial bootstrap is always the toughest to get those first few accounts to even have friends-of-friends to explore. Like I said, I used a Twitter bridge that let people link their Mastodon and Twitter accounts and if you signed in with Twitter it would show you everyone you followed who had a Mastodon account connected. Unfortunately, that bridge (which was a part of joinmastodon.org) got shut down a couple years back due to maintenance headaches (Twitter API shifts). Asking friends on existing social media if they use Mastodon is still probably the key bootstrap tool even with fewer direct bridges. There've been some "follow me on Mastodon" threads here on HN, too, and I have seen at least a few Mastodon addresses in HN profiles (and more rarely in Twitter profiles and on blogs and elsewhere). It's also a bit of a shame that Keybase's Mastodon support only really supports the Big Instances by design since instances have to be added manually by Keybase staff last I checked.

olah_1 6y ago

> May i infer from your question that you have not experienced the fediverse (nor software like Mastodon) yet? Thank you for the kind reply, but I think that would be an incorrect inference, because I actually provided you with a more natural solution to “branching out” than a server timeline. Use a user’s own social graph to discover new content. I don’t want to be associated with a movement, hobby, or niche club. I just want to be myself.

mxuribe 6y ago
I understand now. Well, in that case you could try what I do: I run my only instance where I'm the only user; my interactions depends upon only my social graph. This avoids the niche/club/hobby issue. The only challenge that remains is discovery. But I don't discover folks to follow through my instance but through other means.( So not an issue for me.) Though my approach requires committing either time (managing my own infrastructure) or money (having someone else my instance for me) - so perhaps not suitable for everyone. Not so different from having one's own domain for conventional email. Either way, my approach is probably not ideal for folks only trying to get a taste of the fediverse.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  > The only challenge that remains is discovery. The Fediverse has a similar "friend of a friend" discovery method as Twitter in that you see the users that often get boosted (Mastodon retweet), and the users that often have interesting replies to toots that you follow, and can follow them directly (and then discover who they boost and who replies to them, etc). (I'm also a solo user on a personal instance, and while I bootstrapped from the Twitter bridge early on, probably most of my follow expansion in the last several months has been through boosts and replies.)
  - mxuribe 6y ago
    I'm running pleroma not mastodon but experience here (if I recall) is the same. I think the friend of a friend is a manifestation of "the whole known universe", unless I'm not remembering correctly.The discovery challenge I reference is very much an initial thing before following that person who then trigger the friend of a friend cascade. At least as I recall. (I went directly from Gnu Social to pleroma so memory is nebulous.)
    - WorldMaker 6y ago
      The person above you asked if friend-of-a-friend was even possible, and it definitely is. The discovery tools of boost/reply aren't always perfect, but they are a somewhat naturally formed friend-of-a-friend discovery protocol honed from much Twitter experience. Anyway, yes, the initial bootstrap is always the toughest to get those first few accounts to even have friends-of-friends to explore. Like I said, I used a Twitter bridge that let people link their Mastodon and Twitter accounts and if you signed in with Twitter it would show you everyone you followed who had a Mastodon account connected. Unfortunately, that bridge (which was a part of joinmastodon.org) got shut down a couple years back due to maintenance headaches (Twitter API shifts). Asking friends on existing social media if they use Mastodon is still probably the key bootstrap tool even with fewer direct bridges. There've been some "follow me on Mastodon" threads here on HN, too, and I have seen at least a few Mastodon addresses in HN profiles (and more rarely in Twitter profiles and on blogs and elsewhere). It's also a bit of a shame that Keybase's Mastodon support only really supports the Big Instances by design since instances have to be added manually by Keybase staff last I checked.