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?)

  • hybrid havoc
    3•11 months ago

    @[email protected] does a great job of explaining things.

    One thing I will add for single-user Mastodon instances: joining one or more relays can be helpful. You can find a list of relays here: https://relaylist.com/

    I’ll also post the information on that page, because I think it bears being emphasized.

    Pros:

    • Increased activity in the federated feed of your server
    • Improved hashtag results for users
    • Expanded reach for users as posts are sent to all participants in subscribed relays

    Cons:

    • Increased media storage requirements and cost
    • Increased resource demands
    • Cost and performance of smaller deployments may be negatively impacted
    • Increased moderation responsibilities

    Finally, the participants number does not directly correlate with the load adding a relay cause. It is best to review the servers participating to gauge activity. For instance, relays that have a few large, very active servers subscribed will impact your server’s resources more than relays that have numerous small servers subscribed.-----

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

      Oh! I did set up a few relays, I didn’t realize they worked both ways! So posts I make on my instance go out to the relay and people subscribed to the relay will see my posts.

      • hybrid havoc
        1•11 months ago

        Yes, your public posts will be delivered to the other instances in the relay(s). From there, anyone watching the Federated feed will see the posts. Also if your posts include hashtags then anybody searching for or following the hashtag should see your posts.

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

      Expanded reach for users as posts are sent to all participants in subscribed relays

      Is that true? Makes sense that if I subscribe it would also send, but for some reason I always thought it was just drawing in content.

      • hybrid havocEnglish
        1•11 months ago

        Yep, although I genuinely don’t know how it handles any posts with a lower-than-Public privacy. I believe it only forwards Public posts.

        So since bfd.so is joined to the same relay as my instance, even though it’s a single-user instance and that user doesn’t follow me, my own profile can be searched and found there, with public posts already visible on my profile.