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You know how most people just have one phone number?
That's possible because all phone providers in the world federate together. No matter which provider you use, you can call anyone anywhere.
Well, Mastodon (and the Fediverse it's a part of) is the same thing but for social media. The Fediverse address on your profile is enough for people on other servers to follow you and interact with you. It looks like this:
@ (username) @ (server)
There's a video about it here:
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Yes, it's the same federated structure as email, that's why a Fediverse address looks similar to an email address.
This is how all communication used to work before Twitter and Facebook tried to monopolise things.
Thankfully the phone and email are still federated. Imagine having to have separate phone numbers for each phone provider, or separate email accounts for each email provider.
David Chartier
@feditips Oh wow, that’s a great analogy.
Marcus Kida
@chartier @feditips it’s kind of similar to how E-Mail works right? Actually I‘d argue it should be the norm rather than a super fancy thing. Having interoperability over different providers.
Jorge Candeias
@feditips Interestingly, that's how Youtube is now treating in-site identities (incl. channels and such). Any relation?
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I don't know what kind of language Google have been using, but YouTube is just one big server, it doesn't federate with anyone :/
Kennedy Morgan
@feditips How do I join another server? I've heard of another one that's up my alley.
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You can move your account and take your follows and followers with you by doing a special procedure (more info at: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#TransferringYourMastodonAccountToAnotherServer).
However, as your current account is empty, it might be easier for you to just sign up for a new account on the other server and then delete your current account?
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Great question, many possible answers!
Each server is totally independent, each decides for itself what is acceptable behaviour. If you go to a server's about page it has that server's rules.
Another is what kind of people use the server, as this determines server's Local timeline (on the official app this is found by pressing ? and then Community).
If a server is badly run with no moderation, it will be blocked by other servers.
...there's more but don't want to complicate! ?
Aydın Gerek
@feditips I might choose my phone network based on coverage, service and cost. I might choose my email based on amenities it provides. If we can communicate and follow anyone on any server, what difference does choice of server make? Why might we choose one server over the other?
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Just to add some nuance, a server can block other servers. If one server does something that breaks another's rules, the other may block.
Extreme example: years ago a prominent neo-nazi server tried to join Fediverse, almost all other server owners blocked it. Neo-nazi server ended up so isolated, it gave up and left.
In less extreme cases, servers may be blocked by some but not others. There are also degrees of blocking.
Server about pages have info about their blocks.
magsiefraeinverness
@feditips Sorry that went over my head. Thinl I'll stick with twitter. Or nothing
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You know how when you phone someone, you don't have to think about which phone network they use? You just call them.
Well this place is like that, but for social media.
If you follow someone on here, you don't have to think about which server they're on, you just click follow.
That's all I'm trying to say :)
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You don't have to go to another server, all you have to do is log in on your own server and you will see people from other servers in your timeline.
Think of it like email:
You log in on your email provider's site, but emails you receive are from people on other providers. You don't need to be on the same provider to exchange emails.
This works because all the providers are federated together into a single global email network.
The Fediverse is this, but for social media.
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The only thing there is to browse on another server is its Local timeline, and you can do that by going to that server's website without logging in.
For example try going to https://mastodon.social and click on Local.
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It really depends on which accounts you're looking at and from which server.
Once one person on your server follows an account, that server starts "noticing" what that account does including posts etc. These then become visible to everyone on that server from that point on.
The alternative would be all servers cloning all messages from all other servers, which is impossibly expensive and mostly redundant.
Backfilling would be a good compromise solution: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/34
Aracas Dracœpie
@feditips This is really interesting, but it seems that the implementation has been pretty clunky: I can’t see accounts of people on other instances correctly, either past messages are missing or I have to copy-paste links to see things in the original instance, basically losing all benefits of federation besides seeing new posts on my home timeline. Is this normal?
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Backfilling would mean when you follow someone, the server automatically fills in at least some old messages so that the profile isn't blank.
At the moment servers just listen for new messages if you're the first person to follow them from your server.
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I agree it's not exact analogy but I think it gets across the most important point.
Servers aren't forums or subreddits, they're mainly gateways onto the wider network.
Servers have a Local timeline and their own standards of behaviour, but most of the time most conversations will be with people on other servers rather than within a server.
If servers were only talking to themselves, they would be in danger of being bought by Elon Musk etc.
Ignis Incendio :autism:
@feditips This is a good analogy! But it's a bit flawed -- phone networks (and email servers) aren't themed like Fediverse instances... I think the difference is because phone networks and emails are private, while Fediverse instances are public (which requires curation that's more than just anti-spam).
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On a forum, you have lots of members talking to each other.
On a Fediverse server, you have lots of people mostly talking to people on other servers.
Not all servers are themed, for example mas.to, mastodon.social, mastodon.online, mstdn.social are just general servers.
The ones that are themed may do so for lots of different reasons such as agreed rules, shared identity (shown in the address ending), funding (if you're a member of a co-operative) etc.
Ignis Incendio :autism:
@feditips Yes, I understand that the servers don't only talk to themselves :P I was thinking tons of servers federating together to form a fuzzy-boundary topic-specific network.
But I am confused. Could you explain the difference between phone/email servers and Fediverse servers? I'm trying to figure out why one is usually generic (eg gmail, Yahoo) while the other is very interest-specific.
In other words, IMO servers do feel like forums that can federate with tons of similar forums :P
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One of the major confusions on here is people think they have to join a server to take part in discussions, and if you're not a member you're somehow missing out on those.
This isn't the case at all. There is no way of creating server-only posts on standard Mastodon, so any discussions that go on are always cross-server.
You can restrict a post's audience to followers or mentions, but you cannot restrict it to your server.
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