F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions: Difference between revisions

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 ==What is the Fediverse?==
-Mastodon is just one part of the Fediverse.
+Mastodon is just one part of the Fediverse.<br>
+On Mastodon, on your timelines it may look like you're only seeing Mastodon posts, but many of them may originate from other parts of the Fediverse.
 [[File:Fediverse branches.png]]
-    mastodon is part of the fediverse
+All of these different services in the fediverse can communicate with Mastodon and each other.<br>
+It works similar to email. You can write to someone who has gmail from an icloud account, for example.
-    what you see in your home timeline, it might include people on mastodon, and people from elsehwere - eg pixelfed - see infographic - there are lots of branches of the fediverse
+Besides microblogging there are services for picture-blogging, music, podcast, books and so on.
-    [can't see the infographic so can't note it I'm afraid]
+==What is Pixelfed?==
-    all of these different servers in the fediverse can communicate with mastodon
+It works similar to Mastodon, but the interface looks more like Instagram than Twitter and you can only post and see picture posts.<br>
+Some special features include the ability to add license information for your media and adding your posts to collections.<br>
+Users from Mastodon or other parts of the Fediverse won't see the license information or collections though.
-    it works similar to email, you can write to someone who has gmail from an icloud account, for example
-    you can follow different  fediverse can
-    What is Pixelfed?
-    it's for pictures and there are lots of others for music, podcasts, books, writing etc
-    works similar to mastodon servers, but interface looks different
-    includes some special features like licence information or adding posts to a collection
      if you want to actively use a certain fediverse service, you always also need to start an account there, but passively you can follow accounts throughout all the fediverse and their content will appear in your "home timeline"
-    Questions
-Questions from the people:
-    How to find people on other services? A number of us particularly interested in finding people from niche communities/ with specialised interests eg multiple sclerosis/ ADHD. And also interested in finding new people not connected to on, eg twitter
+==Questions from the people==
-    You need to know their full handle or the url
+====How to find people on other services?====
-    but if the server is down they won't appear
+You usually need to know their full handle or the url of their profile to find them with the search function.<br>
+So it works the same as finding people on other Mastodon servers.<br>
-    can also search for hashtags, you can then click on the tag to see them
+====How to find people of niche communities/with special interests====
-    tools like https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ will crawl the infos of everyone you follow on Twitter for fediverse accounts, you can download it as a .csv file and import it into your account
+You can search for a hashtag, click on it and see posts by people using the hashtag.<br>
+You can also find a server that is dedicated to the topic you are interested in (e.g. [[Special Interest Instances|here]]) and find people on the /discover page of the server (only Mastodon servers).
-    How to choose the right server?
+====How to find people you know from Twitter====
-    there are either themed, local or general servers
+Tools like [https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ fedifinder] will crawl the info of everyone you follow on Twitter for fediverse accounts, you can download it as a .csv file and import it into your account.<br>
+Put your Fediverse handle into your Twitter profile so other people can find you.
-    if you want to move, there is a "How to" in German: https://wiki.subversive.zone/doku.php?id=umzug_des_eigenen_accounts_auf_eine_andere_mastodon_instanz
+====How to choose the right server?====
-    Search-Site that gives infos about server-quality in the advanced mode: https://instances.social/list/advanced#lang=&allowed=&prohibited=&min-users=&max-users=
+First think about which service you want to use. Mastodon, Pixelfed, ...<br>
+Then think about the size of the server. Very large servers go against the whole idea of decentralization/federation and especially currently they might be overwhelmed from all the new users. Also they attract hackers.<br>
+Very small instances might appear very sleepy and you'll have to discover lots of people to follow yourself.<br>
+Then think about if you want a general interest server, a themed server or a server local to where you live.
-    too big servers attract hackers
+Some links:
-    Relevant fact about "deleted posts": because servers need to crawl each other, a post you delete may still be visible on any server other than the one you are on
+* [[Special Interest Instances]]
+* [[Local instances]]
+* [https://joinfediverse.com/ joinfediverse.com] - small instances ready for new users
+* [https://fediverse.party/en/portal/servers/ fediverse.pary (Themed Servers)]
+* [https://instances.social/ instances.social] - instance picker (check out the advanced mode for some interesting details like security quality)
+* [https://fediverse.observer/list fediverse.observer] - filterable list of all servers
+* DE: [https://contentnation.net/de/favstarmafia/artikel2 Deutschsprachige Mastodon Instanzen]
-    Will Mastodon/the Fediverse remain nieche?
+====How to move to a different instance====
-    it grows everytime the big commercial plattforms f**k up
+There is a guide in English, German and Japanese [[Moving instances|here]] and one in German [https://wiki.subversive.zone/doku.php?id=umzug_des_eigenen_accounts_auf_eine_andere_mastodon_instanz here].
-    but because it's not centralized, everyone can create their own nieches (which need not even be connected to the rest of fediverse)
+====Slide-in: On deleting posts====
-    How to best share audio, pictures and movies?
+"The internet doesn't forget and the Fediverse can't forget."<br>
+Because servers need to crawl each other, a post you delete may still be visible on another server.
-    for media, especially videos with bigger file sizes, it's better to post them via peertube and then use the link to this video in your mastodon posts
+====Will Mastodon/the Fediverse remain niche?====
-    if you want to share a youtube-video, you should use invidious.snopyta.org to create a tracker-free link, because a lot of users don't like sharing their data with big tech companies
+It grows every time the big commercial platforms f**k up, but because it's not centralized, everyone can create their own niches (which need not even be connected to the rest of Fediverse).<br>
-    Is it sensible to have several accounts, so for mastodon, pixelfed, peertube, etc.? And how to connect them?
+====How to best share audio, pictures and movies?====
-    depends on what you want to share, especially for multimedia
+For media, especially videos with bigger file sizes, it's better to post them via Peertube and then use the link to this video in your Mastodon posts.
+If you want to share a Youtube-video, you should use [https://invidious.snopyta.org/ invidious.snopyta.org] or another invidious instance to create a tracker-free link, because a lot of users don't like sharing their data with big tech companies.
-    do mastodon servers generally have the same technical features or are there relevant differences? If so, can I check this out before joining or moving?
+====Is it sensible to have several accounts, so for Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube, etc.? And how to connect them?====
-    most servers have the same limits, some have higher limits for example characters (5.000 instead of general 500)
+It can make sense to have more than one account on different services, especially if you want to share different media.<br>
+You can use the same handle for all of them, but the full handle will be different, so e.g. @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustice.social (Mastodon) and @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustice.video (Peertube).<br>
+You can link from one profile to the other, but they will always remain separate accounts.
-    contentnation.net has an overview for German servers
+====Do Mastodon servers generally have the same technical features or are there relevant differences? If so, can I check this out before joining or moving?====
-    limits for polls or number of bio-links can be adjusted by the admins, but might create problems for every update
+Most servers have the same features and limits. Some have higher limits for e.g. characters in a post (climatejustice.social has 5.000 instead of the usual 500).<br>
+Also limits for poll options or number of bio-links can be adjusted by the admins, but might create problems for every update. <br>
+There is generally no easy way to find out about special features before joining a server unless you ask around.
-    changes on one server can possibly affect the performance of other servers
+====
-    I'm actually on Friendica and not Mastodon (not sure if that was a great decision but I also didn't want to overthink things). On my server there are not as many people, I think, so if I use the search bar I often find nothing at all. People probably then tend to choose servers where there's already a lot of people to make it easier to get connected. So could we say that, while trying to decentralize social networking, fediverse still has those mechanisms that automatically lead to more centralization?
+I'm actually on Friendica and not Mastodon (not sure if that was a great decision but I also didn't want to overthink things). On my server there are not as many people, I think, so if I use the search bar I often find nothing at all. People probably then tend to choose servers where there's already a lot of people to make it easier to get connected. So could we say that, while trying to decentralize social networking, fediverse still has those mechanisms that automatically lead to more centralization?
      one instance/server can block users on other servers or even a whole other server