5 ms·

The whole point of federation is that you don't need an accout on each instance, you can interact (respond, boost, favorite) with posts from one instance from t

by msoucy 6y ago

The whole point of federation is that you don't need an accout on each instance, you can interact (respond, boost, favorite) with posts from one instance from the comfort of another.

Brendinooo 6y ago
Yeah, but this is a bit weird, conceptually.
- icy 6y ago
  How so? It's essentially like email.
  - Brendinooo 6y ago
    I joined Fosstodon, a community oriented around FOSS. So when I signed up, I got a sense that I was joining a community. I don't get that sense when I sign up for an email provider. Mastodon servers have rules and themes and therefore attract certain kinds of people. Protonmail might do this too, but it's not a social network, so I never meet those people through the service. Also, ducking into other communities to grab and share content feels a bit weird. I didn't join radical.town or whatever, so I don't really feel like I'm a part of that community. Does that make sense? I don't think I've fully processed this stuff yet, so it might not be a great answer.
    - icy 6y ago
      Ah, yes I suppose. I meant the email analogy in the sense that you can communicate with people who aren't on your instance. > I didn't join radical.town or whatever, so I don't really feel like I'm a part of that community. That's fine, and you aren't required to feel so anyway. They're just other people on another instance, who are also in your timeline. > Does that make sense? I don't think I've fully processed this stuff yet, so it might not be a great answer. It's alright! I understand it can be slightly jarring at first. I run a single-user instance so it's truly quite like Twitter -- there's no "community" that I'm a part of, and the feed I see is something I've curated for myself by following people across the fediverse.
      - Brendinooo 6y ago
        > I run a single-user instance How has that experience been? The thought crossed my mind but I didn't know if the effort/cost would be worth it. Also, how much of your curated feed is Mastodon-like, and how much is other kinds of content? Been poking around at blog platforms that connect to the fediverse and would love to hear some insight if you have any.
        icy 6y ago
        > How has that experience been? The thought crossed my mind but I didn't know if the effort/cost would be worth it. It's been awesome, really. I run Pleroma[1], which is magnitudes lighter than Mastodon, and I can comfortably run it on my Raspberry Pi, from home. And due to the nature of ActivityPub, my server going down doesn't mean I miss out on messages/mentions etc. It all federates when I come back online. > Also, how much of your curated feed is Mastodon-like, and how much is other kinds of content? Been poking around at blog platforms that connect to the fediverse and would love to hear some insight if you have any. It's all mostly just Mastodon/Pleroma and PeerTube on the occasion. The other stuff doesn't get too much traction across the network, at least from my experience. [1]: https://pleroma.social https://pleroma.social
zanny 6y ago
A lot of people seem to be making private instances that can talk out but aren't public which means you are stuck making new accounts for each such instance.
crocodiletears 6y ago
Imo, that doesn't work in practice. You can join an instance that looks decent, and have the whole thing cut off from the network because a few bad actors gave your instance a bad rep, or because it's in the wrong political block, or because your admin decided to throw a fit about one of the instances you want to interact with. Functionally you end up stuck in some narrowly scoped insular community, large swathes of-which you could be cut off from without much prior notice. Everytime you join an instance, you're rolling the dice on the quality and breadth of your experience. The alternative is the overhead of running your own instance, which seems to be the route taken by most of the people I know who use Mastodon, and recommend it.
russdpale 6y ago
If I find a different instance and I want to follow that instance or become a part of that community, I have to sign up on it.. I don't see a way to follow a single instance and filter it out of the federated timeline. Perhaps I just don't see that option?

by msoucy 6y ago

The whole point of federation is that you don't need an accout on each instance, you can interact (respond, boost, favorite) with posts from one instance from the comfort of another.

Brendinooo 6y ago

Yeah, but this is a bit weird, conceptually.

icy 6y ago
How so? It's essentially like email.
- Brendinooo 6y ago
  I joined Fosstodon, a community oriented around FOSS. So when I signed up, I got a sense that I was joining a community. I don't get that sense when I sign up for an email provider. Mastodon servers have rules and themes and therefore attract certain kinds of people. Protonmail might do this too, but it's not a social network, so I never meet those people through the service. Also, ducking into other communities to grab and share content feels a bit weird. I didn't join radical.town or whatever, so I don't really feel like I'm a part of that community. Does that make sense? I don't think I've fully processed this stuff yet, so it might not be a great answer.
  - icy 6y ago
    Ah, yes I suppose. I meant the email analogy in the sense that you can communicate with people who aren't on your instance. > I didn't join radical.town or whatever, so I don't really feel like I'm a part of that community. That's fine, and you aren't required to feel so anyway. They're just other people on another instance, who are also in your timeline. > Does that make sense? I don't think I've fully processed this stuff yet, so it might not be a great answer. It's alright! I understand it can be slightly jarring at first. I run a single-user instance so it's truly quite like Twitter -- there's no "community" that I'm a part of, and the feed I see is something I've curated for myself by following people across the fediverse.
    - Brendinooo 6y ago
      > I run a single-user instance How has that experience been? The thought crossed my mind but I didn't know if the effort/cost would be worth it. Also, how much of your curated feed is Mastodon-like, and how much is other kinds of content? Been poking around at blog platforms that connect to the fediverse and would love to hear some insight if you have any.
      - icy 6y ago
        > How has that experience been? The thought crossed my mind but I didn't know if the effort/cost would be worth it. It's been awesome, really. I run Pleroma[1], which is magnitudes lighter than Mastodon, and I can comfortably run it on my Raspberry Pi, from home. And due to the nature of ActivityPub, my server going down doesn't mean I miss out on messages/mentions etc. It all federates when I come back online. > Also, how much of your curated feed is Mastodon-like, and how much is other kinds of content? Been poking around at blog platforms that connect to the fediverse and would love to hear some insight if you have any. It's all mostly just Mastodon/Pleroma and PeerTube on the occasion. The other stuff doesn't get too much traction across the network, at least from my experience. [1]: https://pleroma.social https://pleroma.social

zanny 6y ago

A lot of people seem to be making private instances that can talk out but aren't public which means you are stuck making new accounts for each such instance.

crocodiletears 6y ago

Imo, that doesn't work in practice. You can join an instance that looks decent, and have the whole thing cut off from the network because a few bad actors gave your instance a bad rep, or because it's in the wrong political block, or because your admin decided to throw a fit about one of the instances you want to interact with. Functionally you end up stuck in some narrowly scoped insular community, large swathes of-which you could be cut off from without much prior notice. Everytime you join an instance, you're rolling the dice on the quality and breadth of your experience. The alternative is the overhead of running your own instance, which seems to be the route taken by most of the people I know who use Mastodon, and recommend it.

russdpale 6y ago

If I find a different instance and I want to follow that instance or become a part of that community, I have to sign up on it.. I don't see a way to follow a single instance and filter it out of the federated timeline. Perhaps I just don't see that option?