I’ve set up a couple of single-user instances of fediverse apps (Mastodon, Lemmy). With Lemmy, I can post/comment to any community/thread I want that is federated, but I can’t seem to do that with Mastodon.

With that being the case, how does the content I post on Mastodon get shown to people on other instances (I know replying works differently). I feel like any top-level post I make on my instance is basically like shouting into the void, correct?

Also, if I were to set up a Pixelfed instance, would I have the same problem where my content doesn’t get shown to anyone (except those that follow me?)

  • @[email protected]English
    4•11 months ago

    No, your not shouting into the void. It gets shown to your followers and to their servers (in the public timeline). If your toot is boosted it will show up on all the servers that it needs to to be shown to the people that follow the account that boosted your toot.

    Mastodon basically works on a need to know basis. If I follow someone, my server will be sent all their toots, boosts etc.

    This is because it’s impossible to have all activity on mastodon on a single server. Even the huge ones don’t get all toots!

    • @[email protected]English
      0•11 months ago

      Also, most fediverse software isn’t designed to be used by a single person. If you had a couple more users there then everything would be way more populated!

      • @[email protected]OPEnglish
        1•11 months ago

        Ah okay, so the 2 people and one bot that follow me would be seeing my posts. That seems pretty underwhelming, but makes sense lol

        Yeah, I’m going to see if some of my IRL friends are interested, but I’m not sure how many of them use Twitter/Reddit/etc currently.

        • @[email protected]English
          3•11 months ago

          It’s hard to be on a mastodon server alone, if you don’t have an established follower base. Keep interacting people and follow plenty, some will like you as well and follow back :)

      • Thoralf WillEnglish
        0•11 months ago

        Actually, that’s not true.

        I run a single user Calckey instance (@[email protected], moved from a single user Mastodon instance) and it works just fine. The only difference: The local timeline is just me.

        But other than that, it works perfectly fine.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•11 months ago

          I don’t think that this contradicts my statement.

          Many people end up on tiny servers or spin up their own server and wonder why there is nothing or only a tiny amount of content in the federated timeline. If you already expected this, good.

          • Thoralf WillEnglish
            1•11 months ago

            The content is also no problem:

            1. follow people
            2. add relays

            Both will fill the global timeline quite nicely.