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1. Embed this notice
   FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:00:54 JST FediTips has moved!

   If you're starting a brand new account on a Fediverse server, it's not a good idea to post lots of content before you have followers.

   The only people who can see your posts on the Fediverse are those on your server, those on other servers which have at least one person following you, or those who see your post shared.

   If you post all your best content up front on a brand new account with no followers, no one outside your server will be able to see it. Even if they follow you later, the posts you made before that will not be visible to them, because Fedi platforms don't backfill old posts on accounts you follow.

   It's much better to gradually add content as your follower numbers grow.

   You only need one follower from a server in order for everyone on that server to see your post. Even if you only have a dozen followers, that's up to 12 other servers that can see what you post.

   #Fediverse #Followers

   (Sorry for repost, I phrased original post really badly!)

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:00:52 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • SapphireDrew

     @SapphireDrew

     It's an innate issue on any federated system, especially where there is no backfilling.

     Backfilling would mitigate it somewhat.

   • Embed this notice
     SapphireDrew (sapphiredrew@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:00:53 JST SapphireDrew

     in reply to

     @feditips So this isn't just a Mastodon issue? Meaning jumping ship to Pleroma or any other fediverse platform would have the same issues?

     Sounds very problematic for people who want to see what someone is like / about before following them. And likewise if there's no backfill even AFTER you follow them, and you want to read what they shared in the past (especially useful when friending content creators) but I really don't want to crawl back to birdsite either... ?

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:09:02 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • SapphireDrew

     @SapphireDrew

     Please don't let "perfect" be the enemy of "good".

     This is only really a serious issue for accounts that have zero followers.

     The reason birdsite doesn't have this problem is because there is only one server. You have no choice at all.

     Taking a bit of time for accounts to get going is (IMHO) a reasonable price to pay for the freedom and diversity that the Fediverse brings.

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:11:17 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Human Change?=Work Together!🔁
     • Liwott

     @freeschool @liwott

     Yes, backfill is where your server automatically loads some or all older posts.

     As long as posts have the correct permissions (for example public), there's nothing stopping servers from backfilling. It's entirely down to the software designers to decide if their platform backfills.

   • Embed this notice
     Human Change?=Work Together!🔁 (freeschool@qoto.org)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:11:18 JST Human Change?=Work Together!🔁

     in reply to

     • Liwott

     @feditips @liwott
     That's clearer (if I assume backfill means another user from another server being able to load previous posts.)

   • Embed this notice
     FediTips has moved! (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:11:19 JST FediTips has moved!

     in reply to

     • Human Change?=Work Together!🔁
     • Liwott

     @liwott @freeschool

     This post is nothing to do with restrictions or marketing.

     It's a post about a technical quirk of a federated network that doesn't backfill old posts.

     Whatever you post when you have zero followers will (probably) only ever be visible to people on your home server. Even if people follow you after the post is made, they will never be able to see what you posted when you had zero followers.

   • Embed this notice
     Liwott (liwott@nerdica.net)'s status on Sunday, 28-Aug-2022 03:11:29 JST Liwott

     in reply to

     • Human Change?=Work Together!🔁
     @feditips
     From an #OpenAccess perspective, I think it is a bad practice to restrict the publication of your content for marketing reasons. I think a better strategy is to publish all the content you want, then gradually reshare/boost it. Also, as @freeschool mentioned, there are other ways to discover your content than through a federated timeline.
   • Embed this notice
     BC (breachcat@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Sep-2022 02:46:43 JST BC

     in reply to

     @feditips man, thanks!