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RT @dee@toot.cat so I think I understand #Mastodon more now... that's just a single piece of software that implements the #ActivityPub protocol. it's the protocol that matters, not the server. the big instances are a bad thing, and the small instances are a (1/9)
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good thing. small instances not only perform better but are cheaper and easier to run... and the wider federated thing that people call Mastodon is more resilient when there are lots of small servers. what people call Mastodon at first is actually the #fediverse . the (2/9)
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federated universe is basically all software, and all instances of that software, that speak ActivityPub... and it turns out that there is a lot of software that does this. for example, Mastodon itself is written in Ruby and uses Postgres. But there are also things like (3/9)
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#pleroma pleroma.social/ which is written in Erlang and uses Postgres. so aside from just interacting with other people on other Mastodon instances, you can interact with people on other software instances like Pleroma. Hence... #fediverse is more important than (4/9)
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Mastodon. on instances... the value in smaller instances isn't just resilience of the network... it's the local timeline. An instances that brings together people with a shared interest has a super relevant local timeline. I'm on an instance where there doesn't appear to (5/9)
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be a shared interest beyond a love of cats and being super kind and lovely to each other... but that's pretty swell. From afar I see instances for #infosec #furries #lgbt #astrophotography and others... and I imagine that those local feeds must be excellent. which also (6/9)
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means... it's cool to have more than one account active, on different instances. the thing I don't just know... clients like the Android Tusky, this is a great Mastodon client, but is it a pure ActivityPub client? i.e. could this client be used on a Pleroma instance, (7/9)
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etc. oh, and the real beauty of all this federation and small instances... moderation. Each instance can be moderated and block the federated feeds of other instances. It's work for the local admin, but really shields those communities from the bad actors and bad instances (8/9)
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that enable them. that's my 1 week on toot.cat understanding of the fediverse... please do keep me honest and correct my mistakes in replies and teach me more things. toot.cat/@dee/109273321219180767 (9/9)