@feditips

@feditips
I'm new to Mastodon and haven't quite got my head around the concept.

Are the various Mastodon servers different (and if so in what ways) in the same way, to use your analogy, different phone providers are from each other?
The main difference between one phone provder and another would be price which isn't the case with Mastodon so, not sure the analogy stretches.

@feditips like an old bbs system of the past? So what is new ;-)

@feditips "independent". . doubtful

@feditips I thank ALL VOLUNTEERS who maintain servers! ♥️🏆 And moderators of content.

@feditips Guess you never met Ma Bell back in the day...

@feditips The Fediverse is like a bunch of cool neighborhoods spread out across the city, each with its own vibe and residents. When you post, it's like throwing a party in your neighborhood and inviting all your neighbors. And since different servers talk to each other, your party gets advertised to people all over the city. Discover interesting people and new communities without any one company having too much control over your data! #Fediverse #SocialMedia #Community

@feditips The part I don’t understand is how complete the connections are, and what reach a user has. For example, if I make a post with a #MagicBeans hashtag, how far does it go if nobody searches for it? Just the local instance? What determines who finds it when someone anywhere searches for it? Is it possible that a post could visit every node in the network? I haven’t found a complete description of how this works, so a link to a detailed description would be helpful, thanks!

@feditips I mentioned the Fediverse to a Mastodon user in my prom. He didn't understand until I said it's the associative social network, i.e., run and pushed for, in France, by NPOs, and based on free association – including the freedom not to associate with problematic servers.

@feditips Excellent ELI5 breakdown.

@feditips