5 ms·

No, it's more like picking your community. Compare an account on mastodon.social vs an instance localated in your hometown to see the difference.

the_mitsuhiko 4y ago
What is the difference? From my limited exposure to Mastodon at the moment I don't actually interact with "my instance", i just follow a bunch of people most of which are not actually on my instance. Not sure what I would be missing out on.
- stewbrew 4y ago
  You can use mastodon this way of course and ignore the local feed.
  - the_mitsuhiko 4y ago
    I mean coming from Twitter the entire idea of a "local feed" is already so weird. Why would I want to follow random people?
    - wrycoder 4y ago
      Because you happened to notice they were interesting?
- toofy 4y ago
  yeah, the panic people are putting forward about server choice is really strange. my account is on a friends invite server and 99% of the people i follow and interact with are on all kinds of other servers. my timeline is almost entirely people from dozens of other servers. im not at all sure why people are panicked about this.
  - pwinnski 4y ago
    The key phrase in your statement is "on a friends invite server." Okay, so if you don't already have a friend on Mastodon, then what? Have you actually looked at the list on https://joinmastodon.org/servers https://joinmastodon.org/servers recently? Half the comments here say it doesn't matter what server you choose, and half are saying to be sure to choose the one that aligns with your interests, which... see the list above for why that's an issue. Panic? No. It's just an example of mastodon needlessly limiting itself in terms of usability right at the starting gate.
    - toofy 4y ago
      > The key phrase in your statement is "on a friends invite server." why is this a key statement? my point is that being on a friends server hasn't altered the experience at all. i migrated to my friends server a couple days ago from mastodon.social--i literally haven't noticed any difference at all, the experience from everything i can tell has been identical as it was prior. the server im on made literally no difference. i still follow the same people. i still have the exact same followers. my timeline is identical. i still see all of tehir posts. they still see mine. i still see posts they repost. again, i have noticed absolutely nothing meaningfully different. other than maybe the address i type into the address bar to reach the site, but i dont think thats "meaningful" in any meaningful ;) way.
      - pwinnski 4y ago
        Today, I cannot sign up at "your friend's server" nor mastodon.social, so neither of those things help me. The phrase is key because it reflects a familiarity which new users do not have. Have you never in your life been introduced to an environment you didn't understand and felt put off by everybody using words you didn't know, or words you did know in ways you didn't understand? Never, in any situation? Because that's exactly how it feels for many, many, many new users of mastodon now.
        toofy 4y ago
        yes. of course i have. maybe we're talking past each other, i dont know, but... what im trying to say, again, is that their panicking is entirely unfounded. whether you create your account at mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, mastodon.online, vis.social, toot.cat, or your friends totallyraddomainname.com--its not a life or death decision. particularly because you can simply migrate to another server if you're picky about some minutia that most people don't care about. it feels like overblown fearmongering. sure, maybe they're experience analysis paralysis, which is definitely a problem sometimes for those who are terrified of technology, but at the end of the day it is over analyzing. one of the reasons mastodon so drastically overtook other federated attempts is because it made it possible to migrate without losing your followers, you just move and poof, you're done. it removes the importance to which server you choose.

the_mitsuhiko 4y ago

What is the difference? From my limited exposure to Mastodon at the moment I don't actually interact with "my instance", i just follow a bunch of people most of which are not actually on my instance. Not sure what I would be missing out on.

stewbrew 4y ago
You can use mastodon this way of course and ignore the local feed.
- the_mitsuhiko 4y ago
  I mean coming from Twitter the entire idea of a "local feed" is already so weird. Why would I want to follow random people?
  - wrycoder 4y ago
    Because you happened to notice they were interesting?
toofy 4y ago
yeah, the panic people are putting forward about server choice is really strange. my account is on a friends invite server and 99% of the people i follow and interact with are on all kinds of other servers. my timeline is almost entirely people from dozens of other servers. im not at all sure why people are panicked about this.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  The key phrase in your statement is "on a friends invite server." Okay, so if you don't already have a friend on Mastodon, then what? Have you actually looked at the list on https://joinmastodon.org/servers https://joinmastodon.org/servers recently? Half the comments here say it doesn't matter what server you choose, and half are saying to be sure to choose the one that aligns with your interests, which... see the list above for why that's an issue. Panic? No. It's just an example of mastodon needlessly limiting itself in terms of usability right at the starting gate.
  - toofy 4y ago
    > The key phrase in your statement is "on a friends invite server." why is this a key statement? my point is that being on a friends server hasn't altered the experience at all. i migrated to my friends server a couple days ago from mastodon.social--i literally haven't noticed any difference at all, the experience from everything i can tell has been identical as it was prior. the server im on made literally no difference. i still follow the same people. i still have the exact same followers. my timeline is identical. i still see all of tehir posts. they still see mine. i still see posts they repost. again, i have noticed absolutely nothing meaningfully different. other than maybe the address i type into the address bar to reach the site, but i dont think thats "meaningful" in any meaningful ;) way.
    - pwinnski 4y ago
      Today, I cannot sign up at "your friend's server" nor mastodon.social, so neither of those things help me. The phrase is key because it reflects a familiarity which new users do not have. Have you never in your life been introduced to an environment you didn't understand and felt put off by everybody using words you didn't know, or words you did know in ways you didn't understand? Never, in any situation? Because that's exactly how it feels for many, many, many new users of mastodon now.
      - toofy 4y ago
        yes. of course i have. maybe we're talking past each other, i dont know, but... what im trying to say, again, is that their panicking is entirely unfounded. whether you create your account at mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, mastodon.online, vis.social, toot.cat, or your friends totallyraddomainname.com--its not a life or death decision. particularly because you can simply migrate to another server if you're picky about some minutia that most people don't care about. it feels like overblown fearmongering. sure, maybe they're experience analysis paralysis, which is definitely a problem sometimes for those who are terrified of technology, but at the end of the day it is over analyzing. one of the reasons mastodon so drastically overtook other federated attempts is because it made it possible to migrate without losing your followers, you just move and poof, you're done. it removes the importance to which server you choose.