I'm trying to understand The Federating Instances and I think a lot of people are here now and not there and I don't know what I'm doing
(I'm kevspace on mastodon.social)
@typhlosion I mean it was already confusing because I 99% don't understand federation and don't expect to, so, this is mostly just me trying to also be here if mastodon.social collapses under the weight of... whatever is happening
@kelspace fair!
federation isn't that hard to understand. mastodon.social and awoo.space, as well as maly.io and the others you might be hearing about, are all different social networks that can interface with one another
@typhlosion I guess it's the 'can' part that confuses me to no end, like I'm sure that's the exciting tech difference but I like to know what WILL happen when I interact with a person using a thing, apparently? Still chewing on this.
@kelspace posts from instances this one federates with show up in the federated timeline
when you follow someone on another instance, you can get their posts on your home timeline
i think you can also @ people on other instances too, but cross-instance DMing doesn't work yet
@typhlosion I have a long history of being enthusiastic about tech only to be reminded I don't understand it so please don't feel bad that I don't get this, seriously
I might go back to watching and seeing if functions become apparent, maybe my problem is just that it isn't working (even though it looks a lot like when it was working, to me)
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@typhlosion (also I have brain problems and something being not hard to understand has never been any guarantee I personally would understand it, heh)
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@kelspace ahh, i understand! i hope i didn't assume something that put you off :s
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@typhlosion oh no it's cool, I've accepted my forever role as a fake geek girl haha
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@kelspace aw, yer not fake if your enthusiasm isn't pretend enthusiasm, that's my viewpoint
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@typhlosion aw, yeah, it's not even a concept I buy into at all, it's just helpful shorthand sometimes (and the irony with which I apply it is more evident in person probably)
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@maloki whoa, I'm only being shown this now, for some reason? 2 days later? I still don't know quite what's going on, but I'm feeling more hopeful in general today. Thank you :3
@kelspace it's kind of confusing because federation isn't working exactly properly between this instance and mastodon.social