4 ms·
How hard is it to get connected to other instances? Is this done through personal relationships or prior history or can a complete outsider get involved? I know
by seti0Cha 4y ago
How hard is it to get connected to other instances? Is this done through personal relationships or prior history or can a complete outsider get involved? I know exactly zero people using Mastodon (that I'm aware of) but this sounds interesting and makes me want to try to set something up.
- proactivesvcs 4y agoI believe Mastodon servers (and presumably, most of the rest) have a bootstrap list of other instances which they automatically federate with. If a user attempts to interact with an instance unknown to the server it then reaches out and begins federation. The user can follow, reply to and read the content on that server immediately, although sometimes it can take a little time for a full list of posts and profile data to appear. Admins can also choose various levels of blocking against federation of instances of their choice. As a user this is all transparent. I follow loads of people from all over the Fedi (some of them not even microblogging platforms) and it basically just works.
- 3371 4y agoFrom my very little experience, you can search for anyone in any instance as long as it's federating with the whole network. The actual problem is... to know the person. There are no more suggestions from algorithms and no more million-followers accounts that you usually heard of, you need to dig to find people you find interesting.
- INTPenis 4y agoThe main tip for new and small instances is to use ActivityPub relays. There are curated lists in public git repos. They will make your public timeline pop, and allow your users to discover other users and instances to make real connections with. So just allowing for personal connections will also work to federate but a lot slower.