[sigmar]

It's federated. Much like email. You can follow people on other servers and it pulls their feed. If you want to switch servers, you just make a new account (and just like email you'll need to tell your followers where you are going)

[davidw]

Ok, but which one is hotmail and which one is gmail?

[wraptile]

It's different because feature-wise all Mastodon instances are quite similar (some might have bigger character limit etc.)

Generally it's best to choose a niche instance so you inherit a community of people with common interests instantly which makes onboarding much easier. For example, I'm on fosstodon.org for free software and photog.social for photography.

[Kye]

photog.social is an example of where it being independent is both good and bad. Good, because independent. Bad, because it's just someone else's expensive computer.

https://photog.social/@ambassador/109080532230127913

When you settle on an instance, make sure to contribute to its upkeep if you can.

[rootusrootus]

> It's federated. Much like email.

How feasible is it to have a username at a custom domain? In case the server you sign up on goes out of service. Do you have to set up your own instance in order to do that? Is there a barrier from setting up a new instance and then participating immediately in the wider federated network?

[augustuspolius]

I was just investigating this. You can run your own Mastodon instance on your custom domain (e.g. masto.host), but due to how Mastodon federation works, your instance will 1. host all your content 2. handle a ton of requests when people interact with you or your content: follow, favorite, boost, etc.

Also every time a user follows you from an instance not federated with your instance it's a whole complicated process because federation has to be established between your instance and their instance (and, I think, every instance that they follow users from).

So if I understand your question correctly: there is no way to separate your identity from your content. If you want to own your identity you will need to self-host.

I am realizing now that the solution to these concerns is likely going to emerge from matrix.org, not Mastodon.

[cmrdporcupine]

Seems like there must be some sort of possibility for someone to create some sort of "lightweight hosting" option here. Where you get your own bespoke "host" where you own all the data and identity, etc. but it is actually physically managed on someone else's infra (something higher level than a vhost). Pay a small fee, get a subdomain, get your own masto node, get your own data, all encrypted, but someone else handles all the legwork of setting it up, federating it, etc.

[augustuspolius]

Yes, you are describing a hosted instance. Masto.host looks good, and the cheapest option is only $6/month. The problem with this federated approach is that the actual federation features can become pretty expensive. Hosting is cheap but if you have thousands of followers from different instances federation processes will become very expensive.

[Kye]

As far as I know, this is all cached at an instance level. So only the first person to pull something from your instance actually hits your instance's resources. I can still see posts and users from dead instances because it's all cached on my instance. There's a rake task to wipe it, but people are advised not to since those caches have been what saved at least one instance whose name I can't remember.

[Spivak]

> "host" where you own all the data and identity, etc. but it is actually physically managed on someone else's infra (something higher level than a vhost)

Isn’t this just a normal Mastadon instance but with custom domain support just like email providers?

[jeena]

Because you can move between different domains without losing your subscriptions and subscribers, there is no real need to use your custom domain. But because it's not possible to move your old content (I assume because moving files is difficult), I still am self-hosting so I can own my own content.

Another way of doing it is if you're already posting your notes, pictures, etc. on your own website, you can make it ActivityPub aware and use your website instead of Mastodon.

[bpye]

> Another way of doing it is if you're already posting your notes, pictures, etc. on your own website, you can make it ActivityPub aware and use your website instead of Mastodon.

I quite like the sound of this, do you have any references you can suggest?

[jeena]

As an example https://aaronparecki.com/ does it, but when it comes to documentation entry page https://activitypub.rocks/ and otherwise https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/

[augustuspolius]

I found this announcement by write.as (check out the video): https://write.as/new/blog/federated

Seems like it's possible to implement just enough of ActivityPub functionality that Mastodon users will be able to follow you.

[sigmar]

Feasible, but I don't think everyone having their own individual server was the intent of the design. Yes to question 2. I'm not sure about question 3, if there is a barrier, it isn't large.