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?)
For single-user Mastodon instances, it really helps to become mutuals (you both follow each other) with some people on a few big instances. That will establish federation between your instance and theirs. Other things that can help are:
- Interact (like, boost, reply) with interesting posts from another instance
- Fill out your profile! That side of fedi tends to distrust blank profiles.
- Write and sticky an introduction post, for the same reason as above.
Ah yeah I’ll have to fill out my profile and do an introduction post!
@sexy_peach@feddit.de 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.-----
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.
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.
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.
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.
Damn that’s so cool! Public posts are enough!
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!
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!
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.
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 :)
Yeah, I’ll have to do that.
Thanks for the info, that helps clarify things.
Actually, that’s not true.
I run a single user Calckey instance (@thoralf@ck.umrath.net, 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.
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.
The content is also no problem:
- follow people
- add relays
Both will fill the global timeline quite nicely.
Which part specifically is not true?