Discussion
Okay, this is perhaps very nerdy, but it might interest you if you've wondered how Mastodon servers notice accounts and posts from other servers. I've tried to do a list of all the scenarios where accounts and posts are noticed by your server:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/which-posts-and-accounts-can-i-see-from-my-server
The guide also answers questions about why it works like this, and why it doesn't just show all posts from all servers.
It is programmed, but there is no central infrastructure of any kind, and running costs are low enough for anyone to start their own fully independent server.
The way these two things are possible is by a server only storing info about posts and accounts that its users have followed or interacted with. If they stored info about every account and post everywhere, it would become so expensive that only a very few people or groups could afford to run their own independent server.
@FediTips Ah that makes sense. Hense the variability. TY
@FediTips Servers 'noticing' each other's posts sounds like happenstance? I thought how servers relate to each other is literally programmed to work in a specific, methodical way and didn't realize there'd still be so much variability. There's a lot I don't know (understatement).
reading your full page would seem to suggest that if you have quite a tolerant view of what instances are generally acceptable and outside that are happy to do lots of DIY blocking/filtering, a LARGE user-base instance actually has a significant advantages to a user?
Contrary to the general suggestion of "stay small and locale/interest specific".
[edit] -- I'm specifically curious about how posts with tags proliferate, as I follow a great number, but relatively few actual accounts. I don't remember you mentioning them in that discovery page.
If #hashtags aren't getting discovered and proliferated from unknown accounts and servers, in the same way as accounts, this would also be an issue.
About hashtags specifically, your server admin (or you if you have your own server) can subscribe to hashtag relays which fetch posts with specific tags from a much wider range of accounts than your server notices. More info at https://fedi.tips/using-relays-to-quickly-expand-a-servers-view-of-the-fediverse/
The main idea of being spread out on many servers is to prevent anyone taking over the network. If people congregate on one server, it makes the network very easy to take over.
Centralised networks are technically much easier for everyone, but the price of this convenience is that their governance rapidly goes down the toilet (as seen on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram etc).
There are also many other advantages to being on many small servers: https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers/
@FediTips Servers 'noticing' each others' posts sounds like happenstance? I thought that how instances relate to each other is literally programmed to function in a specific, methodical way and didn't realize there'd still be random variability. There's a lot I don't know (understatement).