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The idea (AFAICT) is that you follow/subscribe people on any instance from your account on your primary instance. This works, but the UX is terrible right now,

The idea (AFAICT) is that you follow/subscribe people on any instance from your account on your primary instance. This works, but the UX is terrible right now, you have to copy the users full handle (name@instance) and paste it into the follow dialogue on your primary instance.

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
That all works perfectly fine IMHO, what I don't understand is why I'd make my account on an Emacs-focused instance unless literally all I ever wanted to talk about in life was Emacs! I could have five different accounts on five different instances on topics I'm interested in, but then which one do I log into if I just want to read my overall feed? I guess I'd have one primary account, and then I'd log into my secondary account on the paperclips instance when I wanted to toot about paperclips, but this is the point where the UX seems awfully complicated.
- quadrifoliate 4y ago
  > what I don't understand is why I'd make my account on an Emacs-focused instance unless literally all I ever wanted to talk about in life was Emacs! Talking on a social network on the Internet is not the same as talking in real life. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon recognizes this. Maybe all you want to talk about on the Internet is Emacs. Maybe you want to keep your "Emacs nerd" persona totally separate from your "classical music afficionado" persona. Maybe you are part of a group of Emacs committers who want a casual place to hang out.
- abdullahkhalids 4y ago
  There are no restrictions on what you talk about [1] on any instance, either technically or socially. Plenty of people just join a random instance associated with some topic, and then are friends with people on other instances. They never look at the instance feed, only at their timeline. Outside of the small hassle of adding people, there are no real downsides to joining a random instance. [1] Outside of super controversial or illegal topics.
- ungamedplayer 4y ago
  I imagine you are overthinking the problem here. It's all about choice.

Wowfunhappy 4y ago

That all works perfectly fine IMHO, what I don't understand is why I'd make my account on an Emacs-focused instance unless literally all I ever wanted to talk about in life was Emacs! I could have five different accounts on five different instances on topics I'm interested in, but then which one do I log into if I just want to read my overall feed? I guess I'd have one primary account, and then I'd log into my secondary account on the paperclips instance when I wanted to toot about paperclips, but this is the point where the UX seems awfully complicated.

quadrifoliate 4y ago
> what I don't understand is why I'd make my account on an Emacs-focused instance unless literally all I ever wanted to talk about in life was Emacs! Talking on a social network on the Internet is not the same as talking in real life. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon recognizes this. Maybe all you want to talk about on the Internet is Emacs. Maybe you want to keep your "Emacs nerd" persona totally separate from your "classical music afficionado" persona. Maybe you are part of a group of Emacs committers who want a casual place to hang out.
abdullahkhalids 4y ago
There are no restrictions on what you talk about [1] on any instance, either technically or socially. Plenty of people just join a random instance associated with some topic, and then are friends with people on other instances. They never look at the instance feed, only at their timeline. Outside of the small hassle of adding people, there are no real downsides to joining a random instance. [1] Outside of super controversial or illegal topics.
ungamedplayer 4y ago
I imagine you are overthinking the problem here. It's all about choice.