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1. FediTips (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Monday, 02-May-2022 00:52:27 JST FediTips

   For new people wondering why Mastodon is on thousands of servers instead of one:

   -It helps protect us all against Elon Musk scenarios. It's very difficult for anyone to buy a network made of thousands of independently owned servers. (It's the same reason why no one owns the world's email network, because there are so many independent providers out there.)

   -If your server misbehaves (or sells out to a malevolent billionaire), you can move your account to a different server, or even to a brand new server. Decentralisation means you're never trapped on a site you hate.

   -Mastodon is an open platform where anyone can start their own server, and they don't need tech knowledge if they use a service like https://masto.host or https://federation.spacebear.ee

   ...and there are lots more good reasons too, to do with servers using alternative Fediverse software etc, but I'll save that for a future post ????

   #MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips #Fediverse

   • 雨宮凪沙/nagiko repeated this.
   • FediTips (feditips@mstdn.social)'s status on Monday, 02-May-2022 00:53:11 JST FediTips

     in reply to

     Sooo... wow... okay a lot of people shared the previous post! Welcome again to all the new members!

     It might be good if I clarified how Mastodon works, as some people think they need to sign up on multiple servers etc.

     Short version: You do not need to sign up on multiple servers! Don't have FOMO! One server works fine!

     Longer version:

     Mastodon is a federated network, which means it's made of lots of independent servers that talk to each other.

     And... everyone uses federated networks all the time! You probably use them so much you never even think about it ????

     Telephones use a federated network, so does email.

     You only need one phone to call anyone anywhere. It doesn't matter if they're on another phone company or in another country, because all phone companies are federated together into a single network.

     That's how Mastodon works. You get an account, and you follow people you're interested in, and they appear in your timeline. It doesn't matter if they're on another server.